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No. 43.]
VILAVATTI GRANT OF PALLAVA SIMHAVARMAN.
301
captured (preferably re-captured) Kanchi which had been the Pallava capital in the earlier genera tions. With sufficient reason are the Chendalür plates issued from Kanchipura and the doneo is, very naturally, a native of a village in its vicinity, the name of which though not read by Dr. Hultzsch, may, I think, be safely read as Pullaļūruand identified with the village of that name situated 9 miles north of Conjeeveram."
Discussing the initial date of Siṁhavarman Rao Bahadur Krishna Sastri remarks: "If the initial date derived from the Lokavibhāga for Simhavarman II is to be accepted there must have been in A.D. 440, the fourth year of the king, a solar eclipse in the month of Chaitra. This, however, does not happen to be the fact". I regret, I have to differ from Mr. Sastri and point out that Dr. Schran's Tables of the Eclipses of the Sun in India record an eclipse on the 17th of May in A.D. 440. The month of Chaitra in certain years overlaps the month of May and definitely such is the case in the years in which there is an Adhika and a Nija Chaitra month. So it is quite possible to assume that in the Chaitra of A.D. 440 there was a solar eclipse. Consequently the assumption of A.D. 436 as the initial year for Simhavarman would be fully justifiable. So the date of our grant which is dated in the tenth year of his reign would correspond to A.D. 446.
Munda-rashtra is also mentioned in the Uruvupalli and Pikira grants of Simhavarman. It is evidently identical with the later Munda-nādu or Mundai-nādu of the Nellore Inscriptions." Vilavatti, the gift village may possibly be the village Vavvēru where the plates were discovered or with greater probability it may be the village Vidavalūru, about 12 miles east of it. Both the villages are in the Kövür taluk. Paddukkar-ādhishthăna from which the charter was issued may be identified with the village Padugupādu about 9 miles south by east of Vavvēru in the same taluk. This is now a Railway station a little distance from the northern bank of the river Pennar on the Madras-Calcutta line and within a mile from Kövür.
TEXT.
First Plate. 1 Svasti[*] Jitam Bhagavatā [*] éri-Vijaya-Paddukkar-ādhishthănā parama-brahma
nyasya sva-ba2 hu-nirjjit-ārjjita-kshatra-tapo-nidhēh vidbi-vihita-sarv va-maryyādā-sthiti-sthita3 sy=āmit-ātmano mahārājasya "prithivi-tal-aika-virasya sri-Viravarmmapaḥ prapau4 trasy=ātyuchchitao-sakti-siddhi-sampannasya pratäp-öpanata-rāja-mandalasya Bhaga
Second Plate ; First Side. 5 vad-bhakti-sad-bhāva-sambhävita-sarvva-kalyāṇasy=änëka-go-hiranya-bbümy-adi-pradānai[b] 6 "pravsitta-dharmma-sañchayasya prajā-pälana-dakshasya Lõkapālānām=pañchamasya!
maha
1 The reading Puttukäka given in Vellore Inscriptions, p. 1421d, must be given up. * Sewell, List of Antiquities, Vol. I, p. 188. Above, Vol. XV, p. 253.
Ind. Ant., Vol. V, pp. 51 ff. and above, Vol. VIII, pp. 160 and 163.
Nellore Inscriptions : -See Nellore 19, 31, 61, 71, 72 and 121. The villages mentioned in connection with this nádu would all point to the Kövür taluk of the Nellore District in which the present plates were discovered. The southern portion of the Kandukur taluk also would go into this rashtra.
• From the original plates and ink-impressions prepared in my office. * Read .bal-arijit-orjjitu- as in other plates.
The Uruvupalli and Pikira grants read maryyādasya. The Uruvupalli grant has urusudha.
10 The Pikira grant reads prapautrobhyuchchila.. 11 Read prarsiddha as in the Uruvupalli and Pikira grants. 12 Read lokapalanyn after this as in the above-mentioned grants.
