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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XVIII
No. 17.--SRIRANGAM COPPER-PLATES OF DEVARAYA II; SAKA-SAMVAT 1356. By S. V. VISWANATHAN, M.A., MANNARGUDI, AND THE LATE MR. T. A. GOPINATHA RAO, M.A.,
TRIVANDRUM. This is another set of copper-plates of the Vijayanagara king Dévaraya II in the possession of the authorities of the Sri-Ranganātha temple at Srirangam (see above, Vol. XVII, No. 8). It was examined by the Assistant Archeological Superintendent for Epigraphy, Madras, in his Ep. Rep. for 1906, and noted as No. 19 of App. A. We edit the inscription below from inked estampages kindly supplied by Rao Bahadur H. Krishna Sastri. The description of the plates as noted on his office copy runs as follows: "Three plates in a ring in the Ranganatha temple at Srirangam." The following further details may be added :
The inscription is written on three copper-plates with a ring hole at the top. The first and third plates are engraved only on their inner sides. They measure 11:3' in length including the arch at the top, and 7" in breadth. The hole has a diameter of .75". The first and second plates are numbered at the left hand top corner with the Kannada numerals 1 and 2 and the word puta in Någart; the third plate bears the Kannada numeral 3 just below the ring hole. The rims of the plates are slightly raised. The writing runs across the breadth of the plates, is legible and devoid of any erasures. The average height of a letter is 25". The inscription is in the Nandi-Nagari characters. But the signature Sri-Virupaksha at the end is in Kannada. The Tamil letters and have been used in lines 51, 58, 65, the latter being sometimes expressed by a rēpha marked above the letter ra (e.g., in 11. 50, 51, 53). The languages employed are Sanskrit which is largely the language of the inscription and Tamil (Dēšabhäsha) which is used in describing the details of the property granted. The latter is here and there interspersed with a few Kannada words.
The orthographical peculiarities to notice in this inscription are:-the insertion of an anusvāra before and and the labial m, e.g., punnya for punya (11.4 and 12), sdimrājya for sämrājya (1. 20) and hirannya for hiranya (1. 66); the doubling of consonant after an anusvāra, as in bhrāntta (1. 30), intta for inda (1. 47), manchchal (1. 49); and the omission of the visarga or the consequent doubling of: in chatuslma (1. 88) and praptai sarvair and ayai samanvitam (1. 44). The genealogy of the first Vijayanagara dynasty, given in the inscription, runs thus :
Sangama. Bukka (I).
Harihara (II). Dēvarāja (or Dåvarāya) I..
Vijayariya. Dėvariya Mabărăja II.
1 Originally, it appears as if only two villages were granted by these three plates, but after reconsideration the number of villago. was changed to five and a revised second plata was added without, however, destroying the original second plate for which this was substituted. Thus there are now four plates in the set, the second of which has to be deleted inasmuch as the revised fresh plate hai to take its place. Care was taken to begin the revised second plate with the same word w in the old plate and and it similarly with the same word. as in the old one, so that the pawne might fit in with the contert of the Art and the third plates, though in the middle fow more worses in prime of Dénariys II and some knee regarding the additional villages were added. The odd plate which Mr. Venkayys noted under . Bemarlo in his Ep. Rap. for 1906, App. A., No. 20, was perhaps the original second plate.
