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No. 46 ]
THREE VAIDUMBA INSCRIPTIONS FROM KALAKADA
278
This inscription is engraved in the Telugu-Kannada script. Its language is Kannada except for a verse in Sanskrit towards the end of the regard. In regard to palaeography, it is worth noting that the forms of j and b are of the archaic type. The initial vowels i and 8 occur in the names Indireya and Ogina (line 4). In respect of orthography, the class nasal is sometimes used for the anusvāra as in alingita, rajyar-geye, pasindi, Tumbevādi, etc. (lines 2, 3, 5 and 6); but sometimes it has been avoided, cf. samghaffana, sur-āṁgană, etc. (lines 1 and 15).
The record commences with the expression, svastg=aneka-samara-sanghatan-opalabdha, etc., which is the characteristic preamble of all Vaidumba inscriptions. It refers itself to the reign of Ganda-trinētra Vaidumba-maharaja ant states that Indireya, the younger brother (tammu) of Rameya of Ogul and a servant (afu) of Palladayya, the dear younger borther (priyānuja) of the King, died on hearing of the death of Ajala in & cattle raid at Tumbevādi. Like the other records of Ganda-triņētra, this too is not dated. Its characters may be compared with those of the Dharmapuri inscription (A) of Noļamba Mahēndra which is dated in Saka 815.5 While the letters j and b retain their closed forms throughout in our record, whether individually or as subscripts, the Dharmapuri epigraph shows the open form of b when it occurs as a subscript.We may therefore assign this record to about the close of the ninth century. The provenance of the record suggests that the raid at Tumbevādi referred to in it might have been one among those many skirmishes which culminated in the battle of Söremadi. Tumbevādi, the place of the cattle raid, may be identified with the village of Tumbapäler in the Tumbapalem Zamindari in the Chittoor Taluk, situated about 30 miles due south of Kalakada, the findspot of our record.7
The use of the Telugu expressions tammu (line 4), for tamma, and pasindi (line 5) for gold, shows the influence of this language in the Kannada inscription under study.
TEXT 1 Svasty=anēka-samara-samghattand=(n=7)pa[la]bdha-jayalakshmi2 samālingita-vakshasthala Ganda-triņētra sri-Veydu3 mba-maha (hă)rājam=prithivīrājyan=geye ātana priy-anuja Pa4 lla[da]yyan'-āļu Ogina Rāmeyåna tammu Indireyar Mareya5 Kondeya Doda-Mā[dhi]yya pasiņdi-di-pegal=e[mba) emmėgaļa Tu
1 A. R. Ep., 1940-41, App. B, No.445.
There is a village of this name in the Palmaner Taluk of tho Chittoor Distriot. Vido Alphabetical List of Villages in the Madras Presidency, 1934, Palmaner Taluk, p. 123.
See below, p. 280, note 2. Above, Vol. XXIV, pp. 183 ff. and Plates.
Ibid., Vol. X, Plato opp. p. 66.
• A. R. Bp., Nos. 295 and 296 of 1905, 533 of 1906, 308 and 310 of 1922, all from the Madanapalle Taluk, and No. 543 of 1906 from the Punganur Taluk, refer to Soremadi, as the place of battle. Mr. R. S. Panchamukhi has shown on chronologioal considerations that this battle was fought sometime about 885 A.D. (above, Vol. XXIV, p. 189). Two other dates have been worked out for this very event, one about 825 A.D. by Mr. M. Ven. kataramayya (Journal of the Madras University, Vol. XII, pp. 193 ff.) and the other about 937-38 A.D. by Dr. A. R. Baji (Journal of the Gauhati University, Vol. II, pp. 95 ff.). Palaeographically the last date cannot be upheld.
The Bégür stone inscription mentions a place called Tumbepadi and refers to a battle fought there between the forces led by Ayyapadēva and Bira-Mahindra. This locality has been identified with the village of Tumbadi in the Maddagiri Taluk of the Tumkur District, bordering on Nolambavadi (above, Vol. VI, p. 48).
. From impressions.
The name is probably Pallavayya which has been wrongly ongraved Palladayya.
