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No. 44]
DOMMARA-NANDYALA PLATES OF PUNYAKUMARA ; 10TH YEAR
269
use of the visarga, as for example, in nāmaḥ for nāmā (1.5), paurnamāsyāḥ for paurnamāsyāṁ (1.14), dattah for dattam (11. 16, 17, 18, 20, 21 and 22); (ü) the omission of the visarga as in kārina for kārinah (1.4), pāraga for piragal (1.8) and krimi for krimih (1.23); (iii) wrong sandhi as in adhipati tasya for adhipatis-tasya (1.8), Punyakumāra nāma for Punyakumārō nāma (1.12), etc.; (iv) the use of d for t in adma (1.4), the aspirate dhi for the unaspirate in vidhitam (1.13), the unaspirate for the aspirate in vishāyāṁ (1. 23), and a few other errors which have been duly corrected in the body of the text itself may be noted. Except for the invocatory verse at the beginning and the imprecatory verse at the end, the one in the Arya-giti and the other in the Anushtubh metres, the entire record is in Sanskrit prose. The text contains no signs of punctuation anywhere in its body.
Coming to the contents of the record it may be remarked at the outset that the text of these plates is almost identical with that of the Mālēpāļu plates, but for a few variations here and there. The opening verse is in praise of Siva in his form as Lakutapāņi. Nandivarman, described here in terms similar to those used in the Mālēpādu plates, had three sons named Simhavishņu, Sundarananda and Dhananjayavarman, of whom the youngest and the last, viz., Dhanañjayavarman, had a son named Mahēndravarman who acquired or obtained the title Chola-Mahārāja, was well versed in grammar and other sciences, was the lord of the Pandya, Chola and Körala (countries), and possessed many titles such as Muditasilākshara, Navarāma, eto. His son was Guņamudita whose brother was the glorious Punyakumāra who bore the epithets Põrmukharāma, Mārdavachitta, Madanavilāsa, etc., and was the lord of the Hiranyarashtra. The object of the inscription is the grant by Punyakumāra in the 10th year (of his reign), while he was camping at Pudorūr, of lands in the villages Nandigāma and Pasirndikuru to five Brāhmaṇas. The inscription closes with the usual imprecatory verse and mentions towards the end Kottikuntarāja as the writer of the charter. This chief, it may be observed, figures in the Mālēpädu plates as the ajñapli.The record is not
Reference to Siva as Lakutapāņi in this record is of considerable interest. It has been shown by Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar that Lakuli, the last incarnation of god Mahēšvara, could be placed in the first quarter of the 2nd century A.D. and that the worship of Śiva in the form of Lakulisa or Lakutapāņi was prevalent not only in Central India but also in regions as far south as Mysore and as far east as Orissa (An. Rep. Arch. Sur. of India, 1906-07, pp. 179 ff. and J. B. B. R. A. S., Vol. XXII, pp. 151 ff.). The earliest inscriptional reference hitherto known for the Lakulib-pasupata cult in South India is furnished by the Chikballapur plates of the Ganga king Jayatēja of A.D. 810 (Mys. Arch. Rep. for 1914, p. 29 and para, 60). That this cult flourished in the Telugu as well as the Tamil countries further south also is vouched for by references to teachers or pontiffs of this school in inscriptions (above, Vol. XXII, p. 162; An. Rep. on South Indian Epigraphy, 1908, p. 75 ; South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. III, No. 18.; A. R. No. 100 of 1906). But none of these reforences, it may be noted, takes us to a date prior to the 9th century A.D. It will thus be seen that the record under review and the Mälēpádu plates (see f.n. 6 on p. 274) give the earliest epigraphic reference so far known to the worship of Śiva in the form of Lakuţapāņi or Lakulisa in South India. It may not be out of place to quote here a verse which gives the characteristics of the image of Lukulīša from Visva. karmavataravāstusüstra, a Ms. in the Dekkan College Library, cited by Dr. Bhandarkar.
Na(La)kulisam urdhvamëdhram
padmāsana-susamsthitam dakshiņë mätalingam cha
vámē dandan prakirttitam ||
Dr. Bhandarkar has also cited several images answering to this description, but all thoso sculptures are confined to Central India ; and, so far as I know, no image of Lakuļisa or Lakutapani has come to light in South India.
1 Above, Vol. XI, pp. 339 and 345; the chief's name which was read as Kottikuldaraja can be clearly read as Kottikuntaraja as in the record under review. The name Kottikunta sounds very much like a place name and it is possible that the chief derived his name from the region over which he wielded authority or the place be hailed from; but I am unable at present to identify any place in the region which conforms to this name.
