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No. 23-WARANGAL INSCRIPTION OF RAGHUDEVA, KALI YEAR 4561
(1 Plate) D. C. SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND
(Received on 12.5.1958)
Many of the imperial ruling families of the Deccan had their capitals in the former Hyderabad State now merged in the Mysore, Andhra Pradesh and Bombay States. Thus Manyakhēta of the Rashtrakutas, Kalyāņa of the Later Chalukyas and Kalachuris, Devagiri of the Yadavas and Anumakonda and Varamgallu of the Kakatiyas were all situated in different parts of the former State of Hyderabad. It was therefore expected that the area, if properly explored, would yield a large number of interesting inscriptions and some time ago a band of my colleagues and assistants were sent to various parts of the region to begin the work. In the course of the exploration of a very small part of the area in 1957-58, Mr. K. H. V. Sarma and Pandit V. S. Subrahmanyam, both Epigraphical Assistants in the Office of the Government Epigraphist for India, visited Warangal and copied some inscriptions that were found at the place. One of these inscriptions from Warangal is edited in the following pages. I am thankful to Mr. Sarma and Pandit Subrahmanyam for the assistance they have rendered me in the preparation of this article.
About 150 years ago, Mackenzie's Pandits copied the inscription and their tentative transcript finds a place in the Mackenzie Manuscripts, 15-4-5, p. 106 (cf. Bharati, Vol. XII, Part i, pp. 426 ff.). Unfortunately the Pandits could not read the epigraph satisfactorily.
The inscription is divided into two parts, the first engraved on the right wall of the gate of the Warangal fort while the second part is incised on the left wall of the same structure. The first part contains ten lines of writing covering an area about five feet in length and two feet and one inch in height. There are only eight lines in the second part which covers a space about six feet and six inches long and one foot and eight inches high. The epigraph is continued from the first to the second part. The preservation of the writing is not satisfactory as the letters are rubbed off in many parts of the record.
The characters of the inscription are Telugu. Initial a has a rather peculiar form resembling modern Telugu lg in shape. But the language is Oriya which is, however, considerably influenced by Sanskrit. There are many errors in the language and orthography of the record. The date, quoted in lines 2-5, is Saturday (Briha-vāsara1), Mṛigaśirā-nakshatra, Māgha-su. 10, in the year Pramathin which is mentioned as corresponding to the Kali year indicated by the defective passage yčkafatad-adkika-pańcha-fat-Uttara-chats[*]-sahasra-parimite. The expression packa sat-öttara (i.e. 'with the addition of 500') qualifying chatuḥ-sahasra (i.e. 4,000) in the same context suggests that the number intended in yēkasatad-adhika qualifying pancha-sata should be less than hundred. The word yēka (eka, 'one') forming the first part of this expression clearly suggests that the intended number is one of those immediately following 10 or any of its multiples between 20 and 90. But the name Pramathin applied to the year, which apparently corresponded to one of the Kali years from 4501 to 4599, shows that the Kali year 4561 current (i.e. Kali 4560 expired) is intended since no other year in the said period of 99 years corresponds to the cyclic year Pramathin of the South Indian calendar. Saturday, Magha-su. 10, Mrigasira-nakshatra, in Kali 4561 current, corresponds regularly to the 2nd February, 1460 A.D.
The proposed emendation of yēkasatad-adhika as ēkaskashty-adhika is supported by the internal evidence of the inscription. As will be seen below, the record mentions Raghudeva, the governor
1 For Briha-vara meaning Saturday, see above, Vol. XXXI, p. 100, note 1,
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