Annual Reports

INTRODUCTION

ANNUAL REPORT ON INDIAN EPIGRAPHY
FOR THE YEAR 1946-47

   During the year 1946-47 as many as 52 copper-plate charters were examined and estampages of 251 stone inscriptions secured from the various provinces of India. The bulk of these inscriptions on stone as well as on copper plates come from South India.

Copper plates

   Among the Copper plates, two sets (Nos. 1 and 2) belong to the kings of the Śālaṅkāyana dynasty who held sway over a part of the Āndhra country in the early centuries of the Christian era. One of these (No. 1) written in Brāhmī script and Prakrit language and assignable on palæographic grounds to about the 4th century A.D. is dated in the 14th year of the reign of Nandivamma (Nandivarman). It is issued from Vēṅgīpura (modern Pedavēgi in the Ellore taluk of the West Godavari District) and registers the grant of the village Piḍiha by Mahārāja Nandivarman for the prosperity of himself and his grandson Skandavarman who is referred to in the record as Bālaka-mahārājakumāra-Khandapotta. The other set (No. 2) which is in Sanskrit language and written in early southern script is dated in the first regnal year of Mahārāja Skandavarman, the grandson of Nandivarman. The charter delineates the genealogy of the family for four generations as follows : Hastivarman ; his son Nandivarman ; his son Hastivarman (II) ; his son Skandavarman. This is also issued from Vēṅgī and it records the grant of the village Kōmpara by Skandavarman. The importance of this charter lies in the fact that it bring to light the existence of two kings of the name Hastivarman in the Śālaṅkāyana family. If the first Hastivarman of these plates be identical with his namesake of the Pedavēgi plates (C. P. No. 3 of 1924-25) then it would be easy to surmise that his son Nandivarman had two sons, Chaṇḍavarman and Hastivarman (II). There is, however, no evidence at present to support this surmise.

   Next in chronological sequence is No. 49 which belongs to the Western Chāḷukya king Katti Arasa (Kīrttivarman I). It is dated in the 12th year of the king’s reign and records a grant of land made by the king to a Brāhmaṇa named Kṛishṇasvāmin, well versed in the Vēdas, Vēdāṅgas and several other sciences, at the instance of his minister Vyāghrasvāmin. This copper-plate charter was discovered at Goḍachi in the Kolhapur state and is the earliest so far discovered of the Western Chāḷukya dynasty. The title Dharmamahārāja applied to the king in this inscription was probably adopted after the style of the Pallava and the Kadaṁba kings. No. 5 belonging to the Eastern Chāḷukya king Sarvalōkāśraya Vishṇuvardhana Mahārāja who is described as the son of Vijayāditya and the grandson of Vishṇuvardhana Mahārāja. It registers a grant of land free of all taxes and capable of a yield (?) of 12 Khaṇḍikas of grain in the village Lūḷā in Gudavadi-vishaya to Sarvvaśarman, a learned Brāhmaṇa who was a resident of Kārachēru. The gift is said to have been made on the occasion of a solar eclipse. Jayarūpa figures as the ājñapti of the grant. In the absence of any details pertaining to the date of the grant, it is hardly possible to fix the date of the record. It may however be pointed out that another record of a Vishṇuvardhana (No. 6 of 1913-14) who again is described as the son of Vijayāditya and grandson of Vishṇuvardhana, also mentions Jayarūpa as the ājñapti (Ep. Rep. for 1914, p. 85).