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846
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XVIII
No. 41.—THE GARAVAPADU GRANT OF GANAPATIDEVA; SAKA 1182.
By C. R. KRISHNAMACHARLU, B.A., OOTACAMUND. This grant is engraved on three copper-plates which were forwarded to the Assistant Archæological Superintendent for Epigraphy, Southern Circle, Madras, in the year 1916, by M. R. Ry. M. Ramakrishnakavi, M.A., late of the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras, who had obtained them on loan from M. R. Ry. T. Achyuta Rao Pantulu, M.A., Deputy Inspector of Schools. No definite information as to their discovery is available. Their contents have been reviewed in the Madras Epigraphical Report for the year 1916-17.1 The plates have since been acquired for the Madras Museum and deposited there.
The plates are oblong in shape and are held together by a copper ring, the ends of which are rivetted into the back of a circular seal. They measure 91" by 58" and are about " in thickness. The ring and the seal have a diameter of 31" and 2" respectively. The ring had not been cut when the plates came up for examination. They contain four faces of writing in all, the first and the last plates being engraved on their inner sides only. The entire set with ring and seal weighs 274 tolas. On the seal, on a counter-sunk surface, are engraved in relief (1) the symbols of the Crescent and the Sun at the top; below these (2) a boar* facing the proper left with a dagger placed in its front with the point upwards, and (3) a cow facing the proper left at the bottom.
The inscription is composed in the Sanskrit language and written in the Telugu characters of the period to which it belongs. The invocatory and narrative portion of the record (lines 1 to 45) consists of 21 verses. This is followed, in lines 45 to 63, by the categorical enumeration of the donees with their gotras and their shares. Lines 63 to 65 give the boundaries of the gift village. These are followed, in lines 65 and 66, by the usual minatory verse beginning with Tacai' and the closing benediction 08 :'. On the whole, the inscription is engraved very carefully. The position of the anusvāra is not uniform. In some cases it is placed at the proper left top corner of the letter to which it belongs as in the later Chāļukyan records, while in a few others it is placed by the side of the letter as at the present day. The ansvāra takes the place of the nasal before all consonants. But in some places it does not; e.g. dibanti in line 1 and niruvēkayanti in line 2. The consonant following the rēpha is doubted. The doubling of the letter na is effected by adding a subscript n to na, e.g., varnna in line 28 ; vistirana in line 26, etc.
The word vēļi used for vēli in verse 1 suggests the influence of the vernacular pronunciation which has a tendency to substitute la for the Sanskrit la. The expression 'Garavapādākhya in verse 21 seems to have been employed inadvertently as in Telugu, the correct form Garavapldwälohy being somewhat difficult to pronounoe.
The composition is marked by force and fluency of style. The author's diction in some places reminds, us of that of some great poets. Our mind is drawn to the beautiful expression of Kalidasa A सौदामन्या कनकनिकषसिग्धया' in the Meyhadata, by his phrase 'सौदामन्या कानकनिकषच्छायया' employed in verse 6'.
1 Appendix A, Nu.4 and page 122, paragraph 30.
· No. 328 of the Madras Epigraphical Collection for 1905 belonging to King Pratáparudra of this family has the figure of a boar carved above it. The Boar emblem of the Kikatiyas has been noticed by Prof. Hultzach (above, Vol. XH,p. 180). See also copper-plate No. 17 of Nellore Inscrptions in which the Boar' emblem is carved.
[The name can very well be Caravapada or pada, as given in the inscription, unless the subscript = was left out bgithe engraver.- Ed.]
. (Ho might have taken it from the Möghadala itell-Ed.]
