Epigraphia Indica Vol 25

Author(s): Sten Konow, F W Thomas
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 59

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(Vol. XXV.
the left is apparently derived is found here alongside the unlooped linear y as in the plate of Vijaya-Dévavarman; of. Salarikāyana (1. 3), Siväryyāya (1. 8), maryyadaya (1. 10), vishaya (1. 12) and sagårāya (1.7), vistavyäya (1. 8), niyukt-ayuktaka (1. 11). The plates are numbered like the pages of a modern book with the numerical symbols for 2 to 6 on the left margin, the first side of the first plate being marked with the symbol for or as in the Ellore plates of Vijaya-Dāvavarman. The numerals 1, 2 and 3 appear also in the three grants of Simbavarman where they indicate a definitely later development in their shape. In the present set, each engraved side contains three lines of writing except that the first and the last plates are engraved on one side only, the latter having four lines.
The record is written in Sanskrit prose with two of the usual imprecatory verses at the end. The language is simple and business-like and the formula or the draft of the preamble, eg., the passage Mahārāja-sri-Vijaya-Skandavarmmano vachanena Kudrākāra-Chintapurē grāmēyakāk vaktavyāb (11. 3-5), resembles closely that employed in the Ellore Prākrit plates of Dévavarman and the Mattēpād plates of Damodaravarman belonging to the period of transitional Präkrit, as well as the one found in the Omgõdu grant of Vijaya-Skandavarman II. and the Uruvupalli grant of Yuva-Mahārāja Vishnugopavarman. which are assigned to the time of the earliest Sanskrit charters of the Pallavas. The inscription is dated on the full-moon day of Vai Alcha in the first year in words, II. 13 f.) of the Mahārāja Vijaya-Skandavarman (11. 3 f.) who issued this grant from Văng' (1.1) and addressed it to the villagers of Chintapura in the district of Kudrāhāra (11. 4-5). The donee was one Siväryya of the Maudgalya-götra, a resident of the village Lākumāri (11. 7-8), who received the village (.e., Chintapura) exempt from all imposts (11. 8-9). The king is described as the Salańkāyana, the meditator on the feet of the holy Chitrarathasvāmin and one devoted to the feet of Bappabhattāraks. He does not bear the epithet either Parama-Māhēsvara borne by Dēvavarman or Parama-Bhagavata assumed by Nandivarman of the Kantëru', Kollēru and Pedda-Végi plates.
of the five copper-plate records of the Salarkāyana family known so far, the Pedda-Vögi olates of Nandiwarman alone give the genealogy for four generations as follows --Hastivarman-Maharäja, his son Nandivarman-Maharaja, his son Chandavarman-Maharaja and his eldest son Mahiraja Nandivarman II, Parama-Bhagavata. Since the ajfapti in these as well as in the Kollēru plates is the same person Mülakura-bhojaka, the two Nandivarmans might be identical with each other. Now, Nandivarman of the Kantēru plates (Set II) may, from the likeness of names, be identified with either Nandivarman I or Nandivarman II of the above genealogy, preferably with the former, since the script employed in his charter is more angular and antique than the one found in the Pedda-Vēgi and Kollēru plates, which is rounded and more developed. Vaingěyaka Hastivarman mentioned in the Allahābād pillar inscription as the contemporary of Samudragupta (middle of the 4th century A.D.) might be Hastivarman, the great-grandfather of Nandivarman II mentioned above. He must have been preceded by Vijaya-Dēvavarman
1 Other instances bearing numerical symbols on the margin of plates are: (1) The British Museum plates of Chirudovi (above, Vol. VIII, p. 149) of which iin and lib are marked by 2 and 3 like the pages of book, (3) The Ellore Prikrit plates (ibid., Vol. IX, p. 56), and (3) the Mattēpåd plates of Damodaravarman (ibid., vel. XVII, p. 327).
• Text, lines 6-8. • Text, lines 3 and 4.
Test, linee 8-10. Text, lines 16-17. [800 1. n. 5 on p. 46. -Ed.]
Journal of the Andhra Historical Remarch Society, VoL V, pp. 27 ft. • tml. Ant., Vol. V, p. 174.