Indian Antiquary Vol 20

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 23

JANUARY, 1891.]
CHIPURUPALLE GRANT OF VISHNUVARDHANA I.
15
dhana I., still his thirty-third year could not come before Saka-Samvat 587 current; and we have found that this is, not the first, but the second year, of Visbņuvardhana II. The Saka years for such reigns as were hardly long enough to materially affect the reckoning as presented in the records, are given in brackets.
(To be continued.)
SANSKRIT AND OLD-KANARESE INSCRIPTIONS.
- BY J. F. FLEET, Bo.C.S., M.R.A.S., C.I.E. No. 193. - CAIPURUPALLE COPPER-PLATE GRANT OF VISUNOVARDHANA I. DATED IN HIS
EIGHTEENTH YEAR. The plates containing this inscription were first brought to notice in 1867 by Mr. Master, who sent them in to the Madras Government. They were handed over for decipherment to the Rev. T. Foulkes, who published a fairly accurate translation of the inscription in 1870, in the Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. XXXIX. Part I. p. 153 ff. And from a letter from the Collector of Vizagapatam, quoted by Mr. Foulkes, it appears that the plates were found near the village of Chipurupalle, - the Chipuru pille' of the Indian Atlas, Sheet No. 109; in Lat. 17° 34', Long. 839 10, – the chief town of the Chipurupalle Taluka or Sub-Division of the Vizagapatam District, Madras Presidency. Subsequently, Dr. Burnell published bis own reading of the text, in his South Indian Paleography, p. 137 f. (second edition); with a lithograph (id. Plate xxvii.). Since then, the original plates have been lost sight of. It is much to be wished that they could be recuvered; because, if they were properly cleaned, a better facsimile could be published than that given by Dr. Burnell; especially in respect of the numerical symbols in the date at the end of the record. Failing, in spite of efforts kindly made by Dr. Hultzsch, to obtain the originals, I now edit the inscription from Dr. Burnell's lithograph.
The plates, of which the first and last are inscribed on one side only, are three in number; each measuring, if the published lithograph is full-size, about 7"' by 2". They appear to be quite smooth; the edges being neither fashioned thicker, nor raised into rims. The inscription on them, however, seems to be in a state of perfect preservation throughout. - There are holes for a ring near the proper right end of each plate; but I do not find any record as to whether the ring and its seal were found with the plates. The characters belong to the southern class of alphabets; and are of the regular type of the period and part of the country to which the grant belongs. The average size of the letters is about it". -The language is Sanskrit throughout; and the whole record is in prose, except for two of the customary benedictive and imprecatory verses, which are quoted in lines 16 to 19.-The orthography presents nothing calling for remark.
The inscription is one of the Eastern Chalukya king Vishnuvardhana I., otherwise called Kubja-Vishnuvardhana; this record merrtions him also by the biruda of Vishamasiddhi. It is non-sectarian; the object of it being only to record the grant of a village to two
Brahmans.
The grant was made by Vishnuvardhana I. himself, while residing at the town of Cherupura in a vishaya the name of which seems to be Paki. For the latter name, I cannot propose any identification ; unless an examination of the original plates should give such a reading of the name, as would enable us to identify it with the 'Padi' of the map, seven milea south-west of Chipurupalle. But Cherupural is probably an older form of the name of Chipurapalle itself, where the plates were obtained. The village that was granted was Kalvakonda, or possibly Kalvakonta, in the Dimila vishaya. The name of the village does not appear to be now extant; unless it is preserved in the 'Kondakirla' of the map, seven
1 With the termination of this name, compare paraka in Brahmapdruka, Kollaparaka, and Vatapuraka (Gupta Inscriptions, p. 948).