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No. 22.]
KADALADI PLATES OF ACHYUTA-RAYA: SAKA 1451.
plate. They measure 9.2 in. by 74 in. Including the arch at the top, the height is 11.7 in. The writing runs across the breadth of the plates and is quite legible. There are 216 lines in all. All the plates have raised rims. The ring with which the plates are fastened is 7 in. in diameter.
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The characters are Nandinagari, excepting the words Sri-Virupaksha, the signature at the bottom, which is in large Kanarese characters. The average height of the letters is 2 in., except in the signature. The language is Sanskrit, full of errors, and the whole inscription is in verse, except in Sri-Ganadhipataye namah at the beginning and Sri-Virupaksha at the end.
The inscription contains some noteworthy orthographical peculiarities. The first is that punctuation marks are not supplied in their right places, all the lines of the verses being stopped with a vertical line. These have been pointed out in the footnotes to the text. Here and there we find instances of confusion between long and short i and u. In these plates, as in others, there is a redundant anusvära before the double consonants nya and nya. Instances of these are: "hiramnya-payo-dhara for hiranya-payo-dhara (1. 126), amnyas-traya in the place of anyas-traya in 11. 127-8, Samdily-amnvaya instead of Samdily-anvaya (1. 189). Samämnyo-yam (1. 214) is a mistake for Samanyo-yam. Anusvara is wanting in some places, as it is superfluous in others, e.g. chadra for chandra (1. 1); Kamchya instead of Kamchyam (1.36). These, we think, are mostly to be attributed to want of care on the part of the engraver. Visargas are likewise redundant. Examples of this may be seen in 1. 66, where we have gamḍahs-tosha instead of gamḍas-tosha°; 11. 119-20 °samyuktaḥm-e kabhogyam for 'samy uktam-akabhogyam. The confusion between the sibilants, palatal, dental and lingual (, and ), is as common here as in the other grants of the Vijayanagara kings. Instances of this are:-shu apy-a-sēsheshu in 1. 39 instead of shv-apy-a-sēshēshu; samsoshya in l. 54 for samsoshya; sudhibhi in 1. 72 in the place of sudhibhi; a-sasha in 1. 104; kasiti in 1. 128; °seshta in 1. 129 and saianoma in 1. 207 are written instead of a-sesha, käsiti, sesh(t)a, and sasanena respectively. A conjunct consonant is made up of the full form of the first consonant and the curtailed form of the second consonant. The r sign is inserted over the line, where necessary, except in a few instances of double consonants, e.g. dvajya in 1. 34 and chatubhuja in 1. 51. In certain cases instead of a double consonant only one of the consonants is written. As in the other inscriptions of the same dynasty, this one also contains the birudas attached to the kings-for example Bhashegetappuvarayaragandah, Hindurayasuraträṇaḥ, etc. Raya and Maharaya appear frequently in the place of Raja and Maharaja. There are instances also of Tamil usage. TambraSasanam in 11. 208 and 209 is evidently the Tamil form of tamra-sasanam and varsha is usually written in Tamil as varusha.
The inscription records. the grant of the village of Kaḍalaḍi alias Patendal, by AchyutaRaya to Rama-chandra-Dikshita, son of Naga-Bhaṭṭa, who in his turn splits up the village granted into 110 vrittis and distributes them among other Brahmans, who are 46 in number. The inscription naturally falls into 4 parts-(1) Vv. 1-3, benedictory verses; (2) Vv. 4-36, the genealogy of the dynasty as far down as Achyuta-Raya; (3) Vv. 37-104, the terms of the grant, names of donees, etc. etc.; (4) Vv. 105-111, the names of the composer, the engraver and the imprecatory verses at the end. Vv. 1-3 invoke Sambhu, the Varaha incarnation of Vishnu and Gajanana. Vv. 4-8 trace the genealogy of the family as far as Narasa Nayaka, Vv. 9-11 give an account of the gifts made by the king and his exploits; his victory over the kings of the South, Chera, Chōla and Paṇḍya. Vv. 12 and 13 mention the sons of Narasa, Vira Nri-simha and Krishna-Raya by Tippaji and Nagala. Vv. 14-18 contain the praise of Vira Nri-simha as king and his gifts at holy shrines; and the beneficent rule of Vira Nri-simha. Vv. 19-23 likewise describe the deeds of valour of, and the gifts made by, Krishna-deva-Raya. Vv. 24-27 describe how Achyuta suoceeds Krishna-Raya after the latter's death. We have in these a long
