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No. 11] REYURU GRANT OF PALLAVA NARASIMHAVARMAN; YEAR 12
91 is faulty and the composition contains syntactical and other mistakes. These have been corrected either in the body of the text itself or in the footnotes.
As we shall see presently, the charter was issued by the Pallava ruler Narasimhavarman II of the Sinhavishņu line. The records of the early rulers of this family are generally on stons, until we come to the time of Nandivarman II. Only two exceptions have come to our notice 80 far; one is the Kuram grant of Paramēsvaravarman I, father of Narasimhavarman II, and the other the present inscription. It has to be noted further that the Kuram grant bears closer affinity with the Udayêndiram or Kabākudi plates of Nandivarman II in respect of the script and treatment of the subject matter. The script employed in both is Pallava-Grantha and Tamil. Both contain an elaborate invocation in Sanskrit verse, a legendary account of the origin of the family and a lengthy prasasti and poetic descriptions of kings. In all these aspects, the present record presents a marked contrast. The script employed here is the highly developed southern alphabet which has assumed the distinct shape of Kannada Telugu. The subject is treated briefly and directly. The invooation and the prasasti are short without the intervention of poetio passages. Thus our charter stands oonspiouously as a class by itself, not only among the ooppor plate records, but also amidst the mass of insoriptions belonging to this Pallava house.
We may on the contrary realise that the formal part of our epigraph bears close resemblance with that of the earlier copper-plate documents of the Pallava princes, which are older by more than two centuries. Like the Pikira and Vilavatti* grants of Simhavarman, our epigraph opens with the brief invocatory expressions svasti and jitam Bhagavatā. A comparison of the specific epithets used for describing the ruling king and his ancestors, as found in the grants of Uruvupalli, Pikira and Vilavatti forming one group on one side and the present charter on the other, reveals a number of striking similarities of expression in the latter, which have been in some cases borrowed directly and in others either paraphrased or modified suitably from the former. For instance, the epithets, pratāp-Opanata-rāja-mandala, Lokapālānāṁ panchama and rajarshi-guna-sarva-sandohavijigishu, are commonly met with in all the epigraphs under reference. The expression archita-, abhyuchchita-, or atyuchchita-sakti-siddhi-sampanna of the Uruvupalli, Pikira and Vilavațţi grants respectively, figures in the modified form abhyarchita-sakti-siddhi-sampanna in the present inscription. While the phrase vasudha-tal-aika-vira of the Uruvupalli grant or its equivalent prithvital-aika-vira of the Pikira and Vilavatti grants has been amplified into aneka-samara-sanghattajanita-vikrama-vasudha-tal-aika-vira, the term bhagavad-bhakti-sadbhāva-sambhävita-sarva-kalyāna in the earlier group has been slightly modified and abridged into bhagavad-bhakti-sadbhāvasamarpita-sarva in the record under study. Another case of modified contraction is the qualitative bahu-samara-vijaya-labdha-yatah-prakāśa of our charter, which is evidently derived from anekasamara-sähas-āvamarda-labdha-vijaya-ya sah-prakāśa of the Uruvupalli category.'
The present inscription commences with a brief invocation and reference to the Pallavas who belonged to the Bhäradvaja gotra. Next are mentioned three members of this family, viz., Mahēndravikramavarman, his son Paramēśvaravarman and his son Narasimhavarman. The last of
1 Ind. Ant., Vol. VIII, pp. 273 ff. *8.1. I., Vol. II, pp. 342 ff. * Above, Vol. VIII, p. 161. • Ibid., Vol. XXIV, p. 301.
. In the Pikira grant the word swasti oomes aftor jitan Bhagavalt. In regard to the expression Bhagavata the occurring in line 1 of the Röyüru grant, see below in the text portion.
. Ind. Ant., Vol. V, p. 51. It may further be noted that the Pallava prasasti of these charters bears close resemblance with that of the Chendalûr plates of Kumāravishnu II and others; compare above Vol. VIII, pp. 233 r.
+ Thus I have noticed in all thirteen expressions bearing mutual kinship. Besides the seven commented above, six others met with in the present inscription are as follows: vidhi-vihita-sarva-maryada, sthiti-sthita, yathapud abrita svamkelh-ady-andka-kratu-yajin, praja-sarrarijana-paripalan-odyoga, satata satya-vrata-dilahita and Kalivuga-dosh-apahrita-dharm-Oddharana-nitya-annaddha.
