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South
Indian Inscriptions |
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EARLY CHOLAS AND BANAS
20.The epigraphical survey of the Vinukonda taluk of the Guntur district and of a few villages in the Cuddapah, Kurnool and West Godavari districts has yielded a representative collection of stone inscriptions belonging to
the Chōla, Bāṇa and other dynasties.
Chola-Maharaja
The earliest among these are the two epigraphs of Chōla-Mahārāja (Nos.
310 and 330) secured at Indukūr and Uruṭūr of the Kamalapuram taluk of the
Cuddapah district They record a gift pannāsa made by a certain Erigal-
Durgarāja during the reign of Chōla-Mahārāja. In the Mālepāḍu plates of
Puṇyakumāra, Mahēndravikramavarman,
son of Dhanañjayavarman, who became the lord of the Pāṇḍya, Chōḷa and Kēsaḷa countries is stated to have
acquired the title of ‘ Chōla-Mahārāja’ which was likewise borne by his son
Puṇyakumāra (Ep. Ind., Vol. XI, p. 337, ff). The king Chōla-Mahārāja of
the present inscription must therefore be indentified with either of these two
or a successor of theirs, who ruled over the Rēnāṇḍu-7000 country comprising
the modern Cuddaph district in the 8th and 9th centuries A.D. The chief
Erigal-Durgrāja is not known to us so far from any other source. A certain
Erikal-Munyarāju is known to us through an archaic Telugu inscription at
Mālepāḍu (No, 392 of 1904). He was probably of the same family as Dugarāja.
Bāṇa chief Dhavaḷeyarasa
21. Next in chronological order come the two records (No. 306 and 319).
belonging to the Bāṇa chiefs who ruled over a portion of the Cuddapah and the
Kolar districts in the 9th and 10th centuries A.D. The former which was
secured at Poṭṭipāḍu in the Jammala
madugu taluk of the Cuddapah distrcit is
dated in Śaka 807 (=A.D. 885) and refers itself to the rule of Dhavaḷeyarasa of
the Mahābali race. It registers a gift of land (?) to Puṇya-Bhaṭṭa of Ponmāna-
pāḍu (modern Poṭṭipāḍu) and of ghee to the Bhōgapati or the District Officer,
whose name is not given. In the genealogical table of the Bāṇa chiefs given by
Dr. Hultzsch in Epigraphie India, Vol. X VII, p 3, the name Dhavaḷeyarasa is not mentioned, which shows that he did not belong to the main branch,
but if, on account of the identical descriptive epithets borne by him, he is
supposed to be a junior prince of the main line, he must be identified with either
Vikramāditya Bāṇavidyādhara or his son Vijayāditya Prabhumēru, more probably the latter, since the former is known to have been a subordinate chief in
Pallava Nandivarman III’s 17th regnal year (cir. A.D. 829) and Nṛipatuṅga-
varman’s 24th year (cir. A.D. 868), thus having already had a rule of nearly 40
years. Dhavaḷeyarasa may, in this case, be taken as the chief’s proper name, ‘Prabhumēru’ and ‘ Vijayāditya’ being only his birudas.
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