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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XVI.
its name from Matli, a village in the Rayachoti taluka of the Cuddapah district. This family seems to have been in power during the time of the second and third Vijayanagara dynasties. Inscriptions relating to the chiefs of the family, found in the Madras Epigraphical Reports, show that they were in power till the end of the 17th century A.D. Ananta, the younger brother of Timmarājs, was the author of the well-known Telugu poem Kakustha-vijayamu. The gonealogy given in the prologue to this work mentions a Bomma as the founder of the family. Varadaraja, the great-grandson of Bomma, is said to have been the son-in-law of the great Vijayanagara emperor Krishna-Raya. Tirumala (I) is stated to have granted the country of Pottapi-nadu as amara-näyaka to this Varadaraja (called Varadayya-DévachodaMahårāja). The Mațli chiefs were dependants and adherents of Tirumala from the time of his looal governorship and ministry. An unpublished Telugu inscriptions in the huge tower of the Govindaraja-Perumal temple at Lower Tirupati (Chitoor district, Madras Presidency) states that the tower was built by the Mahamandalēśvara Matis Anantar jayya Dēvachöda-Maharája, son of Tiruvangalanktharăjayya-Dévachöda-Mahāraja. This Anantaraja must evidently be a grandson of the poet Ananta, since from No. 564 of the Madras Epigraphical Collection, 1915, we learn that the poet had a son called Tiru vengalanátha.
The members of the Matla family must have been staunch Vaishnavas. The poet Ananta, in the prologue to his work, invokes the blessings of the god (Vishnu) of Tirupati and his symbols. In the colophon to this same work Ananta calls himself a disciple of the Vaishnava teacher Tirumala Tolappa-achärya.
The grant was composed by the poet (kavi) Svayambha, the son of Sabhåpati. The latter was a poot at the court of Achyuta-Råya and composed his namañjëri grant. Likewise Ganapaya-icharys was the engraver of our inscription, while his father Virana incisod the Unaman jēri plates. The offices of composer and engraver seem to have gone by heredity in the Vijayanagars court.
The grant was made in the presence of the god) Ramachandra, evidently the god of that name in a temple at Penugonda. It is to be observed that, though the grant was made in the presence of Råma and on that account one would expect the sign-manual of the king to consist of the name of that deity, we nevertheless find both in these and in the Tumkur plates of this king that the sign-manual continges to be Sri-Virupakshe, the name of the tutelary deity of the earlier Vijayanagara kings. In the grants of Sriranga (II), the son and successor of Tirumala, the same sign-manual still continues. But subsequent to him Srt-Virupaksha' gives place to Sri-Veskuļēša. This marks a transition in the devotion and creed of the later Vijayanagara kings.
I Nos. 430, 434 and 438 of 1911 and Nos. 3 and 4 of Appendix A to the Annual Report of 1908. Mr. Sewell (Lists of Antiquities, Vol. I, p. 130) states that the present Chitvel raja is descendant of the Matlas.
Annual Report on Epigraphy, 1912, page 88, pars. 70. This inscription (No. 564 of 1918) from Siddhout attributes to him other literary works also in addition. [This important record of Matla Ananta win soon be published in the Epigraphia Indica by Mr. A. Rangaswamy Saraswati, B.A., Madras.-H. K. S.]
* No. 784 of 1916. In the light of this record the inference suggested on p. 124 of the Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1913, regarding the raising of this gopura, has been altered.
• This family of Vaishnava teachers is one of the well-known acharya-pithas (priestly families of the Vadagalai sect. Its descendants are now at Lower Tirupati and are related to the well-known family of Kõţikanyaki. diosm Titiohärys of Conjoeveram, an ancestor of whom was the spiritual preceptor to the Karnata king Venkata I.
. Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IIT, PP. 151 t. . Epigraphia Carnatics, Vol. XII, Tk. 1. * See Indian Antiquary, Vol. XLIV, p. 225.
