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No. 21.]
DALAVAY AGRAHARAM PLATES.
161
captured Kandanavoli-durgam (i.e. Kurnool). Here he was poisoned by his relatives but by the grace of Vishņu be was saved, (Vv. 11-12).
The genealogy given in this grant agrees as far as Tirumalarāya, with those given in the Kondgāta, the Kallakursi, the Kūniyor and the Viļāppākkam grants. Like the last one, the present record also mentione only Ranga II. and Venkatapati I. as the song of Tirumalarāya omitting Rāma III, and Raghunātha, who are mentioned in the Kondyāta grant.
The present inscription is dated the Saka year 1508, computed by the moon, the arrows, the sky and the vasus, which corresponds to the cyclic year Vyaya. On the Utthānisdrādasi tithi of the bright half of the month Kārttika, Venkatapatidēva-Mahārāya granted, at the request of Virabhupa, the village of Gangavarappatti, under the name of Virabhů. pa-samudram, to a number of Brāhmapas. The grant was made in the presence of the god Venkatēsa of Tirupati. As in the other grants, Venkatapatidóvarāya I. is described as having vanquished Malikibharāma's son Mahamandasāhu, (V. 30), who has boen identified by Dr. Holtz:ch with the Golkonda king Mahammad Shāh, son of Ibrahim Shah, who reigned from 1581-1611, A. D.
We know from the Viļāppäkkam grant that Venkatapatidjva had five wives ; of these Venkatāmbā, Rāghavāmbā, Pedobamimbā ani Kțishqamāmbā are mentioned in our inscription; mention is not made of Kondāmbikā, perhaps becauss at the time of the issue of this grant, which is fifteen years earlier than that of the Viļāppākkam grant, he had not married this lady.
The birudas of Venkatapatidēva (Vv. 32-39) are identical with those given in the other grants, and have already been explained by the oditors of those grants.
Venkatapatidēva, like many other kings of the Vijayanagara dynasty, was a great devotee of the god Venkatāśa of Tirupati. A life s ze bronze statue of this king is placed in the tempio at Tirumala on the Tirupati hills, and so ne sort of pāji is offored daily to it and also to the bronze images of the great Krishnadovarāya and his two beroic, queens, Chinnādevi and Tirumaladovi.
The prince Virabhupa, at whose request the grant was made, was the son by Lakshmarni, of Kộishņa-nfipati and the grandson of Visvanatha. Ho bears the birudas Sumaya-lrõhuruganda, Ayyavali-puravar-adhisvara, (Ailīvaļipura of other records), and Dakshinasunulmes (V. 7). Virabhapa, the grant relates, constructed a mandapa with finely sculptured pillars in the temple of Sundaranāyaka at Madura (V. 68). He gave to the goddess Minākshi of tho samo place au armour studded with gems (ibidem). A Tamil work called the Tiruppani-malui, wbich describes in detail the donations made by various persons to the temple of Minākshi and Sandarośvara of Madura, states that Kțishọa-Virappa Nayaka constructed (re-constructed ?) the Veļliyambalam, the northern Gopuram, the shrine called Sevvisvaram, the kitchen, as also the thousand pillared mandapa, the Mürttiyamman-mandapa, the Surru-mandapa of the second prakara, and the Virappa-mandapa with sculptured pillars. He also covered the pillars of a mandapa of the temple of Minākshi with gold. Virappa-mundapa is perhaps the one that is referred to in the present grant.
This and the other grants of Venkatapatido varāya mention that the king was anointed on the throne by his family priest Tātācārya. Who this Tātācārya was, how ho became the family priest of the kings of Vijayanagara, and when and in what circumstances the latter embraced Vishnuism,--all these are interesting questions which have hitherto remained
1 Ind. Ant., Vol. XIII, pp. 125 1r.
* Ind. Ant., Vol. XIII, pp. 153 ff. . Ep. Ind., Vol. III, pp. 236 #.
Ep. Ind. Vol. IV, pp. 269 ff. Cf. the genealogy of these Nayakas of Madura, Ep. Ind., Vol. III, p. 239. . Vy. 52-54.
