Current Version: draft, 2024-05-22Z
Editor: J. Ramayya Pantulu.
DHARMA Identifier: INSTelugu00067
Hand Description:
The inscription was published without a picture. According to ARIE the inscription is written in "archaic characters".
Alternative identifier:
Origin: Written in 700-800.
Classification: commemorative-memorial
Languages: Telugu
Corresponding Artefact: ARTTelugu000060 inscription on On a stone unearthed in the bed of the stream at Kāmanūru
Layout: 6 lines are observed/preserved on the artifact.
1svasti śrī puliya-
2(ḍi)ya makanṟu E-
3mmu(du)ru Ēḷuvari
4koḍuku Uppa(du)la cā-
5kala gunḍu gu(da)liya
6kalavanṟu
Svasti! Upp(ā)ḍula Cākala, “hero” of Śrī Puliyāḍi, son of the ruler of this Madūru, is (here) at the confluence of the Kuṇḍu (river).
The text is given as in the edition but spaces have been added where a word boundary was deemed probable. The translation follows a slightly emended text. The personal name puliya(ḍi)ya seems to be Puliyāḍi, lit. “smoeone who is like a tiger” (with the Kannaḍa suffix -āḍi/āḷi). The suffix -ya is a genitive and “Kannaḍism” as can be often found in the earlier inscriptions. Makanṟu (later magaḍu), lit. “a man”, can denote different things: a son, husband, hero, or ruler. I opted for “hero” since Cākala seems to have been a subordinate of Puliyāḍi, and since koḍuku is used for “son” later. It may be noted, however, that magaḍu (in its earlier spellings) is attested as “son” in the old Telugu inscriptions and that three generations are sometimes mentioned, e. g. in INSTelugu00083 (Ramayya Pantulu 1948: page 337, № 621). Therefore, it is also possible that Cākala was the grandson of Puliyāḍi. Emmu(du)ru might be equivalent to im-Madūru ’this Madūru’. The inscription was found in Kāmanūru and a village named Madūru is situated approximately 4 km to the south-east of Kāmanūru. Another village of that name can be found in a distance of approximately 50 km. Hence, the qualification “this Madūru” may have been meaningful. Since dental ⟨da⟩ and retroflex ⟨ḍa⟩ can be very similar in the older script, Uppa(du)la was interpreted as Uppāḍula and gu(da)liya as gūḍaliya. The vowel lenght is added in reference to the place name Uppāḍa (that probably is not the place referred to in the inscription). Gūḍaliya is probably an inflected form of kūḍali ’joining, union’, confer Kannaḍa kūḍal ’confluence of a river’. The suffix -ya was interpreted as locative although the regular form should have been -na. Guṇḍu is the name of the river (Kuṇḍēru) that flows in the south and west of Kāmanūru. According to ARIE the inscription was found “in the bed of the stream at Kâmanûru”. At this location there is a confluence of the Kuṇḍēru with another smaller river the name of which I could not find. It is possible, however, that this smaller river was (or is) also called Kuṇḍu wherefore only this single name was mentioned.
The inscription was noted in ARIE 1906-1910: page 35, appendix B/1906, № 469 and first published by J. Ramayya Pantulu (1948: page 334, № 610). K. M. Sastri and B. Radha Krishna re-editet the text based on that edition. K. M. Sastri provided a summary: Refers to the son of a certain Puliyaḍiyamakanṟu, ruler of Emmuduru.1969, page 334.