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354
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[Vol. XIV.
The plate is 8-8 in. high and 8:4 in. broad, except in the middle, where it is 123 in. high, There is a hole at the top of the plate to let in & ring. The inscription, which is in large Nagari characters and which runs across the breadth of the plate, is legible enough. The plate is in good preservation. There are in all 31 lines of writing.
Two languages are used in the inscription. The first three lines are in Telugu and give the details of the date of the grant. The rest of the first side from 1. 3 to l. 15 is in Sangkrit and describes the religious qualities and attributes of Mahidēvēndra-Sarasvati, the disciple of Chandrasekhara-Sarasvati of the Conjeeveram Sārada matha. The whole of the second side again is in Telugu, mostly of a corrupt kind, except the usual admonitory verses.
The characters of the inscription are a carelessly written form of Davanigari. The whole insoription is in these characters, excepting the last line, which is in Telugu.
The insoription records the grant of certain rights in the village of Melupaka by the then presiding teacher (Acharya) of the Barade matha at Conjoeveram, MahAdēva-Sarasvati, disciple of Chandrasekhara-Sarasvati, to Rama Sastrin, follower of the Asyalāyana sitra, of the Kämakāyana Vigvamitra gotra, a momber of the Hoyasana Kannedi community. The village of Melupaka was once granted to the matha by the Golkonda ministers Akkanna ar Mädanna. These rights ineluded certain taxes of 3 maras (marakkal) for every kalam o. paddy, which gives us the ratio of for kanukoyi-dēšamukhi. It is interesting to compare the term kanukoyi with the similar form Kanungo, which is the name given to the village accountant in Muhammadan India. Dasamukhi is the tax customarily paid by the subjects to the
lord,' and this is given as a definite proportion of the produce raised, generally is. It also included the gift of two vardhas (=Rs. 7-0-0) per annum from the matha and two house sites.
The grant is dated Saks 1608, Prabhava, Vaibikha, 8u. di. 18, Saturday, lunar eclipse. On these details Diwan Bahadur L. D. Swamikkannu Pillay, wřites as follow :-"Baka 1608, Prabhava, Vaisakha, Su. di. 15 Saturday, lunar colipse. Sake 1608=A,D. 1686-87. Bat Prabhava was A.D. 1687-88. The day intended was Satarday 16th April, A.D. 1687. The tithi commenced at .58 of the day and ended at .55 of the following day. There was no lunar eclipse on the day in question." One thing has to be remembered against the above verifica tion of the date. The oopurrence of the lunar eolipse on the day on which the grant was made must have been an unmistakable fapt. We bave to take this as a certain and known fact and ..with this as our basis work out the other details to suit it. Eclipses are of immense significance to the Hindu, and could not be easily forgotten by him, whether the other details of a date are correotly stated or not. Hence the right method of verification of the date would seem to be to find out on what days in the year 1686 or 1687 there were lunar eclipses and to Gee if the other data fit in with the date on which the eolipse occurred."
Regarding the names of persons occurring in the grant, special mention has to be made of Akkanns and Mädanna of Golkonda, as they appear in our inscription. Akkanna and Mädanna were the ministers of one of the Nawabs of Golkonda. They appear in Indian Aradition as the apples of the Vaishnaya saint Ramadas of Bhadrachalam.
Concerning the two brothers Rao Sahib H. Krishna Sastri writes thus in the Madras Ep. Rep., 1915, pp. 117 f., quoting from the Dutch journal of Havart :
., 4. These donors must be identical with the two famous, persons of those names frequently mentioned in the popular, Atory of Ramades. They were the ministers of Tanisha, one of the
1 Seo below, p. 869, rote 7. .
• [The non-coincidence of the most important item of the date, vis, the lanar eclipse, reflects upon the gonalno ses of the grant toolt.-3. K. 8.]
