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No: 22.]
PADMANERI GRANT OF VENKATA I: SAKA-SAMVAT 1520.
287
No. 22.-PADMANERI GRANT OF VENKATA I: SAKA-SAMVAT 1520. BY V. NATESA AIYAR, B.A., M.R.A.S., PESHAWAR.
The subjoined grant is published with the aid of an excellent inked estampage, kindly supplied to me by Rao Sahib H. Krishna Sastri, Government Epigraphist for India. It is noted as No. 14 of Appendix A in the Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1905-6.
The copper-plates on which the grant is incised are seven in number, as can be judged from the Telugu numerals at the right-hand corner, and they are bored at the top for the insertion of a ring and seal, which, unfortunately, are no longer to be found.. Of these plates the first and the last are carved only on the inner side, and the remaining five on both sides. The space covered by the writing measures 7" x 7" on each plate, while the size of the individual letters varies from " to ". The alphabet is Nandinagari, with the exception of the signmanual' at the end, which is in the Kannada-Telugu script.
Among the orthographical peculiarities and errors which occur in the grant may be mentioned (1) the doubling of consonants when preceded by r, as in 'turyyō (1.7), tarttiyikō (1. 10), sauryyēņa (1. 21), durgga (1. 55), °r-ddadāti (1. 149); (2) the doubling of d when preceded by an anusrara or followed by y, as in runddhati (1. 29), maddhye (1. 46), sai iddhava (1.70), siddhya (1.117); (3) the use of anusvara instead of nasal, as in syrpanté (1. 46), Vemgalamba (1. 54), komḍavidu (1. 56), °rasayam (1. 100), bramhamḍam (1. 136), r-emdrān (1. 269); (4) the omission of risarga before conjunct sibilants, as in kāminī sva (1. 15), raja kshitau (1. 38), °d-anuja sri (1. 62), °dhe śri (1. 122), prayatai sni (l. 164); (5) the use of dental n for cerebral n as in turnita° (1. 88), svarna (1. 228); (6) the use of yi for i and ye for e and vice versa as in yēta (L 33), yiti (1. 88), maïta (1. 94); and (7) non-adherence to Sandhi rules, as in °m-abhut-silā (1. 2), śrimat-cha° (1. 170), °y-otbhuta (1. 191).
The inscription consists of 159 Sanskrit verses and opens with an invocation to the god Sri Venkatesa in prose. The peculiar Sanskrit words and the royal birudas used in this epigraph are the same as in the other published records of this king and of his successors Venkata II and Ranga VI.
The genealogy of the king (vv. 3-28), both mythological and historical, agrees precisely with that given in the inscriptions already referred to, while the description of his virtues and exploits (vv. 29-45) adds nothing to what is contained in the Vilapaka grant.
Verses 46-47 give the date of the grant, which was the twelfth tithi of the bright fortnight of the month of Sravana in the Saka year reckoned by the sky, the eyes, the arrows and the moon (i.e. 1520), the cyclic year being Vilambin. This date corresponds with A.D. 1598.
The grant was made in the presence of the god Venkatesa, evidently on the Tirumala hill, and at the request of Krishna, the Nayaka king of Madhura. The latter's pedigree, as shown in
1 These plates were originally in the Collector's office, Tinnevelly, and had their ring and seal intact at the time when they were examined by Mr. Sewell (Lists of Antiquities, Vol. II, p. 17, No. 111).
2 Vide Ep. Ind., Vol. IV, pp. 269 ff.; ibid., Vol. III, pp. 236 ff.; Ind. Ant., Vol. XI11, pp. 125 ff.; ibid., pp. 153 ff.; and Ep. Ind., Vol. XI, pp. 326 ff.
Ep. Ind., Vol. IV, pp. 269 ff.
