Plates
From the lotus in the navel of the great Lord Nārāyaṇa, the supreme person and the abode of Śrī, there arose Brahmā, the self-born creator of the world. From him was born a son of the mind called Atri, and from that sage Atri was born the founder of a dynasty: the Moon soma whose rays are nectar and who is the turban jewel of Śrīkaṇṭha Śiva.
From that nectar-yielding one there came into being Mercury budha, praised by the wise budha, and from him was born the valiant universal sovereign cakravartin named Purūravas.
What follows is prose.
From him was born Āyus. From Āyus, Nahuṣa. From Nahuṣa, the universal sovereign and dynastic father Yayāti. From him, the universal sovereign called Puru. From him, Janamejaya, performer of three Aśvamedha sacrifices. From him, Prācīśa. From Prācīśa, Sainyayāti. From Sainyayāti, Hayapati. From Hayapati, Sārvabhauma. From Sārvabhauma, Jayasena. From Jayasena, Mahābhauma. From Mahābhauma, Aiśānaka. From Aiśānaka, Krodhānana. From Krodhānana, Devaki. From Devaki, R̥bhuka. From R̥bhuka, R̥kṣaka. From R̥kṣaka, Mativara, performer of a Sattra sacrifice and Lord of the River Sarasvatī. From him, Kātyāyana. From Kātyāyana, Nīla. From Nīla, Duṣyanta. His son was the one—
What follows is moraic verse.
—who, because he unceasingly dug down one sacrificial post yūpa after another on the banks of the Gaṅgā and the Yamunā and also performed Aśvamedhas, obtained the name “Bharata of the Great Sacrifices.”The stanza, as I read it (see the apparatus entry on line 9), does not permit the interpretation that he performed the great sacrifice Aśvamedha and obtained the name Bharata. But regardless of the slightly problematic reading, in my opinion the word nāma must in any case be construed as the object of alabhata, and I know of no connection between his sacrifices and the name Bharata. Thus, the interpretation reflected in my translation (as well as in that of VV, but not in Hultzsch’s translation of the parallel cited in the apparatus) is much preferable.
From that Bharata was born Bhūmanyu. From Bhūmanyu, Suhotra. From Suhotra, Hastin. From Hastin, Virocana. From Virocana, Ajamīla. From Ajamīla, Saṁvaraṇa. The son of Saṁvaraṇa and of Tapatī, the daughter of Tapana, was Sudhanvan. From Sudhanvan was born Parikṣit. From Parikṣit, Bhīmasena. From Bhīmasena, Pradīpana. From Pradīpana, Śantanu. From Śantanu, Vicitravīrya. From Vicitravīrya, King Pāṇḍu.
What follows is moraic verse.
He in turn had five sons—Yudhiṣṭhira the son of Dharma, Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva—who were to obtain the kingdom viṣaya like the five senses which grasp the sense-objects viṣaya.
What follows is syllabic verse.
The masterful wielder of the Gāṇḍīva bow who, after vanquishing Indra the thunderbolt-bearer, burned the Khāṇḍava forest; who obtained the Pāśupata weapon in combat from Śiva the enemy of Andhaka; who, after slaying many Daityas such as Kālikeya, victoriously ascended to share a throne with Indra; who with abandon cut down the forest that was the dynasty of the Kurus—
—from that Arjuna was born Abhimanyu. From Abhimanyu, Parikṣit. From Parikṣit, Janamejaya. From Janamejaya, Kṣemuka. From Kṣemuka, Naravāhana. From Naravāhana, Śatānīka. From Śatānīka, Udayana. Thereafter, when sixty-less-one universal sovereigns beginning with him Udayana had passed in uninterrupted succession, each seated on the throne of Ayodhyā, a king of their dynasty named Vijayāditya marched to Dakṣiṇāpatha driven by a desire to conquer. He challenged Trilocana Pallava and, by an ill turn of fate, passed to the otherworld.
In the midst of that tribulation, his pregnant chief queen went with their chaplain purohita to a Brahmanical settlement agrahāra named Muḍivaimu, and there gave birth to Viṣṇuvardhana while under the protection of its resident the soma-sacrificer Viṣṇubhaṭṭa, who cherished her as if she were his own daughter. She raised that boychild, arranging for the performance of the ceremonies traditionally applicable to his particular kṣatriya gotra, namely being of the Mānavya gotra, a son of Hārita, and so on.In some parallel versions (see the apparatus to line 20), the ceremonies are described as being applicable to a member of a double gotra, namely Mānavya and Hārītaputra. He in turn, when her mother had told him the story, went forth to Mount Calukya and worshipped Nandā, who is the goddess Gaurī, and also appeased Kumāra, Nārāyaṇa and the band of Mothers. Having thereby recovered the hereditary paraphernalia of sovereignty belonging to his family, as though they had been deposited (with these deities for safekeeping)—namely, the white parasol, the one conch shell, the five great soundsThe expression pañca-mahāśabda probably refers to being honoured by the sound of five musical instruments, but may also mean five titles beginning with “great”. See 296-2989 for a discussion., the pennant garland pāli-ketana, the inverted drum pratiḍhakkāSome Cālukya grants use the words paḍa-ḍhakkā and daḍakkā in similar contexts. See the [Ceruvu Mādhavaram plates of Kali Viṣṇuvardhana V](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00022.xml) and the commentary thereto., the Boar emblem, the peacock fan piṁcha, the lance kunta, the lion throne, the makara archway, the golden sceptre, the Gaṅgā and Yamunā and so forth—and having conquered the kings of the Kaḍambas, Gaṅgas and so on, he reigned over Dakṣiṇāpatha extending from Rāma’s bridge to the Narmadā and comprising seven and a half lakhs of villages.
What follows is a śloka.
The son of that King Viṣṇuvardhana and his chief queen born of the Pallava dynasty was Vijayāditya.
His son was Polakeśi Vallabha. His son was Kīrtivarman. His son—
Greetings. Satyāśraya Vallabhendra Pulakeśin II was eager to adorn the lineage of the majestic Calukyas—who are of the Mānavya gotra which is praised by the entire world, who are sons of Hāriti, who attained kingship by the grace of Kauśikī’s boon, who are protected by the band of Mothers, who were deliberately appointed to kingship by Lord Mahāsena, to whom enemy territories instantaneously submit at the mere sight of the superior Boar emblem they have acquired by the grace of the divine Nārāyaṇa, and whose bodies have been hallowed through washing in the purificatory ablutions avabhr̥tha of the Aśvamedha sacrifice. His brother Kubja Viṣṇuvardhana protected pāl- the country of Veṅgī for eighteen years. His son Jayasiṁha Vallabha I, for thirty-three. His brother Indrarāja Indra Bhaṭṭāraka, for seven days. His son Viṣṇuvardhana II, for nine years. His son Maṅgi Yuvarāja, for twenty-five. His son Jayasiṁha II, for thirteen. His brother of inferior birth, Kokkili, for six months. After dethroning him, his eldest brother Viṣṇuvardhana III, for thirty-seven years. His son Vijayāditya I Bhaṭṭāraka, for eighteen. His son Viṣṇuvardhana IV, for thirty-six. His son Vijayāditya II Narendramr̥garāja, for eight and forty. His son Kali-Viṣṇuvardhana V, for a year and a half. His son Guṇaga Vijayāditya III, for forty-four. The son of his younger brother King bhūpati Vikramāditya, Cālukya-Bhīma, for thirty. His son Kollabigaṇḍa Vijayāditya IV, for six months. His son Ammarāja I, for seven years. After dethroning his son the child Vijayāditya V, Tāḷapa, for one month. After defeating him, Cālukya-Bhīma’s son Vikramāditya II, for eleven months. Then that King rājan Tāḷapa’s son Yuddhamalla, for seven years.
Having ousted that Yuddhamalla from the country and having also quashed other enemies, the fearsome bhīma King Bhīma II, younger brother of Ammarāja, protected rakṣ- the earth for twelve years.
His son Ammarāja II, the foremost of kings who forced his enemies into submission, protected pāl- the land of Veṅgī for twenty-five years.
King Dāna Dānārṇava, the brother of King Amma II by a different mother and the son of King Bhīma II, clever in a whole array of sciences, protected pā- the earth up to its four ends for three years.
Then, after Dānārṇava, by an ill turn of fate the land of Veṅgī remained leaderless for twenty-seven years.
At this juncture, the son of King Dāna, His Majesty Śaktivarman, who was of the same nature as Indra the king of the gods, struck down his enemies by the power of his valour and protected rakṣ- the earth for twelve years.
The son of the same King Dāna and his faithful chief queen Āryā is Vimalāditya, the splendid king deva who advances the lineage of Satyāśraya.
who was publicly anointed in the Śaka year found in fires, fires and apertures of the body i.e. 933, in the month of Taurus vr̥ṣabha, in the bright fortnight, on the sixth lunar day, on Thursday and under the asterism Puṣya, when the ascendant lagna was Leo siṁha.According to Kielhorn’s personal communication reported by VV, the particulars of the date in fact work out for the fifth lunar day and correspond to 10 May, 1011 CE. Kielhorn goes so far as to propose emending yaṣ ṣaṣṭhyāṁ to pañcamyāṁ.
The moon-bright reputation of this King Birudaṁka Bhīma so pervaded the world that, in order to make his body perceptible, Śambhu Śiva bore on his neck a dark streak which had the beauty of the mark on the hare-marked moon.I do not find this stanza fully intelligible, because the sentence lacks an object to the verb avahat and includes only an adjective qualifying that unspecified object. As VV notes, the body of Śiva was probably conceived of as white and thus not really visible in the glare of Vimalāditya’s fame. VV’s translation supplies a black spot
as the object of the sentence, which Śiva wore
on his neck. I rather believe the stanza alludes to the dark streak for which Śiva is called Nīlakaṇṭha, and VV too may have had this in mind, though it is not evident from his translation.
With a mass of gleaming pearls put on as soon as they were released through the splitting of the forehead lobes of enemy elephants, the sword in his arm looks permanently like the necklace of the victory goddess residing there.The reference is to pearls supposedly found in the heads of elephants. There may well be a word missing from this stanza; see the apparatus to line 45.
The cobwebs covering the faces of the caryatids śāla-bhañjikā of the houses in the towns of his enemies who have fled from his wrath look like veils they have put on because they cannot bear the sight of another man.
He, the excellence of whose courage scorns the strongest lion, has brought his name Tribhuvanāṁkuśa, “elephant goad of the three worlds,” to literal meaningfulness by destroying hosts of the lordly elephants of his numerous recalcitrant foes.
His region of the earth is sprinkled by the rut fluid of elephants brought as customary guest gifts by rulers from all over the earth.I am not certain of the interpretation of the first half of this stanza. Although prāghūrṇaka means a guest and prāghūrṇikā is known to mean the hospitable reception of a guest, I believe the composer’s intent may have been a gift brought by a guest. If this is accepted, I believe kalpa makes good sense in the context as “prescribed (by convention).” VV translates, The ground (in front of) his (palace) was sprinkled with the rut of strong foreign elephants, brought by the rulers of the country of Sārvabhauma.
He adds that “foreign” in his translation literally means “guest;” and he explains “the country of Sārvabhauma” as the lands to the north, reasoning that Sārvabhauma is the name of Kubera’s elephant, and Kubera is the regent of the north. I find this altogether unconvincing and believe sārvabhauma-dharaṇīśvara should be understood literally as “kings from all over the earth;” or perhaps more strongly as “universal sovereigns.” The rest of VV’s translation is possible, but it strikes me as awkward. I would not expect the elephants to be described as guests. The heads of his antagonists, seized in raids by his hosts of thousands of horses who spurn the speed of the wind, are mounted on the tips of his lances.Or, as understood by VV, on his hundreds of thousands of lances.
In the beginning it was the nectar-rayed moon, that yielder of nectar who is the head jewel of Śambhu; then it was Bharata of his the moon’s lineage; and then Vijayāditya with the cognomen Calukya; and likewise His Majesty Satyāśraya-Vallabha; and now it is His Majesty, the shelter of all the world sarva-lokāśraya, the divine king named Mummaḍi-Bhīma, who became a true founder of the dynasty.As also noted by VV, the Vijayāditya mentioned here is the ruler of Ayodhyā in the legendary genealogy, and Satyāśraya is clearly Pulakeśin II. Mummaḍi-Bhīma and sarvalokāśraya must be titles of Vimalāditya, who claims to be as prominent a figure in the history of his dynasty as those listed here.
Becoming like the sharp edge of an axe and splitting the Saurāṣṭras, the abundance of his prowess then becomes like a seductress who drives the Śakas, Lāṭas and Gurjaras out of mind. On a whim, it sends heroes to the otherworld, as good deeds send people to heaven, and drives others—those terrified of him—to the ends of the horizon, as the excellence of their austerities might drive them to the supreme end.
He is a veritable crocodile-bannered Kāma among heroes; he has annihilated strife, like the crocodile-bannered Kāma whose body has been annihilated; he dispels the blind darkness of enemies, like the lord of heavenly bodies the sun which dispels malevolent darkness; he possesses the royal arts, like Hara Śiva who bears a digit of the moon; he pleases the woman rāmā who is Fortune ramā, like a mountain which is pleasing with delightful rama gardens ārāma; he is a capable wielder of the battleaxe, like Rāma i.e. Paraśurāma;I wonder if in the composer’s pronunciation, paraśu-kriyā and para-sukriyā sounded the same. In this case the meaning understood for the king would be “capable of benefitting others.” he delights the gods and adhvaryu priests, like Sahadeva who is the son of the adhvaryu priests of the gods the two Aśvins; he makes thousands of poets kavi happy sa-mud by granting them the desired reward, like a special kind of Nandana gardenVV’s translation speaks of a nandana tree here. whose desirable fruits thousands of birds vi covet samutka; he is comparable to the thousand-eyed Indra; he is of the Mānavya gotra; he is a saviour of his gotra; an uplifter of the lineage of the overlord of stars the moon; resplendent in prosperity a waxing moon; he has turned a succession of enemies into tributaries; his lotus feet are attended upon and tinted red by the rays of a multitude of jewels fitted to the surfaces of the crowns of flocks of enemy kings; he strikes terror into the entire circle of rulers through the mere sight of his Boar emblem; he casts the shadow of the numerous bright parasols appropriate to his rank of Universal Sovereign cakravartin over the entire world. That shelter of all the world sarva-lokāśraya, His Majesty Viṣṇuvardhana, the supremely pious Supreme Lord parameśvara of Emperors mahārājādhirāja, the Supreme Sovereign parama-bhaṭṭāraka and supreme devotee of Maheśvara, convokes all householders kuṭumbin—including foremost the territorial overseers rāṣṭrakūṭa—who reside in Guddhavādi district viṣaya, and commands the minister mantrin, the chaplain purohita, the general senāpati, the crown prince yuvarāja and the commander of the guard dauvārikādhyakṣa as follows—
To wit:
The primeval supreme Brahmā who came into being spontaneously and then released the waters, discharged his semen into them the waters, which became a great golden egg. From this egg arose the Creator vidhi, the grandfather of the worlds; and from him were born ten sons of the mind, steeped in learning and full of splendour, beginning with Marīci.
The most majestic among them was the one known as Vasiṣṭha, the sage associated with his wife Arundhatī. From him arose the one known as Kuṇḍina, and in his Kauṇḍinya lineage gotra in due course arose Droṇa, a most extraordinarily excellent Brahmin whose conduct set the standards, being praiseworthy and honest.
His son was the minister saciva named Datta, like a boon given datta in grace by Hara Śiva, of auspicious works, praised for his capability and endowed with the powers śakti of mastery prabhu, counsel mantra and energy utsāha.
The son of this abode of honourable virtue and of the faithful Cīḍamambā is named Vajra. He is kindly of speech, keen of intellect and benevolent of mind.
In his house even the parrots and mynahs recite the Vedas and treatises śāstra, because they hear them ever and anon being recited by clever pupils.
A god like Bhīmeśvara a divine king like Lord Bhīma,VV feels quite confident that this deity is the Bhīmeśvara of Drākṣārāma. While that, or another image of Śiva patronised by a king Bhīma is indeed probably meant here, I think there is at least a bitextual allusion to Mummaḍi-Bhīma Vimalāditya himself, who has been called deva no less than twice above. If the first line of the stanza is understood in this way, then the second line must be understood as “the anytime Lord of Veṅgī” who is superior to any other king even while Bhīma himself is superior to any other king of Veṅgī. a ruler like the Lord of Veṅgī, and a minister like Minister Vajra—has never been and will never be again.
Carrying both the burden of the earth, which had been borne by serpent lords, by the elephants of the quarters, and by the sixteen primeval kings, and the arduous burden of battle, which had been borne by heroes who surpassed even Śūdraka and the like, in due succession but also on the strength of his polity and the strength of his arm he attained the position of being the aide of King Birudaṅka Bhīma, in government as well as with the sword.
Flocks of learned men praise both the liege and the underling of this pair i.e. Vimalāditya and Vajra by saying that the majestic Great Indra of Kings Vimalāditya is more puissant than the Great Indra the god, for though both crushed the families of enemy kings troops of hostile mountains, the latter was a destroyer of the cowpen gotra, and only the former is first and foremost the saviour of his family gotra; and this heavy i.e. respectable one named Vajra surpasses the more lightweight thunderbolt of the latter.
The sky is pervaded with clouds accumulated from the dark smoke of his Vajra’s triple fire along with the thousands of clouds generated from the smoke of the burning of the cities of kings opposed to his own aims; and the earth is showered by tears from the eyes of his enemies’ wives as well as by the pure water he uses for washing the feet of his immaculate guests.
This Minister Vajra deserves the praise of the people of the world, whom he gratifies by donating wealth. He is a sun to his lineage of Brahmins, extremely clever, and the honesty of his speech is never compromised.
This wall of adamant for the protection of the wise, which is the wise Vajra, keeps the totality of enemy soldiers confined to a prison. He possesses the excellence and majesty of Viṣṇu the Discus Bearer, and is a bee to the lotus that is the foot of Śrīkaṇṭha Śiva.
In his speech, thought and action he has always taken after his gotra progenitor Kuṇḍina, surpassing even him. He performs an uninterrupted succession of ritual acts dharma related to the three sacred fires. He is an overlord among Brahmins and a treasure-house of generosity.
He is devoted to the feet of Vimalāditya the crest-jewel of the Cālukyas and is thus a unique crest jewel among devotees, a manifest Śiva. He has a good reputation as a crest jewel of ministers, and has been named His Honour the Ocean of Benevolence.
In the kingdom consisting of seven constituents aṅgaSee Arthaśāstra 6.1.1, svāmy-amātya-janapada-durga-kośa-daṇḍa-mitrāṇi prakr̥tayaḥ. rulership is essential, but no less so is the position of a minister, which is second to the former. In that position he Vajra has received from me Vimalāditya special distinction represented by the gateway of honour śrīdvāra, the peacock-feather fan piñcha, the water vessel karaka, the parasol ātapa-vāraṇa and so on.
To him—the crest jewel of ministers, the wall of adamant for the protection of the wise, the ocean of benevolence, who is popularly known as Vajjiyapeggaḍa, who is my devoted servant who has undertaken travails on my behalf, and who is a resident of Kāramaceḷu and belongs to the Kauṇḍinya gotra—I, for the sake of my continuing prosperity, have given the village Raṇastipūṇḍi together with the village named Pāṟuvaḻa located in your district, converted into a rent-free holding agrahāra. Let this be known to you.
Its boundaries are as follows.Throughout this passage, I translate the Telugu phrases tentatively on the basis of VV’s translation and words occurring in other Eastern Cālukya inscriptions. To the east, the western bank of the tank in the middle of Kauta. To the southeast, the western bank of the Wood-apple Pond at the triple boundary juncture of Mrontukaṟṟu, Bālūru and Raṇastipūṇḍi. To the south, the road on the ridge sloping to the bank of the Big Tank. To the southwest, the Tamarind Pond at the triple boundary juncture of Pālūru,This name is evidently identical to Bālūru above. VV in his translation normalises the former to Pālūru. Goṟukeṭu and Raṇastipūṇḍi. To the west, a bush in KoṟukeṭuEvidently the same name as Goṟukeṭu above. VV normalises both to Koṟukēṟu in his translation. To the northwest, the border is none other than the border of Ḻulla. To the north, the border is none other than the border of Kaḻapaṟṟu and Eḻṭa. To the northeast, the triple boundary juncture of Eḻṭa, Mrontukaṟṟu and Raṇastipūṇḍi.
The boundaries of the llaṁghana field named Tāṁkalapolamu,The meaning of the text is not clear here; see the apparatus to line 92. VV translates, The boundaries of the Āmallaṅghana(?) field in the fields of Tāṅkala
. which is attached to this rent-free holding agrahāra named Raṇastipūṇḍi, are as follows. To the east and to the south, Gāṁgaleru.According to VV, this is the name of a river. To the west, Kollikuṟṟu near Siripodipūṇḍi, Goṅgalanrolu and Ḻulla.Here too, I follow the translation of VV, including his indication of uncertainty. To the north, the border is none other than the border of Siripodipūṇḍi.
Let no-one pose an obstacle to the enjoyment of rights over it. He who does so shall have the five great sins. So too has the reverend master Vyāsa spoken:
Many kings have granted land, and many have preserved it as formerly granted. Whosoever at any time owns the land, the fruit reward accrued of granting it belongs to him at that time.
He who would seize land, whether given by himself or by another, shall be born as a worm in faeces for sixty thousand years.
Of this decree issued in the course of the eighth regnal year in the month Siṁha, the recipient is the lord of Brahmins, with the title “His Honour the Commander of Law Enforcement daṇḍanāyaka”.
The executor ājñapti is Nr̥pakāma; Bhīmana Bhaṭṭa, the son of Rāciya Pedderi is the author of these verses; and the writer lekhaka of the decree is Jontācārya.VV reads the prose in line 97 with this stanza, taking the prose to be a description of Nr̥pakāma. This is possible, but it seems more likely to me that the prose passage is yet another description of Minister Vajra. Nr̥pakāma is certainly different from the Nr̥pakāma mentioned in the [Ārumbāka grant of Bādapa](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00030.xml), who was already old when that grant was issued. Bhīmana Bhaṭṭa, the son of Rāciya Pedderi is also the executor of the [Korumelli](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00078.xml) and [Kalidiṇḍi](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00079.xml) grants of Rājarāja I, where his title is kaṭakeśa and the name or title Nr̥pakāma does not appear. Nonetheless, the Nr̥pakāma mentioned here as executor may be the same person as Bhīmana Bhaṭṭa, in which case Jontācārya was both the composer and the writer. Finally, Jontācārya in turn is probably, but not certainly, different from the Jontācārya who was the writer of several grants of Amma II.