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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XXV.
ai tvarya and bhöga. The English equivalent of the date according to the Indian Ephemeris of L. D. S. Pillai is A.D. 1358, January 9, Tuesday, on which day amāvāsyä сom menced at -51 of the day. The solar eclipse, however, is shown to have occurred on the next day, i.e., Wednesday, on which day amāvāsyä lasted till 43 of the day.
The composer of the grant is Balasarasvati, & name which sounds very much like a title probably acquired by the person on account of his profound scholarship. Besides the PachchaniTändiparru grant already referred to, he is the composer of two other inscriptions of Ana-Vēma, of which one is a copper-plate record, and the other a stone inscription at Srisailamo. In all these records Balasarasvati calls himself the Vidvān of the king's court and he seems to have held this position up to faka 1209, in which year he composed the Srisailam inscription mentioned above ; for, in the next year, i.e., Saka 1300, we find Trilochanacharya figuring as the court-poet of Ana-Vēma and composing a copper-plate grant of the king.
Attention may be drawn here to an unpublished fragmentary copper-plate inscription of Ana V&ta recorded in the Elliot Collection of Telugu Inscriptions", which furnishes us with some important facts. One of the donees figuring in it is a certain Mallu-bhatta who is called a Vidyādhikarin. We know that the famous poet Grinātha was the Vidyādhikārin in the court of Kömati. Vama 6 Probably he succeeded Mallu-bhatta in this office. Of the duties of a Vidyadhikarin nothing is known from inscriptions, but that it must have been a responsible and high office is evident from the fact that so eminent a poet as Srinātha held it. Unfortunately nothing is known of his predecessor Mallu-bhatta. Another donee figuring in the Elliot Collection record is a certain Erraya-pregada. His götra, however, is not mentioned as in the case of the other donees, but he is introduced in respectful terms and is stated to be a recipient of an exclusively large share of land. It is therefore likely that this person is identical with the famous poet Erra-pregada, who belonged to the Srivatsa-gotra and who is reputed to have completed the Andhra Mahābharatamu which was left unfinished by the previous authors, and who dedicated his work Harivaṁsamu to his patron Prölaya-Vema. A certain Reddi-Vēma is known to have granted several agrahāras to Vennalaganti Süranna,' The late Rao Bahadur Viresalingam Pantulu who identifies this Reddi-Vēma with Prolaya-Vēma believes that Süranna could not have had a place in Vēma's court as long as Errā-pregada held his position there, and therefore, in as much as Süranna was patronised by Reddi-Vēma, Ersă-pregada must have died during the time of Prõlaya himself. This supposition of the author is untenable, as instances of more than one poet patronised by kings in their courts are not uncommon. The present reference to the poet is therefore important in establishing that he lived in the court of Ana-Vöta also. Besides the Mahabharatamu and the Harivamsamu, Errā-pregada is the author of two other works, the Ramayanamu and the Nrisimhapurānamu, of which he dedicated the former to Malla, a brother of Prolaya-Vēma and the latter, known also as the Ahobalamāhātmyamu, to the
14. R. on S. I. Epigraphy for 1922-23, App. A, No. 9, * Ibid. for 1915, App. C, No. 20. * Above, Vol. III, p. 59.
• Vol. I, p. 206, kindly brought to my notice by Dr. N. Venkataramanayya, M.A., Ph.D., of the Madras University
5 Mr. V. Prabhakara Šāstri writes, in his Spingāraárināthamu (p. 52), that Balasarasvati held the position of the Vidyadhikarin in the courts of Ana-Võta and Ana-Vēma. But in no inscription of his composition does the poet call himself a Vidyadhikarin like his other contemporary Mallu-bhatta or the famous Srinātha.
. Above, Vol. XI. p 315, fn. 2.
Jakkana's Vikramarkucharitramu, 1, 62. • Conplete Works of Rao Babadur K, Viresalingam Pantulu, Telugu Poota, Vol. X, part 1, p. 173.
