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No. 22.]
FIVE BANA INSCRIPTIONS FROM GUDIMALLAM.
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easily recognised and identified. On the analogy of the terms Dakshinatha and Uttarāpatha, Andhrapatha, which actually occurs in the Mayidavõlu plates with barakada or Amaravati as its capital (or one of its towns), may be taken to be a synonym of Vudujavali occurring in Tamil inscriptions. In this case, it is not clear why the Banas are said in some of the records to be ruling the western portion of it, and not the whole of it as the others make us believe. Besides, Perambūnappādi, wlich seems to have been another name of the Bana territory, and which has been tentatively located in the northera portion of the modern North Arcot District, could not have formed part of the Andhra country. On the other hand, we have reason to suppose that it was included in Tondai-nadu or-mandalam, also called Dråvida.The Chinese pilgrim Hiuen-Tsiang who visited India in the 7th centary A.D. locates Andhra in the modern Godavari and Kistna districts. Varahamihira's location of Andhra in the 6th century A.D. also takes us to the same locality. The tract of country in which the inscriptions of the family have been found, i.e. the northern portion of the North Arcot District and a part of the Kolar District of the Mysore State, would correspond to the Perumbånappadi of Tamil inscriptions, but cannot be in the west of the Andhra country, nor form any part of it, as implied in the term Vadugavali-mērku, Vadugavaliyin mērku and Andhrāt pathah paschimatch. Consequently we have to suppose, at least provisionally, either that there was a road leading to the Andhra country (perhaps from Drávida) or that the country which lay between Andhra and Dravida was called Vadugavali, as the road to the Andhra country lay through it, and it was the country to the West of this road or tho western portion of it that was ruled by the Banas. There is still a third possibility. It may be supposed that the name Vadugarali-mērku or its equivalent was the name correctly applied to the Baņa dominions in very early times. Then they were probably ruling, as Pallava feudatories, a portion of the modern Ceded districts which would be situated to the west of the Andhra country. That this is not altogether a wild conjecture is shown by the fact that the Pallava dominions originally extended into the Ceded districts and that the Baņas were also ruling some frontier province in that part of the country during the time of the Kadamba king Mayūraśarman. With the rise of the Chalukyas of Badami in the 7th century, the Pallavas appear to have been driven out of the Teluga country and it may be supposed that the Baņas were forced into the northern portion of the North Arcot District. This province they continued to call Vadugavali or Vadugavali-mērku, though it was no longer to the west of the Andhra country,
Their traditional capital seems to have been Parivipuri (corrupted into Prapuri), Parivai, Parigipura or Parvipura. This place has not yet been identified. The form Parigipura may be taken to show that it may be identified with Parigi in the Hindupur tiluka of the Anantapur District. This capital is mentioned for the first time in tho Sholinghur rock-inscription of Parantaka I. It may, therefore, be assumed that Parivipura became the chief town of the Banas
Above, Vol. VI. p. 88.
See the Director-General's Annual for 1906-7, Part II. p. 238, note 2. • Beal's Buddhist Records of the Western World, Vol. II. p. 217 f. • Ind. Ant. Vol. XXII. p. 173.
$ The Western Gangas called themselves lords of Kuvaļālapura though their capital was Talakad. The Telugu-Cbodas claimed to be lords of Uraiyur, though their dominions lay in the Telugu country. Similarly, local families claiming descent in the Pallavs race called themselves lords of Kanchipura and devotees of the goddeus Kämakötyambika (i.e. the Kamakshi temple at Conjeeveram). In the same way, the Banas might have applied the original name of their territory to any district occupied by them in later times. See also pp. 238 and 239 below.
Mr. Sewell's Lists of Antiquities, Vol. I. p. 122.
Above, Vol. IV. p. 221. Here the forma Parivai and Prapuri occur. Pariripuri necurs in the Udayêndi. ram plates of Prithivipati II. (South-Ind. Insers. Vol. II. p. 388) and Parigipura in an inscription of the Bapa chief Aggaparijs (Nellore Inscriptions by Messrs. Butterworth and Venugopaul Chetty, p. 1201) and Parivaipura in No. 86 of the Madras Epigraphical collection for 1900 (Annual Report for 1906-7, Part II. paragraph 46). The form Paroi is furnished by No. 194 of the same collection for 1899 (
4 ual Report for 1899-1900, paragraph 85).
