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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XVII.
In lines 8-13 the proper names of the donees and most of the names of their götras1 are given in Prakrit, and in line 14 the Prakrit form -samvachchharam occurs. The only other declensional forms are the nominative singular améo (for which we would have expected ameo) and the genitive singular -ajjassa (-aryasya in Sanskrit) in lines 8-13. The vowel au has become o in Kondinna (= Kaundinya, 11. 8-11). Sanskrit p and b have been changed to v in Kassava (= Kasyapa, 1. 11 f.) and Savarajja (= Sabararya, 1. 10). Consonant groups are assimilated; but sri is represented by siri in Sirijja (1. 9). This name, as well as Nandijja (= Nandyarya, 11. 8, 13), Aggijja (= Agnyarya, 11. 9, 11), Agasti (= Agastya, 1. 13), and Venujja (for which we would have expected Venhujja3 Vishnvārya, 1. 12), are instances of Samprasarana (i = ya, and u = va).
4
The inscription records that, in the 2nd year of his reign (1. 14), the Mahārāja Damodaravarman (1. 3) granted the village of Kangura to a number of Brahmanas. He was a worshipper of the truly and perfectly Enlightened one' (Samyak-sambuddha, 1. 1), i.e. of the Buddha. At the same time he boasts of having performed certain Brahmanical rites, viz. Gosahasra and Hiranyagarbha (1. 2 f.). These are the names of the second and fifth of the sixteen so-called great gifts (mahādāna) of the Purapas. A similar feat is ascribed to king Attivarman in another copper-plate grant from the Guntar District, where I translate the epithet aprameya-Hiranyagarbha-prasa vēnas by who is a producer of (i.e. who has performed) innumerable Hiranyagarbhas.' That this Attivarman (whose name seems to be a Prakritic or Dravidian form of Hastivarman) belonged to the same dynasty as Damodaravarman, is evident from the fact that his family is stated to be 'descended from the lineage of the great sage Ananda' (ibid., text 1. 1). while Damodaravarman claims to have belonged to the gōtra of Ananda (below, text 1. 2). Moreover, Damodaravarman resided at a city called Kandarapura (below, text 1, 1), which must have received its name from that prince Kandara who is mentioned as an ancestor of Attivarman. The characters of the copper plate grant of this king are decidedly more developed than those of the subjoined grant, which, besides, is partially in Prakrit, while the former is all in Sanskrit. Consequently, Damodaravarman must have been one gf the predecessors of Attivarman.
When editing the Gorantla plates of Attivarman, my late lamented friend Fleet believed this king to have been a Pallava,7-chiefly because he interpreted the epithet aprameyaHiranyagarbha-prasavena by 'who is of the posterity of the inscrutable (god) Hiranyagarbha.' As I have shown above, this rendering is inadmissible in the light of the corresponding epithet used in the fresh plates, and Fleet himself had since withdrawn his original opinion in his Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts, second edition, p. 334. Henceforth Kandara, Damodaravarman, and Attivarman (Hastivarman) may be designated as 'kings of the family of Ananda.'
The two localities mentioned in the subjoined inscription-Kandarapura (1.1) and Kangüra (1. 4 f.)-I am unable to identify. But the first of the two villages referred to in the grant of Attivarman-Tanrikonra is probably identical with Tadikonda, 10 miles north of Guntar and south of the Krishna river, and the second village-Antukkural-with Gani-Atukuru, west
P. 95.
In line 18 the names of the götras are in Sanskrit.
Cf. Nandijs and Gonandija, above, Vol. I, p. 6, text 1. 21, and Vol. VI, p. 87, text 1.9.
Cf. Rudavennhuja, above, Vol. VI, p. 317, text 1. 16.
See Hömädri's Danakhanda, chapter 5, and cf. also Ep. Ind., Vol. I, p. 368, verse 18 and note 58.
Ind. Ant., Vol. IX, p. 102, text 1. 8.
Loc. cit., text 1. 2. These coincidences were first pointed out in the Madras Epigraphical Report for 1920,
Ind. Ant., Vol. IX, p. 108, text L. 7. Fleet read Tanthikontho
1 Bee Ind. A, Vol. IX, p. 102.
See Mr. B. Sewell's Lists, Vol. I, p. 76.
10 Ind. Ant., Vol. IX, p. 108, text L. 8.
