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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XIX.
(Vv. 21-23). The illustrions Gandanarayana, the eldest son of Nripakāms-Saronátha, was highly intelligent and proficient in mounting elephants and horses. He was strong, brave, pure, clever and possessed virtuous character and conduct and good qualities. He was the best among the archers and the most proficient in all the arts. This sun among men named Gandanår yana is the best of all warriors and a bee at the lotus-like feet of his parents.
(V. 24). To him Bådapa, the king of kings, and the mightiest among great kings, being pleased, gave the big and famous village Ārumbāka saying:
(Ll. 56-58). "I have given to Gandanarayana having issued an order on plates of copper the village called Arumbāka in Velanandu-vishaya free of all taxes."
(LI, 58-62). Having accepted the village granted by Bådapa, the best of kings, Gandanāra. yapa, in his turn, gave, with an oblation of water, the thus accepted village named Arumbaka to Chandeņa who was the son of sa[ma]kamba, the uterine younger sister of his (Gandanåráyana's) mother Näyamamba. After accepting the village, (the said) Chandeņa shone like the full moon who receives the (sixteen) kalas (phases).
(V. 25). Resplendent is the good Chandenārya, a brave young man, the foremost of good Warriors, who, among men of the Saras (lake-lords), possesses the knowledge of all the agamas, is compassionate, is the destroyer of proud enemies and is rising fortune.
(LI. 63-64). The boundaries of that village (are): to the east Cherakumballi, to the south Sripündi, to the west Kavüru, (and) to the north Gomaduvu.
(LI. 64-67). No one shall interfere with this village. If any one so interferes, he shall incur the five great sins.
[Here follow the two imprecatory verses (26 and 27), viz., ezut pient etc. and fairy etc. (sung by Vyāsa), which are well-known.]
(V. 28). The executor (&jñapti) (of this order) is Kataka-npipa; the poet is Ayyanabhatta who knows all the fistras. The edict was written by Bhattadēve, to last as long as the moon, the stars and the sun would last.
B.-THE ŚRIPŪŅDI PLATES OF TĀLA II. These oopper-plates, registered as No. 5 of Appendix A of the Annual Report on SouthIndian Epigraphy for 1908-09, were received from the Collector of Guntar in 1908 by the Assistant Archæological Superintendent for Epigraphy, Madras, and noticed by him at page 108, paragraph 61 of the same report. But it may be noted that these plates had been examined, transcribed and included, already about A.D. 1800, in the Mackenzie Collection of Manuscripts. In one of the copies of the plates thus preserved it is remarked that the original copper-plates were found buried in the ground, some fifteen years before, in the village of Sripindi by the karnams of the place'. It is further noted that there was a tradition in the village that it was given by a king called Vishņuvardhana to some Blafrājua - Telugu caste, analogous to the Bhațs of Rājputana.
The inscription consists of five plates with raised rims measuring in height 81" and in breadth 31" to 33". The first and last plates are written only on the inner side. They are strung on a circular copper ring measuring 476" in diameter and nearly 16" in thickness. The
1 (and possesses a lovely appearance. -Ed.]
See Bk. No. (15-5-30), pp. 179-182; Bk. No. (5-6-21), pp. 136-138, and Bk. NS (15-5-85), pp. 41-43, pro served in the Oriental MSS. Library, Madras. The second, the third and No. 5 of 1908-09 (Appendix A of the Madras Epigraphical R-port) bave been noticed by Mr. V. Rangacharya in his Topographical List of Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, as Gt. 589, 607 and Ms. 165 and are given as separate copper-plates, while in reality they are copies of the same. In one of the copies (riz. Bk. 15-5-35) Rashfraktifa is read as Sorrashtra, Sripindi as Sritāru, Velanandu-vishaya as Telugupfi-goshti, and Ravivarmacharya is Kapi: harmadharmacharya.
