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No. 35) VELICHERLA GRANT OF PRATAPARUDRA GAJAPATI: SAKA 1432
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south to conquer, returned and defeated the Mogul. This was in the 17th year of Pratapa-Rudra. Jivadēvacharya in the Prasasti of his Bhaktibhagavata says, the king, in his 17th year, was at Tirumala, fighting. All these prove that Pratāpa-Rudra Gajapati of Orissa was in the south till October 1511 A. C.
Yet, basing his arguments on the Gõnuganta rock inscription of Krishnadēvarāya, the Superintendent for Epigraphy in the Annual Report on South Indian Epigraphy for the year 193334, para. 41, says that Krishnadēvarāya subdued Udayagiri some time between 24th January 1510 A. C. and 15th October of the same year. This argument becomes untenable if the date of the said Gõnugunţa epigraph is taken into consideration. The date given in it is Saka 1433, Pramodūta, Kärttika ku. 11, Tuesday. Firstly, Saka 1433 was not Pramoduta; but it corresponds to Prajāpati, 1511 A. C. If the cyclic year Pramodūta is taken, Karttika su. 11 falls on 13th October, Sunday, 1510 A.C. If Saka 1433, Prajāpati, is taken, the date corresponds to Saturday, 1st November, 1511 A. C. Either way, the date of the epigraph is not correct, since the week day does not tally; and therefore it cannot be accepted as genuine.
The same officer in the beginning of the paragraph corrects the date of another inscription at Gundlapālem, of Pratápa-Rudra Gajapati, and says that he granted a piece of land in 1510 A. C., sometime after January. Gundlapālem is in Kandukur tāluk and Gõnugunta is in Ongole taluk. The two täluks are so adjacent that it cannot be accepted that two hostile kings could hold sway here so closely.
In view of what has been stated above, the conclusions of the Superintendent for Epigraphy regarding the date of Krishnadēvarāya's conquest of the Udayagiri fort need to be modified.
In the Velicherla copper plate under review, Pratapa-Rudra of Orissa bears several titles. It is but necessary to see if they were mere vainglorious ones or were really deserved. He was the overlord of the five Gaudas, (Pafcha-Gaud-adhinayakah, line 16). Kapilēsvara, his grandfather, acquired the title of Gaudēsvara which became hereditary in his family. Only one part of the Gauda country must have been subdued during the time of Kapilēśvara. But PratāpaRudra of Orissa defeated the ruler of Bengal (Gauda) and pursued him till the latter hid himself in his fort (lines 13-15). The Bhaktibhagavata Prasasti says (verse 27), 'while his hair was still wet with the bath of coronation, he defeated the Sultan of Gauda, a conqueror in many battles, and at the end of the sixth week of his father's death he offered handfuls of water of the Ganga for the merit of his father. The Anantavaram plates with the date corresponding to 1500 A.C., November 5, Thursday, lunar eclipse, say that Pratapa-Rudra drove the Anga king to the mountain refuge. This victory is amplified in the ldapulapadu-Garudastambba inscription," the date of which corresponds to 1500 A. C., November 5, Thursday, lunar eclipse, which declares Gaudändra-krandana-kathit-ātesha-wayah. Since these records bear the same date, this particular exploit must have been achieved before 1500 A. C.
Then we consider the other epithet, Rana-Banijāra. Rana means battle or fight; Barijāra is an Urdu word meaning the same thing as Lambādi (C. P. Brown), which means a trader. So tho phrase means a trader in battles, i.e., a viotor in battles.
Since Anantavaram and Idupulapādu, where the grants of this Pratäpa-Rudra Gajapati were found, are located to the north of the river Krishņā, and since the village of Velicherla, the
1 Report on the Search for Sans. Mos., 1901-02 to 1905-06, by M. M. H. P. Sastri, pp. 14 ff, vv. 31 and 32.
1 Andhra Patrika Anwal, 1929, pp. 176-6; Kalingadēsacharit, App. p. 97; Journal of K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, Vol. XXXIV, p. 37.
8. I. I., Vol. X, No. 732, text lines 38-9. [Really speaking, the word banijāra is derived from Sanskrit bapujya (or panijyra).htra.-Ed.]
