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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[Vol. XXVIII
The present inscription which is being edited here for the first time is engraved on the fifth plate of the set described above. The plate measures 94" in length and about 3" in breadth. It has slightly raised rims all round. The record is engraved on one side only and consists of 8 lines. The alphabet is Telugu-Kannada of the transitional stage and perhaps it is for this reason that a certain measure of indifference is noticeable in the formation of the letters,
In regard to orthography, the use of anusvāra in place of class nasals may be noted in a large number of cases. The expression [sannimi]tra in line 3 appears to be & mistake for sannihita. The record contains a few minor clerical mistakes which have been corrected in the body of the text.
The language of the inscription is archaic Telugu.
The document belongs to the family of subordinate chiefs known as the Vaidumbas. All the records of this family discovered so far are inscriptions on stone. This is the only copper plate record of the family.
The record is brief. It commences with the familiar prasasti of the Vaidumba family and introduces the chief Bhuvana-Trinētra who had assumed the title Mahārāja. It is dated Saka 893, Ashādha su 7, Thursday, Dakshiņāyana-sankranti. The inscription states that this chief, residing at Pottepi in the Pāka-nädu, made a gift of the village Käticheruvu' situated in the tract of Kadapa-Twelve to the god Lökösvara Bhatära of Artifēvula. The gift was entrusted into the hands of Kuchibhadālu,' a resident of Manjaram, who was to protect and enjoy the charity for the merit of Bhimarāja and Bachavva. Sirama Peggeda was the executor of the document and Dēsarati Bhimana the engraver. The charter ends with the expression tri-Abhinuta-vāku which would have been the chief's title used as the sign-manual.
The date is irregular. If Saka 893 is a mistake for Saka 891 (expired), the details regularly correspond to A. D. 969, June 24, Thursday. But both these dates are, so to say, inadmissible in view of the statement of an inscription from Upparapalles in the Cuddapah District which speaks of the coronation, in Saka 894, of Bhuvana-Trinētra Vaidumba Mahārāja who is apparently identical with this chief. But we can get over this difficulty by assuming that though he was wielding authority from an earlier date, the formal consecration ceremony of the chief took place later, on account of the disturbed political conditions.
We are not in a position to assign due place to Bhuvana-Trinētra in the genealogical account of the Vaidumbas. On account of the paucity of information and the disconnected nature of the sources it is difficult to reconstruct the history of the Vaidumba house, even partially, although & goud many inscriptions of the family have been discovered so far. From the different names and titles of the chiefs available to us we are led to believe that there existed more than one branch
1 My thanks are due to the Government Epigraphist for India for the kind permission to edit the record.
• The original expression is Kaficheruvulu, a plural form. Perhaps the termination lu stands for lo of the locative case. If so, we have to assume that the gift consisted of some land in the village.
• His name proper would be Ku()chibhata who was evidently the managing priest of the temple.
• Abhinuta-vák means 'one whose spooch is praiseworthy'. This is an early instance of a ruler using the title for the sign-manual. The famous instance of the later period is tri-Firūpaksha of the Vijayanagara kings. But in the latter case it is the tutelary deity and not the title of any rulor or rulers.
Mad. Ep. Coll., No. 325 of 1905.
The inscription on the front wall of the Siva temple at Kalakada, Vayalpad taluk, Chittoor District (No. 144 of 1940-41 of Mad. Ep. Coll.) records certain remissions by the Vaidumba king Bhuvana-Trinētra Irungeya Maharaja on the occasion of his coronation. This epigraph is not dated; but may be roughly ascribed to the 10th century A. D. on palaeographio grounds. Except for the characteristic title and probable contemporaneity. clinching evidence is lacking for the identification of Bhuvana-Trinētra of the present document with BhuvanaTrinetra of the Kalakada record. It is, however, not unlikely that they refer to one and the same person.
