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No. 18.]
THE PENUGULURU GRANT OF TIRUMALA I: SAKA 1493.
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rule the compound $sa is employed where ssa has to be written (11. 57, 134, 148, 155). The doubling of the consonant following is common (dharmma, vuryya, etc.), and throughout the inscription urityā is written for vrittya. The anusvára is always written at the proper lefthand top corner of the letter to which it belongs.
Certain peculiarities of the language employed in the inscription may also be noticed. Telugu possessive forms appear in Sanskrit compounds; e.g. Araviti-nagario (1. 15), Kan. danavoli-durgamo (1. 25), Yinkulli-vamsao (11. 203 f.), in which Aravisi, Kandanavoli and Yirkulli are the possessive forms of Araudu, Kandanavolu and Yirkullu. Kanarese caseendings are also retained in such compounds as hosa-birudara-gaindah (11. 72-3) and mūru. Tāyara-gandah (1. 92), where birudara and rayara are the possessive forms of birudaru and rayaru. The use of vikriti forms like Chaļikka for Chalukya (1. 87) and mānikka for mānikya (1. 87) is noteworthy.
Tbe inscription is one of Tirumala I, the first crowned Vijayanagara king of the Āraviti line or the third Vijayanagara dynasty, which traced its descent from the Moon aud was of the Ātrēya götra. It is dated in the Saka year 1498, Prajāpati, Mågha, sukla-dvadasi (.e. the 12th day of the bright fortnight). According to Dewan Bahadur L. D. Swamikannu Pillai's Ephemeris this corresponds to Saturday, 26th January, 1572 A.D. The genealogy of the king furnished by the record and the mention made in it of some other members of this family agree with what we find in other published inscriptions of this dynasty, The Telugu poetical work Vasu-charitramu of Ramarajabhushana, the court-poet of our king, also gives at some length an account of the members of this family. The Araviti line appears from literature and inscriptions to have played an important part during the sovereignty of the kings of the second Vijayanagara dynasty and even for sometime previous. Bukks of Aravidus is stated (v. 8) to have helped Saluva Nrisim ha to put his rule on a firm basis. This probably refers to the help rendered by Bukka to the first usurpation of the Vijayanagara crown by the Saluvas. About Ramaraja, the son of Bukka, the inscription says : Sahasrais-saptatyā sahitam-api yas-sindhu-janushāṁ Sapadasy-dnikan samiti bhuja-sauryena mahata vijity adatti sm=adavanigirirdurgam. Dr. Haltzsch, and others after bim, have taken this passage to mean that he conquered Bapada and captured from him the fort of Avanigiri-durga.' But it is evident that we bave to separate the compound differently as ādattē sm=Adavani
The position and the form of the annsvåra in these plates are similar to those in the Mirëdapalli grant of Ranga II (see Plate opposite page 830 of Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XI). In the earlier Vijayanagara grants the form of the axustara was a complete circle (Epigraphia Indica, Vol. 111, Plate opposite page 38, and Epigraphia Indica, Vol. VII, Plate opposite Page 82), while the visarga was composed of two such circles one above the other. The position of the anverara in the last but one of the references quoted is exactly as in the modern Dēva-Nagari,
e right above the letter to which it belongs. In the Dandapalle plates of Vijaya-Bhupati (S.S. 1332), edited by Mr. G. Venkoba Rao (Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XIV, pp. 68 ff.), the antrára is a loop, as in the earlier plates, bat placed at the left-hand top corner, as in the plates under notice.
* For instance, the Märēda palli grant referred to in foot-pote 1 above. This record agrees in the first 28 vertes with the present inscription.
+ This king seems to have been the first historical person in the dynasty whose statas was recognized by the then ruling Vijayanagara kings. The Teluga poem Ramarajiyanw gives him the title Eaļuva-Nrisimbaraya-rajyapratishthapan-acharya.
It may be obrerved Weat the kings of the second Vijayanagara dynasty, rit. Krishna-Raya, Achyuta-Riya and Sadafive-Riya, though they were Tuļuvas, are given the epithet. Sāļuva', in a few records. The Araviti chiefs, who had originally helped the Saluvas, later on supported the Tuluvas too and contracted marriage relations with them.
* Epigraphia Indica, Vol. III, p. 239.
• Sapada is appareatly the Sanskrit form of 'Savase', an appellation given to Yusoof Adil Shab of Bijapur gince the latter was educated at, and came from, Sava, a town in Persis ; see Brigg's Ferishta, Vol. III, PP. 7 f. It may be noted that sa pada is also a Sanskrit rendering of the Hindustani word savai which means one and a quarter. The Hindu writers of the period, in denoting Yusoof Adil Sbal as sapada, were evidently not aware of the correct meaning of the title Savaee as applied to him.
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