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No. 9) VUNNA GURAVAYAPALEM PLATES OF PARAMESVARAVARMAN I, YEAR 1993
this characteristio is noticed only in the Rēyūru grant of Narasimhavarman II and not even in the Kurram plates of Paramēšvaravarman I who issued the present charter. The records of the early rulers of the Later Pallava house (i.e. the branch represented by Simhavishnu and his descendants) are mostly on stone. The only copper-plate grants of this house, issued by rulers who flourished before Nandivarman Pallavamalla (a descendant of Bhimavarman, brother of Simhavisliņu), are only three in number, viz. the Kuram plates and the present record belonging to Paramośvara varman 1 and the Rēyuru grant of Narasiinhavarman II. Of these, the Kurram plates bear close atlinity in respect of the script and style with the grants of Nandivarman Pallavamalla such as the Udayendiram and Kasa kudi plates. It is an elaborate prasasti written in Sanskrit prose and verse and Tamil prose and in the Grantha and Tamil alphabets and contains, besides the details of the grant, three lengthy sections, viz. an invocation, a legendary account of the origin of the Pallavas and a description of the issuer of the charter and his ancestors. The style of the present record as well as of the Reyūru grant, on the other hand, is, like that of the Sanskrit charters of the Early Pallavas, much simpler. Many of the passages occurring in the Early Pallava grants have been used in these two records without any modification or with slight modification.” The same or similar epithets applied to different rulers in different records would suggest that the officers who drafted the documents were scarcely very scrupulous about the accuracy of statement. The number of epithets used with reference to the donor and his ancestors in the present record is smaller than in the Röyüru grant.
As in the case of the Rēyūru grant and many of the Sanskrit charters of the Early Pallavas the inscription begins with the auspicious word svasti followed by the mangala : jitan Bhagavatā, “Victorious is the Lord ". The next passage refers to the issue of the charter from Kāñchipura. Then (lines 1-2) the Pallava family, to which the donor of the charter belonged, is introduced as belonging to the Bhäradvāja gölra and as having performed many sacrifices including the Asvamēdha. As in many Early Pallava charters, this no doubt refers to the horse-sacrifice celebrated by two of the Early Pallava kings, viz. Sivaskandavarman and Kumāravishņu. In lines 2-10, the donor of the grant, king Paramēśvaravarman I, is introduced as the son of Mahendravikramavarman (i.e. Mahondravarman II, circa 668-69 A.D.), the grandson of Narasirihavarian I (circa 630-68 A.D.) and the great-grandson of Mahindravarman I (circa 600-30 A.D.). The epithets swa-viry-ādhigala-rājya, pratāp-opanata-rāja-mandala, madhyama-loka-pāla and loka-pālānām pañchama, applied in the present record to Mahendravarman I, are used with reference to his grandson Mahēndravikramavarman or Mahēndravarman II in the Rēyüru grant and in connection with some other rulers in the Early Pallava charters. It is difficult to believe that all the rulers called sex-viry-ādhigala-rājya succeeded in adding any territory to their paternal kingdom ; but the epithet seems to suit Mahēndravarman I (con of Sinhavishņu) better than his grandson of the same name. We do not agree with the view that the epithets madhyama-lukapāla and loka-pālānām- panchama refer to the god Varuna. As we have elsewhere shown, the four Loka-pülas or the guardians of the four different quarters were Yama, Varuna, Kubëra and Vasava, and the king's description as the fifth Loka-pāla means to say that he was a protector of the earth like those divine guardians of the quarters. In classical Sanskrit literature also the king is often called madhyama-loka-pāla or protector of the central world (i.e. the earth bounded by the four quarters guarded by the Loka-pālas).
1 Ind. Ant., Vol. VIII, pp. 273 ff.; SIT, Vol. II, pp. 342 ff. ? Cf. above, Vol. XXIX, p. 91. * See The Successors of the Satavahanas, pp. 189, 201, 206. . Above, Vol. XXIX, p. 95, note 9. • The Successors of the Satavahanas, p. 196.
& Hopkins, Epic Mythology, p. 149; Dandin's Kavyadarsa, II, 331 : Lüders' List, No. 1112. For the four Lokapālas of the Buddhists, see Childers' Pali Dictionary, B.v. maharaja.
Cf. Raghuvam sa, II, 16. Madhyama-loka may also mean the earth lying between the heaven and the lower world.
