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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XV.
possible that the second inscription refers to a different temple-possibly the temple of Mallevara, which may have been named after Mallapa-raja. Anyway it seems to me that Mallapa-raja in the second inscription is a shortened colloquial form of Yuddhamalla. This view gives us two Yuddhanallas, grandfather and grandson. The first inscription was engraved in the time of the grandfather and the second in the time of the grandson. There is nothing to militate against this view, either in the language or in the characters of the inscriptions. The presence of an imprecatory verse in the first inscription (the prose passage also seems to contain an imprecation) is inconsistent with the view that both form one inscription and were composed and engraved at the same time. The fact that the fifth verse is not commenced on the second or left-hand side of the pillar, although there is some little space left there after the conclusion of the prose passage, confirms this view. It is not clear, however, why the second inscription was engraved on the right-hand side, instead of on the back, of the pillar.
Who then are these Yuddhamallas? One of them must, I think, be identified with the Eastern Chalukya king of that name, who was the son of Tada and who reigned for seven years, after ousting Vikramaditya's son Raja-Bhima. We know from the Kaluchumbarru grant (Epigraphia Indica, Vol. VII, pp. 177 ff.) and the Malliyapundi grant (ibid, Vol. IX, pp. 47 ff.) of Amma II that Taḍa's father was Yuddhamalla. He was one of the younger brothers of Vijayaditya III, or Gunaga-Vijayaditya, who according to the Pabbarru inscription of Saktivarman (Journal of the Telugu Academy, Vol. II) ruled the kingdom jointly with his brothers (bhratribhis saha). There is no valid reason why the two Yuddhamallas of the inscription should not be identified with these two Chalukyan princes. The inscription gives royal titles to the first Yuddhamalla and calls him the lord of the land of the Chalukyas. It is true that this Yuddhamalla I was not a king in name; but he evidently took an active part in the government of the country, and the royal titles need not be taken as anything more than complimentary. In the alternative, the builder of the temple may be identified with Yuddhamalla II, and the builder of the tower with his grandson, who, if he existed at all, very probably was named after his grandfather, as was the latter after his grandfather. But, since we do not at present know that Yuddhamalla II had a grandson, I prefer the first alternative. According to this view the first portion of the inscription-rather, the first inscription-may be taken as having been composed about 890 A.D., i.e. towards the close of the reign of Gunaga-Vijayaditya, and the second inscription about 40 years later, when Yuddhamalla II began to reign. If, on the other hand, the first inscription should be referred to the time of Yuddhamalla II, the second would be some years later. In either case the first cannot be referred to a period later than the middle of the 10th century A.D., while it may be at least 50 years earlier.
The inscription is thus older than the oldest Telugu work extant, viz. Nannaya-Bhatta's translation of the first three books of the Mahabharata, which was dedicated to Raja-raja, whose coronation took place in A.D. 1022. It is, in fact, the earliest specimen of Telugu poetry yet discovered. This view has been controverted in the Telugu press, where the inscription attracted much attention on the publication of its discovery. It is said that the inscription cannot be referred to a period earlier than Nannaya-Bhatta's time, because, it is said, that poet first introduced the Akkara metres into Teluga from Kanarese. This argument is based on a passage in Nagavarman's Chhandombudki (v. 296), which is interpreted as meaning that in Nagavarman's time Akkaras were peculiar to Kanarese. What Nagavarman actually says is as follows: I have thus far treated fully of the languages, etc., which are common to all countries (i.e. parts of India). I will now expound the nature of the Kanarese language."
It
1 Arnava-jät-änane sampurnateyim sakala-vishaya-bhashadigaļam | Nirnayam-ag-arupide nam Karnataka-bhaahey-andamaṁ kēļ pēļ vern ||
