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No. 24.)
THE NALA INSCRIPTION AT PODAGADH ; 12TH YEAR.
153
V. 19. Let this fame (of this work) last as long as the divine stream (i.e., Ganges) wandering through the mass of matted hair of Siva, with its waters shattering over the rocks of Himādri (the Himalayas), whose billowing waves purify the earth, proceeds to the ocean (lit. lord of rivers) along the path (shown by) Bhagiratha.
V. 20. This prasasti was written, in excellent letters, by the learned and famous Dāmādara, who was the younger brother of Väsudēva (and) the son of Lakshmidhara.
Inscribed by Nilakantha according to the orders of the (master) mason Sürāka. The year 724, the 5th day of the bright half of Phälguna.
No. 24-THE NALA INSCRIPTION AT PODAGADH ; 12TH YEAR.
By C. R. KRISHNAMACHARLU, B.A., MADRAS. The record edited below was discovered in the spring of 1922 by the late Mr. G. Venkoba Rao, the then Assistant Archæological Superintendent for Epigraphy, Southern Circle, Madras, and myself when we were touring in the Jeypore Agency of the Vizagapatam district, Madras Presidency. We had gone thither to examine the Telugu inscriptions at Kondakambēru in the Malkangiri Agency, brought to the notice of the Department by F. G. Butler, Esq., I.C.S., the Assistant Agency Commissioner at Körāput, and the Nāgari inscription at Dodra, a village situated at a distance of about 10 miles from Podagadh, reported by Mr. Burrows, the late Forest Officer, Jeypore, in the year 1916-17. Our attention was drawn to the inscription at Podāgadh by the Duffadar of the Umarköt Thāna office who accompanied us as our guide. It' was no small surprise to us to be led at the end of our tedious journey to the slab bearing the inscription. leaning against the natural rock at a height of 40 feet from the ground level. This was a veritable erigraphical oasis in the deserted and barren Agency tracts.
The approaches to the hill are thickly shaded by the tall teak trees of the forest. Within a furlong from the foot of the hill, as we approached it, we observed some sati stones (nearly a dozen) lying scattered in a group which gave us hopes of some useful discovery. Not far from this spot was a ruined Siva temple with fallen roof and dilapidating walls and entrance, with the Nandin (bull), Gaņēsa and other associate minor sculptures lying about it. There was a wellwatered pond also within a few yards of it embowered by a thick-set bamboo grove. All these human associations brought home to us the impression, suggested by the discovery of the Nagari inscription at Dodra, that the Agency tracts are now only a fallen country like the adjoining state of Bastar. The provenance has been described at some length only with a view to indicate the extent of the decadence that has come over a country, which, judging from its few known inscriptions and monuments, once enjoyed a civilised and cultured life in the early centuries of the Christian Era. The Agency tract seems well worthy of a systematic study by scholars owing to the wealth of antiquarian and ethnographical material it contains, although it has now relapsed into primeval jungle.
1 [Sewell in his List of the Antiquarian Remains in the Madras Presidency, Vol. I (p. 317) refers to an inscription on the rock in Devanagari characters at Podāgada,' which is possibly the same as the present inscription though his information, derived from local sources, appears to have been rather inaccurate. The stone door-way referred to in his account as being close to the inscription is probably the ontrance to the ruined Vishnu temple referred to in verse 5 of the inseription.-Ed.]
Nos. 286 and 287 of the Madras Epigraphical Collection for the year 1922. No. 282 of the same Collection.
No. 283 of 1922. . For the inscriptions of this state, see Epigraphiu Indica, Vol. IX, p. 160 ; Vol. 2, pp. 28 f.; Vol. XlI. p. 242; see also R. B. Hiralal's List of Inscriptions in the Central Provinces and Berar.
