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67
No. 18)
INSCRIPTION FROM MANTHANI the rest of the epigraph being details of certain transactions in prose. This stanza apparently rer ferred to the hero of the prasasti and to his younger brother, the two being compared to the epic. brothers Raghupati (Rāma) and Saumitri (Lakshmana). The personal name of the hero of the eulogy was apparently quoted in a stanza lost with the concluding section of the writing on the second side. But we have seen that his name is given as Añchanārya in the writing on the first face of the pillar and as Mañchi-bhattopadhyāya and Manchanarya in the proge part of the epigraph to be discussed below. One of these names therefore must have been mentioned in the lost stanza in question. The name of his younger brother, who is described as a poet in the incomplete verse at the beginning of the third side and may have been responsible for the composition of the prasasti under study, seems to have been Gopāla. We have seen that the latter half of the preserved portion of the writing on the second side of the pillar mentions Mallikarjuna and his younger brother Kebava. The elder brother of the poet Göpāla, i.e. the hero of the eulogy (Anchanarya alias Manchi-bhattopadhyāya or Manchanārya) was, as indicated above, a son of either Kēšava or his elder brother Mallikārjuna. As, however, will be seen below, lines 14-16 of the writing on the fourth side of the pillar speak of one Gopāla-sūri as a son of Mallikarjuna and it is not impossible that poet Gopāla mentioned in the concluding stanza of the introductory part of our inscription is identical with Mallikūrjuna's son of the same name. In that case, the hero of the prasasti, who was Gopāla's elder brother, wae another son of Mallikarjuna. Since, however, Rama and Lakshmana were stepbrothers and not co-uterine brothers and the word anuja (the same as anujanman used in this context in our inscription) is sometimes found in the sense of a younger cousin', the possibility of the hero of the eulogy having been a son of Kēšava-sūri is not altogether precluded. The writings on the third and fourth faces of the pillar delineate the pious deeds of the following persons: (1) Mañchi-bhattopadhyâya alias Mañchanārya, (2) Mallikarjuna, (3) Mallikarjuna's younger brother Kdava-gūri, and (4) Mallikarjuna's son Göpāla-sūri. Unfortunately the word indicating the relations of the first with the second is lost. But the available space suggests that it was a small word like pituh and not a bigger expression like pitsivyasya.
The formal part of the record begins in line 3 of the present section. The first transaction recorded here states that, with the permission of Kakatiya Ganapatidēva-mahārāja, Allumprðlarāja, the governor (pālaka) of Chernüri-dēga, made a grant of land in favour of Mañchibhattopadhyāya who was the priest (purõhita) of Ganapatidéva-mahārāja. As we have seen above, Mañchi-bhattopādhyāya alias Añchanārya wos perhaps a son of Kabava-sūri or more probably of the latter's elder brother Mallikarjuna who is known from the Gayā inscription to have been the preceptor of Prataparudra, i.e. Pratāparudra I or Rudra (c. 1163-95 A.D.). It is interesting to note that the title Tribhuvana(or Tribhuvani)vidyāchakravartin, which is applied in the Gayā inscription to Mallikarjuna, is applied in the inscription under study to Mañchi-bhattopadhyâya. This reminds us of the fact that the same title was often enjoyed by different schclars associated with the court of a royal family.'
The object of the grant was to enable the donee Manchi-bhattopadhyāya to create a village and excavate a tank and the date of the grant is quoted as the Makara-sankranti in the Siddharthi-samvatsara corresponding to the Saka year 1121 (given in words), i.e. the 26th December 1199 A.D. This date falls in the first year of Kakatiya Ganapati's reign. The gift land, called dēša no doubt in the restricted sense of land ', is stated to have been granted at the confluence of the Godavari and the Prapitā (i.e. modern Pränhitā) and was bounded on the east by Venakeghandi,' on the south by the Godavari, on the west by Ayyanavroli-tataka
1 Cf. IHQ, Vol. XXII, p. 303. * Cf. above, Vol. XXXIII, p. 104 and note 2 ; also Vol. XXXI, p. 227.
In this name, the first part of which may be a mistake for Vinayaka, ghandi is probably the same as Telugu gandi meaning a lane'.
