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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XIV.
list of the birudas attached to the name of the king. Vv. 28-36 are in praise of Achyuta-Raya, who succeeds his brother.
The verse stating that Achyuta was the son of Obămbikā, a step-mother of Kțishņa-Raya, and thus making Achyuta a step-brother of the latter, is not found in our inscription. Our record states, however, that Ksishņa-Raya, after his death, was succeeded by Achyuta-Rága, - a younger brother of his (anujanma-v. 29). The genealogy thus stops with Vira Nți-simha ; and Krishna-Raya and Achyota succeed the latter in due course.
Among the shrines to which Achyuta paid pilgrimage and at which he is said to have made gifts is Viriñchipuram, which is a locality in the Vellore Taluk, North Arcot district. It contains a Siva temple, known as that of Mārgasahāyāśvara. The late Rai Bahadur V. Venkayya has identified Marataka-puri (mistake for Marakata-puri), appearing in the Satyamangalam plates of Déva-Raya III and in the Madras Museum plates of Srigiri-bhūpāla with Viriñchipuram. He says that Marakata-puri is derived from Marakatavalli, the goddess of Viriñchipuram. The city of Virinchipuram is mentioned as the capital of the country ruled over by Srigirisvara, a brother of Dēva-Raya II. Of the grants of the second Vijayanagars dynasty so far published it is only in this that Viriñchipuram is mentioned among the shrines visited by Vijayanagara kings. Perhaps at the time of this grant Viriñchipuram, which a century before was ruled over by a branch of the Vijayanagara family, had been lost to them and had come to be classified with Kanchi as a place of pilgrimage.
(Vv. 37-42) In the Saka year 1451 according to the Sålivāhans reckoning, in the year Virodhin, in the month Makara, on the trayodasi day of the dark half of the month and on Tuesday (was made the gift on the banks of the river Tungabhadrâ, in the vicinity of Virápāksba, to the best of Brahmans, Rāmacbandra Dikshita, the son of Nāgā-Bhatta. Thus the necessary details as regards the date are given.
The date of the grant is of considerable interest to students of history. In the course of his introduction to the Unamäñjëri plates of Achyuta-Rayat Professor Kielhorn has remarked as follows :-“The latest date for Krishņa-Raya known to me from published inscriptions corresponds to Friday, 23rd April, A.D. 1529, and the earliest date for Achyuta-Raya to Monday, 15th August 1530." But the astronomical data given in our inscription unmistakably refer to the year 1451 Saka, etc., i.e. Jan. 1530 A.D. Dr. Kielhorn's earliest date for Achyuta-Rāya has therefore to be revised in the light of this inscription. It is clear also that AchyutaRaya succeeded his brother after the natural death of the latter (V. 29 maafa To faatat
1 9 97? yumuiya: etc.). So the death of Krishņa-Raya mast be placed before January 1530 A.D.
The only inscription among those as yet discovered that may seem to raise some difficulty As regards our chronological result is No. 369 of 1912, copied by the Madras Epigraphical Survey. It belongs to the reign of Vira-pratäpa Kțishņa-dova Mahārāya and is dated Saka 1453, Virodhi Sittirai fu di 10, Attam. But another inscription in the same temple records a sale of land made in the reign of Achyutay ya-dēva Mahāriya, son of Vira-pratāpa Narasa Nåyaka, dated Saka 1452, Vikriti, Makara fu di 13, Monday, Pūéam. If 1452 Saka year is Vikriti, then 1453 cannot be Virodhin. It is therefore clear that the figure 1453 must be a mistake for 1451, as the figure nearest to three' in Tamil characters is one'.
See Ep. Ind., Vol. III, p. 35.
? Ep. Ind., Vol. VIII, p. 308. . Ep. Ind., Vol. III, p. vii.
• Ep. Ind., Vol. III, p. 148. Read maafa.
• Read मिजा. * Read argen
. No. 373 of 1912, Ep. Suro. Report. • Onnu (one); cf. munnu (three). [The inscription reads clearly 1463 and not 1451.-H. K. 8.].
