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No. 13]
INSCRIPTION FROM MANTHANI
69
Next it is said that, at the time the above transaction was conducted, the person responsible for the immediately preceding transaction, i.e. Mallikarjuna, purchased from certain Brāhmaṇas the village called Kotapalli (probably the locality of the same name about 8 miles to the north of Chinnur) and renamed it as Mallikarjunapura apparently after himself. There he excavated a tank and both the township of Mallikarjunapura and the tank excavated there were given to some Brāhmaṇas and to one of his relations. These Brāhmaṇas and the relative of the donee appear to be the same as those who received from Manchi-bhattopadhyâya & village and a tank in the Chinnur Taluk as recorded on the third side of the pillar.
The boundaries of Mallikārjunapura are given in lines 7-10 as follows: Potakulu in the east, Kattundala in the south, Maddikupta-vãngu in the west, and Pregadapalli-vārgu in the north. There the donee installed a deity called Gapapatibvara no doubt after the reigning Kākatiya king Ganapati. It is further stated that he installed the god Lakshminārāyapa at Jonna-grāma which may be the same 88 Jangaon on the Godavari (in the Sultanabad or Usmannagar Taluk) to the north-west of Guñjapadga (in the Manthani Taluk). A house-site for rehabilitating a Brāhmana (probably the priest in charge of the worship of the god Lakshminārāyana) was also given by him in the same village.
Lines 13-14 state that Kötava-suri, younger brother of the person involved in the previous transactions, i.e. Mallikarjuna, installed the god Ambānārāyana apparently in the same village of Jonna-grāma. That Kēšava-sūri was a younger brother of Mallikarjuna is already known from the writing on the second face of the pillar, analysed above.
The following section in lines 14 ff. states that Gopala-sûri, son of Mallikarjuna, received a plot of land at Mantrakata from Kakatiya Rudradöva. Since the introductory part of the record mentions Ganapati as the reigning monarch, this Rudradēva can only be a predecessor of Ganapati. Rudradēvs therefore has to be identified with Pratāparudra I (c. 1163-95 A.D.). Gopāla-sūri is further stated to have created in the said gift land a township called Simbagiripura as well as two tanks. The township seems to have been named after the god Nrisimha whom Gõpāla-sūri installed there (line 19). He also made there twenty houses for the Brāhmaṇas to whom he gave some lands in the following localities : (1) Manthenna-kaluva (literally, the Manthenna canal'), (2) Edlapalli, (3) Vilāsavura, (4) Viripațlu, (5) Nallaballi, (6) Kāmisettipalli, (7) Jangavidu, (8) Guñjapadiga (modern Guñjapadga on the Gödávarl to the north of Upațla), (9) Nägavura (modern Nāgāram mentioned above), (10) Mustala (modern Musthal or Mustial on the Gödāvari near Jangaon in the Sultanabad or Usmannagar Taluk), (11) Uppatla (modern Upațla near Guñja padga referred to above), and (12) Nadikuda. Gõpāla-sūri also gave some vāvanāla fields lying to the east of Simhagiripura apparently to the same Brāhmaṇas. There is no doubt that Simhagiripura mentioned in our inscription is the same as Simhädrinagari within Mantrakūta, which is mentioned in the Gayā inscription as having been beautified with many buildings by Mallikarjuna-sūri, father of Gopāla-sūri of our inscription. The township of Simhagiripura or Simhädrinagari was thus built by Gopāla-sūri considerably before the death of his father who, as we have seen, died sometime in the early years of the reign of Ganapati.
A tank and a locality called Bablitakunta to the east of the township (i.e. Sinhagiripura) were given to the god Narasimhadēva (i.e. Nộisimha mentioned above). One nivartana of land at Avapalli was also granted apparently to the same deity. Göpäla further made the following donations in favour of the god Gopijanavallabha: (1) two vrittis or ront-free holdings at Prðlareddipalli and Kundavura, (2) one nivartana of land at Lingala-grāma (possibly the village of the same name in the Sultanabad or Usmannagar Taluk), and (3) eight nivartanas of land at the villages of Guðjapadiga (modern Guñjapadga referred to above), Kosamepalli, Manthenna-kaluva
