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226 EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXIX The language of the inscription is Sanskrit. The inscription is composed partly in prose and partly in poetry. The poetry is fairly good, though the language contains a few expressions which are opposed to the rules of Pāņiņi. Thus for instance : line 4 has pañcha-Pāndav=ākhandal-opamāh; line 9 bas pravaktun-narah; lines 14-15 have vallabhān-nirbbhara-garbbha-bhārām; and line 27, suhnētrā. The inscription is written in characters which are regular for the period to which it belongs, i.e., the 12th century A.C. According to Dr. Burnell, such characters belong to what he called the "transitional period ". The following orthographical peculiarities may, however, be noticed. Vowels a and long ā, short i and u and long e occur in the inscription. The long ă is distinguished by a vertical stroke at the right side. Vowels i and u have reached their final forms, and are fully developed. No distinction is yet drawn between e and è long. Both are written alike. There is no vertical stroke on the head of e to denote the long e as we find at the present day. There is not much distinction between d and dh; and final forms of m, n, and t are used in the inscription. The vargānunāsika is substituted by the anusvāra which is denoted by a bindu throughout. Sometimes words like vaṁsa and dayitā are written as vamsya and dayityā, which is apparently in accordance with the local pronunciation of Sanskrit words in the Krishna and Guntur Districts, where the sibilant & is always joined with y. The scribe has not followed any principle in doubling the consonants.
The object of the inscription is to record the grant of the village of Inumgarru as an agrahāra to a learned Brāhmaṇa, on an auspicious occasion by king Rājēndra-Choda II, who is stated to be ruling over Andhra-mandala as commissioned by Räjarāja, i.e., Rajarāja II of the Chāļukya-Chõļa family (Lines 133-4). The name of the donee and the district in which the village was situated have been unfortunately lost on the missing last plate. The village Inumgarru granted in the record may be identified with Inugurtipādu', a village in the vicinity of Nandūru, the findspot of the present plates, in the Bapatla taluk, Guntur District. At the time of making the grant, Rājēndra-Choda is stated to be staying in his capital, Dhanadapuri, i.e., Chandavõlu in Repalle taluk, Guntur District. The date of the grant is given as Saka 1091 (indunanda-viyach-chandra-ganitë) and as the 23rd year of Rājarāja, i.e., Rājarāja II (lines 133-134). The Saka year which is an expired year corresponds to 1169-70 A.C.
The inscription divides itself into two parts. The first part (lines 1-67) contains the historical genealogy of the Eastern Chalukyas, treating of Kulõttunga-Chola I and his successors down to Rājarāja II as Chalukyas and not as Chõlas. The second part (lines 68 ff.) describes the history of the Chiefs of Velanāņdu or, members of the Velanānti family, who enjoyed the position of subordinate kings under the Chola-Chāļukyas. There are many new statements in the account relating to the Eastern Chalukyas, which differ from what we know hitherto. Some of them may be explained as errors committed by the scribe who engraved the inscription on the plates. Thus, for example, Narēndra, i.e., Narendramțigarāja-Vijayāditya or Vijayāditya II is called the son of Vijayāditya I, or Vijayāditya-Bhattāraka (line 38), while in fact he was the son of Vishnuvardhana IV. In a similar manner a Vishņuvardhana is stated to be the son of Vijayāditya II, and is given a reign of thirty-six years (lines 39-40). This king must be Vishņuvardhana IV, the father of Narendramţigarāja, and not his son as wrongly described here. Apparently the order in the narration is confused. Again the son of Vishnuvardhana IV is said to be Kali-Vishnuvardhana or Vishnuvardhana V, and is given a reign of half a year (line 41) while it is known from other records of the dynasty that he reigned for one and a half years, or twenty months according to some, and that
1 Usually when a village is deserted and disappears for a period, the site is denoted by the term padu; and when a new village springs up on the spot after an interval, it is called with the suffix pädu super added to the old name. So it must be with Inugurtipadu, (lit. the pádu of Inu(min)gurtu, or Inngurtu).
