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No. 42] TELUGU CHOLA RECORDS FROM ANANTAPUR AND CUDDAPAH
221 A. The Kalamalla Inscription of Erikal-Muturaju Dhananjaya This inscription' is engraved on two faces of a broken pillar in the courtyard of the Chennakokava temple at Kalamalla, Kamalapuram taluk.
It is damaged and several lines of the inscription are completely effaced and lost.
It is engraved in bold characters, and, in its palaeography resembles the Siragunda stone inscription of the Western Ganga king Nirvinita (i.e., Avinita)' of the last quarter of the 6th century A. D. The present record may also be assigned to that period. Apart from considerations of palaeography, we have to assign to king Dhananjaya some date about c. 575 A.D. on other grounds as will be explained in the sequel. King Dhananjaya is, without doubt, the same as Dhananjaya, the father of Chöla-Mahārāja Mahendravikrama, mentioned in the Mālēpādu plates of Punyakumāra.
The resemblance noted above between the present inscription and the Siragunda record is noticeable in almost all test letters like r, n, k, n, y and l both in their style and stage of development. Attention may be drawn to the medial long u sign in bi of 1.6 and nů of 1.8. The medial a sign in re of 1.7 resembles the same sign in the Tamil-Grantha script.4 Final win 1.5 is distinguishable from n by the absence of the serif, the presence of which signifies the voiced consonant.
The inscription is one of the earliest completely Telugu records so far discovered ; and consequently of great value for the history of Telugu language and orthography. It may be noted that at this early date Telugu had already begun to develop as a language distinct from Kannada although the script continued to be common. Although several Pallava records earlier in date than the present inscription contain Telugu words this is the first complete inscription in Telugu so far known.
The inscription has anfortunately suffered damage at many points resulting in the loss of several archaic Telugu words. It seems to record a gift to (or by) a certain Rovanakālu of Chirumbüru when [Eri]kal-Muturāju Dhananjaya was ruling Rênandu.
The king Dhanañjaya (Dhanamjayusu as in the inscription) bears the epithet Erikal-Mutila rāju, which is also borne by several of his successors, e.g., Punyakumāra (Punyakumărungu as in the inscriptions E and F below). A prince bearing a similar epithet, Erigal-Dugarāju, figures in the inscriptions of Chõla-Mahārāja edited below (inss. C and D). The word Erikal or Erigal which occurs as a prefix in these descriptive compounds seems to be the name of a place, while the suffixes Muturāju and Dugarāju seem to signify some official dignity, especially as Dugarāju may be taken to be a form of Yuvarāja or heir-apparent (vide B below, Erragudipādu inscription of Erikal-Mutturāju). This place, Erigal, finds mention in a more complete form as the name of a territorial division, viz., Erigalvādi-six hundred in the Maddagiri inscriptions of Dhananjaya IT and in the Chikka-Madhura inscription of Palla vadhiraja. Nolamba who is stated to have
1 No. 380 of 1904 of the Madras Epigraphioal collection. : Ep, Carn., Vol. VI, Cm. 50, plato opp. p. 105. 3 Above, Vol. XI, p. 341.
Cf. 8.1.1., II, pl. X, Vallam cave ins. 1.4, Kandasena. . Above, Vol. XXIV, p. 138.
• Ep. Carn., XII, Mi. 92-3, 97, 100: 94 and 101 are also his records. There is some difficulty in determining the exact form of the name of this territorial division. Rice road the portion relating to the country as either Alvadi 600 or Erigalvādi 600, while H. K. Sastri (above, Vol. XI, p. 341) preferred the reading Alvādi 600 treat. ing the term 'Eriga's part of the personal name of Dhananjaya. But an examination of the record shows that
Erigal' should be taken as part of the name of the region-witness the nominative singular form Dhananjayan (Mi. 92-3). Further the saino territorial division is called Irigalvädi (with short a in Irigal' which may well be i corruption of Erigal') in the Chikku Madhure inscription of Palluvadhiraja Nolamba (p. Carn., XI, 01. 34), A corling to the ingriptions edited here, the term has to be read either as Erigal or Erigal, the initial vowel being read no longe or short e for the form in which the initial vowel is written in both the cases is alike. But in viow of the extgterice of the term Trigalvādi with short i, the form Erigal has to be preferred. The long & in Erigal as rond by Rive need not be considered a difficulty. The existence of the form Irigal with rough and short u, the suflix-kal meaning rock, and the probability of the name of a place being Erigal or Erigal like Kunigal, Dorical (Chittoor Dt.) and Kapoyakal (Anantapur Dt.), all render it very probable that the name of the territorial division is Erigalvādi or Erigalvidi 000; the distinction between ordinary r and rough r being not strictly obsersal 6.9., in Rênadu and Renadu.
7 Ep. Carn. XI."a. 34.
