Current Version: draft, 2024-05-22Z
Editor: Jens Christian Thomas.
DHARMA Identifier: INSTelugu00040
Alternative identifier:
Origin: Written in 698.
Classification: donative-religious land grant
Languages: Telugu
Corresponding Artefact: ARTTelugu000036 inscription on Stone in a field belonging to Nārāyaṇa Reḍḍi, to the west of the path leading to Kottapalle
Layout: 11-12 lines are observed/preserved on the artifact.
1svasti śrimaN vijayāditya-sa[tyāśra]ya-śri-prithivi-bhallabha-mahārā-
2ja-Athirāja-paramēśvara-(bha)ṭāraḷa vijayarājya-saṁva⟨tsa⟩raṁbu
3prathama-r¿ē?⟨ā⟩jya[ṁ]buna rēṇḍ-agun ēṇḍu vaṇarājuL vaṁga⟨nū⟩ru-
4viṣaya[ṁ]bu Ēḷa v¡a!⟨ā⟩ri p¡a!⟨ā⟩ḷa caḷki ḷēnṟurājula niṭuru paṭu
5gana Ēḷucu gamuṇḍalli gōtra[ṁ]buna vēḷāla-guṇḍiya pāṟa veneyaṟēgari⟨ki⟩
6r¡a!⟨ā⟩camānaṁbuna Ēbhadi maṟuntuṟlu Iccinadi dēni-
7ki sākṣi gōṇaya bōḷu kundābākaḷu vēdari bōḷu v(ē)laya-
8ṟuneduṁbālu paṭṭi gāpuḷu jan(n)a-p¡a!⟨ā⟩ṟu Ājjava-pāṟu
9v(ē)rasāma¡(pa)!⟨pā⟩ṟu (va)ccamuḷu dēnik(i) vakra(ṁ)bu vaccuvāru pa[ñ]ca-
10mahāpātaka-sa(ṁ)yuktul agu{ḷca}
1 śrimaN ◇ śrīmaN — 1 sa[tyāśra]ya ◇ saṁya • The scribe omitted one akṣara in the word saṁvatsaraṁbu of the same line, and he might therefore simply have forgotten two akṣaras in this
word. There might be a chance, however, that it is sort of an abbreviated way of writing
the biruda. The editors state in a footnote that saṁya has to be read satyāśraya. — 1 śri-prithivi-bhallabha ◇ śrī-¿pri?⟨pr̥⟩thivī¿bha?⟨va⟩llabha — 1–2 mahārā/ja-Athirāja ◇ ¿mā?⟨ma⟩h(ā)rā/ja-Adhirāja
2 saṁva⟨tsa⟩raṁbu ◇ saṁvarabuṁ • In many cases the ansuvāra is written on top of the akṣara it is supposed to be pronounced before instead of after in Telugu inscriptions. It
is noteworthy, that the first anusvāra is written on top of the ⟨sa⟩ and the second on top of the ⟨bu⟩ in this word; but
the second akṣara has to be read ⟨ṁbu⟩. The same occurs with ⟨ṁbu⟩ in line six. The editors state in
a footnote that the word has to be read saṁvatsaraṁbu.
3 r¿ē?⟨ā⟩jya[ṁ]buna ◇ rājyabuna — 3 vaṇarājuL ◇ ¿va?⟨vā⟩ṇarājuL — 3 vaṁga⟨nū⟩ru ◇ vagaṁru • The anusvāra is written on top of the ⟨ga⟩ but pronounced before this akṣara as is often the case in Telugu inscriptions; the reading vaṁga is furthermore secured by other inscriptions (see Ramesh and Ramachandra Murthy 1969–1970: page 334, № 56 B, line 3). The editors state in a footnote that the word has to
be read as vaṁganūru. Regarding the misspellings in line 2 and line 1 (if it is not an abbreviation) a
further slip at this spot is possible as well.
4 p¡a!⟨ā⟩ḷa • This word may be connected with skt. pāla-. It occurs in a few other Telugu inscriptions. — 4 ḷēnṟurājula ◇ ḷenṟurājula • The length of the vowel is rather probable since the structure of the first compound
member seems to be a result of the typical metathesis in Telugu, i.e. ḷē- from *iḷa
or *eḷV plus the Telugu ending -nṟu; the cognate may be Kannaḍa eḷa ’tenderness, youth’ (Kittel 1894: page 284), e.g. in eḷa-arasar ’prince’ (Gai 1946: page 179 referring to Rice 1905: page 2, № 7) that represents the same construction as ḷēnṟu-rāju. The title also appears in at least two other inscriptions (Ramesh and Ramachandra Murthy 1969–1970: page 333, № 56 A, line 4 and Panchamukhi 1935–1936: page 98, lines 23–24). — 4–5 niṭuru paṭu / gana ◇ niṭ¡u!⟨ū⟩ru paṭu / ¡gana!⟨gānu⟩ • The auslauting -a could be a spelling mistake but could also represent the so-called
’emphatic particle’ if it was a linguistic reality (Sastri 1969: page 260).
5 gōtra[ṁ]buna ◇ gōtraṁbuna — 5 veneyaṟēgari⟨ki⟩ ◇ venaya-ṟeṁgari⟨ki⟩ • The name seems to go back to *veni-ay(y)a-ṟē-gāru (confer similar instances where
*Xi-ay(y)a is realized as Xey(y)a as in bādeyya (Ramayya Pantulu 1948: page 329, № 598); this realization is one of several options). The element ṟē- is
the result of the Telugu metathesis and corresponds to Kannaḍa eṟe ’ruler’. As for
the first element *veni- compare (vi)ni/yaṇa (Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya 1947–1948: pages 234–236, № 42G, lines 21–22). Both elements may go back to Telugu vinu ’sky’.
6 maṟuntuṟlu ◇ maṟuttuṟlu
7–8 v(ē)laya/ṟuneduṁbālu ◇ valaya/ṟu neḍu-b(ō)lu • The editors supply a daṇḍa after this name obviously to indicate the conclusion of a section. The inscription
clearly shows ⟨bā⟩ (one may also compare ⟨bō⟩ of line 7). It is therefore questionable
whether bōlu is really meant here since it would also deviate from the spelling in the other occurences.
The expression paṭṭi gāpuḷu denotes ’the farmers of the village’ which could be referred to e. g. the village
that the inscription was issued in. On the other hand, it may refer to what is written
before. The element vēla- or vela- occurs in composition with -nāṇḍu in several inscriptions,
yaṟu- is attested at least once with -nela (ya(ṟu)nelala (Krishna Sastri 1923: pages 331–332, № 1014, line 7)), and niduṁbaṟu (edited as nidubaṁṟu) appears as
a place name in a Sanskrit inscription (Fleet 1891: page ). It may be noted that the akṣara ⟨ḍu⟩ could also be read ⟨du⟩ because the difference is minute to non-existing, the
regular ⟨da⟩ characters having a round belly while this akṣara in question being a little bit rectangular, a subscript ⟨ḍa⟩ in line 3 being quite
rectangular as well. On the other hand, another subscript ⟨°ḍa⟩ of this inscription
is round (line 5) while a ⟨da⟩ in line 11 is also a little bit rectangular.The question
remains, however, whether these elements, insofar as they represent the counterparts
of the elements in this inscription, could form a place name together that, indeed,
would be quite long.
8 jan(n)a-p¡a!⟨ā⟩ṟu ◇ janna-pāṟu
9 v(ē)rasāma¡(pa)!⟨pā⟩ṟu ◇ varasām(i)-pāṟu • The editors’ reading represents a Prakrit form of Sanskrit varasvāmī or parasvāmī and might be what was intended. — 9 (va)ccamuḷu ◇ vaccamuḷu • The ambiguity in reading the first akṣara results from its being very close to ⟨ṭa⟩, ⟨ḍa⟩, ⟨da⟩, or a slightly damaged ⟨va⟩
in this inscription. — 9 dēnik(i) vakra(ṁ)bu ◇ dēniki vakrabu — 9 pa[ñ]ca° ◇ pañca°
10 agu{ḷca} ◇ aguḷcu • As to my knowledge, there is no grammatical option to integrate ⟨ḷcu⟩ into the
verbal form. It therefore must be seen as yet another lapsus of the scribe. — 10 ṣaṣ¿thi?⟨ṭi⟩-va¿ruṣa?⟨rṣa⟩ ◇ ṣaṣ¿thi?⟨ṭi⟩⟨r⟩-va¿ruṣa?⟨rṣa⟩ • The standard appearance of the verse contains the multiplicativum ṣaṣṭis ’sixty times’. Yet, in the standard spelling a consonant is doubled after a repha. Hence, there is a certain chance that the scribe wrote ṣaṣṭi-varṣasahasrāṇi ’sixty year-thousands’.
The scribe did not differentiate between long ⟨°ī⟩ and short ⟨°i⟩. Since this could reflect an actual indifference towards distinguishing vowel length in pronunctiation in this respect, the text was not “normalized”. In the scribe’s ductus the akṣaras ⟨da⟩ and ⟨ṭa⟩ look alike. He further does not differentiate between ⟨dha⟩ and ⟨tha⟩ both of which are written with a dot in the middle. A viṣaya or nāṇḍu with the name vaṁganūr is mentioned (and written clearly) in 1949-1950: № 14, line 2 and also mentioned in 1948: № 604, line 2. The place name consists of the elements vaṁgan(V) and ūru “village”; the first element could go back to Telugu vaṁka “crooked”, compare Kannaḍa vaṁka “the winding course of a stream” (Kittel 1894: page 1370), with locative suffix. Hence, the place name could mean “village at the river curve”. The modern village Vaṁganūr actually is situated at a curve of the Pennar river. It might hence be possible that the viṣaya was also simply called vaṁgana “at the river curve” (Ramesh and Ramachandra Murthy 1969–1970: № 56 B, line 3) if it wasn’t really vaṁganūr. The attested vaṁgaru on the other hand (Ramesh and Ramachandra Murthy 1969–1970: № 56 C, line 3) very probably is a misspelling for vaṁganūru because of etymological reasons. As for the place name kundābākaḷu, a bāka-nāṇḍu is mentioned in Desai 1949–1950: pages 67–70, № 12, lines 2–3. The inscription stops after the first third of line 11 although the imprecation verse is not completed and plenty of space is still left. It is possible that the inscription originally continued in the next line but regarding the flaws that the scribe seems to be responsible for it is also possible that he simply forgot to complete his task.
The inscription was noted in A. R. No. B 10 of 1959-1960 and first published by K. V. Ramesh and S. S. Ramachandra Murthy with annotations and a picture (1969-1970: pages 334–335, № 56 C).