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No. 21) TURIMELLA INSCRIPTION OF CHALUKYA VIKRAMADITYAI; YEAR 2
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the dominion of one of the branches of the Telugu-Chöda chiefs who held sway over it about the beginning of the 15th century A.C. Members of this branch attached the name Eruva to their own names as a distinctive surname of their family to indicate perhaps their political sway over that territory, or, at times, to distinguish themselves from members bearing similar names but belonging to a different family. That their sway over this division could be traced to a considerably earlier period, almost co-eval with the record under review, is proved by an inscription in characters of the 8th century A. C. on a saptamātrika panel at Turimella itself which mentions the name Eruva-Mahādēvi. It is not unlikely that this Eruv-Mahādēvi was the wife of Alakumara and the unnamed mother of the chief who called himself Ujēnipisacha and whom we have identified with Singa, the son of Aļekomara of the Aihole record. A few later records copied in this region furnish some more details regarding this ancient division. A fragmentary inscription of the time of the Kakatiya king Ganapatidēva dated in Saka 1161 refers to this tract as a Thrice-Seventy division with Krochcherulu as its capital.' Later still, in Saka 1324 during the reign of the Vijayanagara king Harihara II, it is mentioned as Ecuva-nidu and as a division in Udayagiri-rājya. A copper-plate grant of a later date belonging to king Achyutarāya mentions the same nädu as situated in Kochcherlaköţa-sima. It will be evident from the statements in these inscriptions that this division which originally covered a small area round about Turimella at the time of the record under review, later spread far wider, covering a considerable area of the western portion of the Nellore District from Kochcherlakota in the Darsi Division right down to the river Pennär.
The gift as well as its recipient deserve a few remarks. The unit of land usually expressed by the word nivartana that was generally current at the period of our record seems to have been omitted here. Another instance where this term is similarly left out occurs in the DommaraNandyāla plates of Punyakumāra.' The recipient of the gift, Gövsishāņa-Bhuttīcaka is possibly identical with the god Surabhēsvara, for surabhi is a synonym for go,' cow'.
TEXT
1 Om[1] Svasti[l*] Srimat | Satyasraya Sri-Priithivi2 vallabha-Mahārājādhirāja-Vikramaditya-Paramu3 svara-Bhataruļäkun srimad=unnata-pravarddhamana-vijaya4 rājya-samvatsarambuļ ā-chandra-tāra-purassaram(m) 5 dvitiya-varsham=pravarta mānatú kānu [|] Goggi-Bhataraļa dakshiņa
*C. P. No. 8 of 1911-12 , above, Vol. XXVI, pp. 14 f. *An. Rep. on Indian Epigraphy for 10449-50, No. 46.
• Ibid., No. 40. The relevant portion of the inscription roads Krochchedulu nelavid ugan-Eruva-mundudebbadulum.
Ibid., No. 58; the exact wording in the inscription is Udayayiri-rij mandula Erura nån tilo.
Nellore District Inscriptions, Vol. I, C. P. No. 10, p. 67; text-line 80- ruede rikhyala-Kocherllakofa. mans.
Above, Vol. X, p. 102, the Gadval plates of Vikramāditya I ; ibid., Vol. XI, p. 339, the Mālēpadu plates of Punyakumara, etc.
Above, Vol. XXVII, p. 275. • Represented by a symbol.
Danda unnecessary. "The i siga over the consonant is redundant. Read Prithivi.. il The syllable rta wus omitted first, but was later introduced below the line between va and ma.
