Annual Reports

ANNUAL REPORT ON SOUTH INDIAN EPIGRAPHY
FOR THE YEAR 1936-37.
PART I.

TOURS OF THE SUPERINTENDENT AND THE ESTABLISHMENT DURING THE YEAR 1936-37.

    I was on tour for a total period of forty-five days between 11th September 1936 and 14th March 1937, and visited 17 villages in the Madras Presidency and 5 in the Bombay-Karnatak. I paid two visits to Vēlpūru in the Guntur district in connection with the extrication of the white marble pillar in the Rāmaliṅgēśvara temple, containing the Vishṇukuṇḍin inscription of the 5th century A.D., partially copied in 1924-25. As considerable opposition was met with at the hands of the temple trustees and the village residents on sentimental grounds in spite of the co-operation of the Revenue Department, the work had to be postponed for a later occasion. The existence of ancient Buddhist and Hindu monuments near Gurazāla in the Guntur district was brought to the notice of the Department by Mr. P. Seshadri Sastri, B.A., L.T., a schoolmaster of that place. Accordingly I toured in that locality and inspected the remains in the two villages of Reṇṭāla and Māḍugala. In the former village is a steep hillock known as Stambhālabōḍu i.e., ‘ the mound of pillars’ with two ancient mounds on its top. Among the ruins found at this place is a white marble pillar sculptured in the usual Buddhist style of these parts, and containing an early Brāhmī inscription of the time of the Ikhāku king Śiri Chāntamūla recording the gift of the pillar to a Buddhist saṅgha by a merchant named Nataka. Excavations at the place are certain to reveal some more inscribed pillars, structures and sculptures like those of Nāgārjunakoṇḍa in the same district. The whole site is in the centre of a valley almost completely encircled by a range of hills as is the case with the Nāgārjuna- koṇḍa site. It is noteworthy that an unopened mound in the latter area is also known by the name of ‘ Stambhālabōḍu’, like the one at Reṇṭāla.

  2. At Māḍugala I noticed in a Śiva temple a number of grey granite pillars bearing carvings of half-lotus design as in Buddhistic marble pillars and having short inscriptions in the archaic script ranging between the 3rd and 7th centuries A.D. These pillars may not have originally belonged to the Śiva temple. There also exists here within the same prākāra an early stone temple partly submerged underground, with an inscription in early Chāḷukyan characters, i.e., of about the 7th century A.D. and a well-carved panel of Śiva and Pārvatī with attendants. A dilapidated temple locally known as Bobbanāgi in the adjacent deserted hamlet of Ayyaṅgāripāḷem may also be assigned to the Chāḷukyan times and seems to be the earliest stone structure of any architectural pretension seen in these parts. An inscription found at this place, which can be assigned to the 7th-8th century A.D. records the construction of the temple of Jalpēśa by one Maindarāma Kalgārābharaṇa. Aṅgalūr in the Gudivada taluk of the Kistna distrcit has an ancient Buddhist mound in the heart of the village with large-sized bricks exposed to view. This deserves to be excavated and studied in detail.

  3. In my tours in the Southern districts I examined the Śiva temple at Kuttā- lam and particularly a maṇḍapa, the renovation of which was under contemplation. As this contains a number of important medieval Pāṇḍya inscriptions, I got an agrrement from the trustee of the temple and the renovator with the co-operation of the Hindu Religious Endowments Board, that in the course of the demolition of the present maṇḍapa, the inscribed stones would be rebuilt in the same order in a new wall or structure to be erected outside the temple. On this occasion I again visited the Vāliyappottai hill mound near Tenkāśi and secured therefrom some good specimens of prehistoric pottery. Korkai, famous in ancient times as the sea port of the Pāṇḍyas, was also visited by me and its extensive sites of early settlements were examined. Small coins of patinated copper are reported to be found here occasionally after rains and quantities of sawn conch-shells were found by me here and there, testifying to the existence of chank industry at the place in early days. Bishop Caldwell who conducted excavations at the place in 1876 reports traces of human habitation and sherds of pottery at about 8 feet below the