________________
No. 25.]
KANUMA GRANT OF SADASIVA-RAYA: SAKA 1470.
341
No. 25. THE KANUMA GRANT OF SADASIVA-RAYA: SAKA 1470. Br S. V. VISWANATHA, M.A., MANNARGUDI.
The inscription is on five copper-plates, which are bored at the top so as to admit a ring holding the plates together. The latter are in good preservation. They are now in the possession of the Collector of Anantapur. They were obtained and sent to me for publication by Rao Sahib H. Krishna Sastri, who has noticed these in his Report on Epigraphy for 1915, pp. 9 (No. 9) and 112.
The plates measure 10 in. by 7 in., except in the middle, where the height is greater on account of the arch at the top. The holes through which a ring is intended to pass have a diameter of 6 in. The rims of all the plates are slightly raised. The writing runs across the breadth of the plates, and is quite legible. The first and the last plate are engraved only on one side. The inscription contains 241 lines in all. The plates are numbered in Telugu numerals. I am supplied with the following further information about the plates from the office of the Assistant Archæological Superintendent for Epigraphy, Madras:
"The plates are strung together on a circular ring of the same metal, which is 3" in diameter and about 13" in thickness. It bears on it a sliding signet ring to which is fixed a circular seal, whose diameter is about 1". The seal bears on a countersunk surface the following, which are the prevailing features of all Vijayanagara seals: (1) Top-row: the crescent to the proper right and the sun to the left; (2) Middle-row: a boar standing on a platform and facing the proper right with a dagger in its front, pointing downwards; and (3) bottom: a floral device, probably a blown lotus, on which the platform of (2) rests. The plates with the ring and the seal weigh about 431 tolas."
The language of the inscription is Sanskrit, and the whole is in verse, except the Telugu portions in plates Nos. 3, 4 and 5, which give the distinguishing marks of the boundaries and the signature. The characters are Nandinagari, except in the case of the signature, which is in Telugu. There are a few orthographical peculiarities worth noticing. Instances of unnecessary unusvara and visarga have been noted in the footnotes to the text. As in other Vijayanagara grants, there is confusion here also between the use of sa, fa and sha. Instances of this are:-Sambhare for Sambhave (1. 2); Kausaly i-sri-Sumitra in place of Kausalya-fri-Sumitra (1. 19); situ instead of situ° (1. 27); rast for rast (1. 40); samsosya instead of samsoshya (1. 41); svamsam-etya° in place of suamdam etya (1. 47), etc. The vernacular sound r is represented by an r sign added over the consonant r, e.g. muru in 1. 75. Long is represented in one place by a vertical stroke and a loop over short i, as if i were a consonant.
The inscription records the grant of the village of Kanuma by Sadasiva-Maharaya of the Second Vijayanagara dynasty to several learned Brahmans of various götras and sakhas. The grant was made at the request of Appalaraja, the son of Krishnaraya and grandson of Timmaraja, of the Kasyapanvaya, i.e. the Solar race. It was made in the presence of the god Vitthalesvara, on the banks of the Tungabhadra river. Kanuma, we are told, is situated in Mundimaḍugu sima, a division of the Gutti valita. The boundaries of the object of the grant and the marks of identification thereof are clearly described in Telugu, the Desa-bhasha, as it is called in the inscription. The terms of the grant are the same as those found in other grants of the Vijayanagara house. One peculiarity to be noted about this is that the village granted is divided equally between the god Chennakesava and the Brahmans, one-half going to each. A half is thus left as the property of the temple, while the other portion is split up into 30 vrittis, to bo divided among Brahmans, 2 vrittis being set apart for the daily worship of the god. The grant is made for the performance of 16 kinds of worship (shodas-opachara) to the god Chennakösava. Of all the kings of the Vijayanagara dynasty Sadasiva seems to have favoured the Vaishnavite religion most.
2z
