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No. 41.] THE GARAVAPADU GRANT OF GANAPATIDEVA, SAKA 1182.
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were the case the deity would have been invoked or praised at least in a few of the innumerable records of this family. And even if there was such a deity known or familiar to the commentator it must have been called so after the place 'Kakati.'! There are many instances of the presid. ing goddess Durgā of a village being called after the village.
Kanker, the head-quarters of the state of that name, situated immediately to the north of the Bastar State in the Central Provinces was formerly called Kākera, Kākaira and Kākaraya. Since epigraphs refer to Kākati as a pura (i.e., city) as noticed above, it is very likely that Känker, as suggested by its ancient names, was identical with Kakati. The forms Kākati'
Käkatya,' etc. might have, in local pronunciation, taken the forms Kākera (cf. the form Kāketa). The connection of the Käkati kings with Kalikāla-Chöļa, who is well-known to South Indian history as a king of about the 6th century A.D., and the story that he fixed his capital at the town of Kākati and the appearance, in the adjoining state of Bastar, of an early (Saka 983) Chola Chief Chamdrāditya-Mahārāja who calls himself, like the Kakatiyas, a descendant of KarikālaChõla, point to the possibility of the said identity. The advent, again, of Annamarāja, the brother of Kākti (i.e. Kākati) Pratāparudra into Bastar, the present ruling family of which is Kākatiya-though curiously enough Sõmavamsi-must have been only a return to the inherited family territory lying bere or such territory reconquered and recovered now.5
Among the boundaries of the gift village no village or town is mentioned to help us in its identification. There are villages of the name 'Gārapādu ' in the Guntur and the Sattenapalle taluks of the Guntur district and in the Nuzvid taluk of the Kistna district. From the reported fact of the discovery of the plates near Ellore in the latter district it may have to be identified with the village of Gārapāņu in the Nuzvid taluk.
TEXT.1 [Metres. Vv. 1, 3 Sragdharā; v. 2 Svāgatā; v. 4, Indravajrā; vv. 5, 18 and 20 Sārdülavikriditam ; v. 6 Mandākrāntā; vv. 7-8 Upajāti; v. 9 Härini; vv. 10, 12-14 and v. 21 Anushțubh ; v. 11 Pushpitāgrā; vv. 15-17 Malini; and v. 19 Upendrarajrā.]
First Plate. 1 लक्ष्मी हस्ते दिशन्ति प्रमदमुपहरंत्य ब्धिवेळादुकूलामु. 2 वी निवेशयन्ति प्रतिदिशमचलां कोर्तिमानतयंति । किंचान्यद्य3 यदिष्टं निदधति निखिल तत्तदग्रे समग्रं नित्यं निर्बय॑माना: कुशल
1 In almost all carlier inscriptions the family name is given as 'Kakati' (sce Nos. 213, 244 and 288 of the Madras Epigraphical Collection for 1893).
?[and vice versa.-Ed.)
Vide Nos. 252 and 253 of the Malras Epigraphical Collection for 1908 and Nos. 124, 128, 109, 228 and 229 of the Lists of Inscriptions of Central Prorinces and Berar by Hiralal.
• No. 198 of the Lists of Inscriptions of Central Prceinces and Berar and No. 231 of the Madras Epigraphical Collection for 1908.
[It is doubtful if philology can allow of such a derivation. Besides, history or rather trdition, goes against it in w much as the Kakatiyas are said to be the descendants of the Pandava Arjuna and of the Lunar race whereas Karikala-Chola and Ganapatidēva belong to the solar race.--Ed.)
(Line 64 of the text would show that it stood on the Bhagirathi. N. P. C.] From ink-impressiona kindly lent by the Assistant Archeological Superintendent for Epigraphy, Madras.
This side of the plate is marked close to the ring-hole with the Telugu-Kannada numerical figure for l.
• Tho lino commences with a spiral which may stand either for Owl or for Sri. The latter is more probable since even to-day the orthodox practiou in the Telugu country is to commence any w.iting with the letter Sri or an omamental flourish presentingit. (See above Vol. xvii, p. 352 1.1.-Ed.]
