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.
From him was born Āyus. From him, Nahuṣa. From him, 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 him, Sainyayāti. From him, Hayapati. From him, Sārvabhauma. From him, Jayasena. From him, Mahābhauma. From him, Aiśānaka. From him, Krodhānana. From him, Devaki. From him, R̥bhuka. From him, R̥kṣaka. From him, Mativara, performer of a Sattra sacrifice and Lord of the River Sarasvatī. From him, Kātyāyana. From him, Nīla. From him, Duṣyanta. His son—
the immensely powerful universal sovereign Bharata erected a forest of sacrificial posts yūpa and performed Aśvamedha sacrifices on the banks of the Gaṅgā and the Yamunā.
From that Bharata was born Bhūmanyu. From him, Suhotra. From him, Hastin. From him, Virocana. From him, Ajamīla. From him, Saṁvaraṇa. The son of Saṁvaraṇa and of Tapatī, the daughter of Tapana, was Sudhanvan. From him was born Parikṣit. From him, Bhīmasena. From him, Pradīpana. From him, Śantanu. From him, Vicitravīrya. From him, King Pāṇḍu.
He had five sons—Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva—who were to obtain the kingdom viṣaya like the five senses which grasp the sense-objects viṣaya.
That one who, after defeating Indra the Crusher of Forts, made an offering of the Khāṇḍava forest to fire; who also obtained many divine weapons from Śambhu Śiva in combat; who seated himself on half the throne of Maghavat Indra when he had pulverised the enemies of the gods; who sent his own enemies, the Kauravas, to the city of Death—
—from that Arjuna was born Abhimanyu. From him, Parikṣit. From him, Janamejaya. From him, Kṣemuka. From him, Naravāhana. From him, Śatānīka. From him, 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 the power of fate, passed to the otherworld.
In the midst of that tribulation, his chief queen, heavy with the burden of a foetus, went together with the overseer of the harem, the women and the chamberlain, guided by the aged ministers and the chaplain purohita, at long last came to a Brahmanical settlement agrahāra named Muḍivemu, and there gave birth to a son named 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 boy, arranging for the performance of the ceremonies traditionally applicable to his particular kṣatriya gotra, namely being of the Mānavya gotra, a son of Hārīti, and so on.In some parallel versions (see the apparatus to line 21), 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 obtained 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—having vanquished Trilocana Pallava and taken his daughter Uttamadāni for his wife, and having conquered the kings of the Kadambas, 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.
The son of that King Viṣṇuvardhana and his chief queen born of the Pallava dynasty was Vijayāditya.
His son was Pulakeśī Vallabha. His son was Kīrtivarman. His son—
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 Hārīti, 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 younger brother Indrarāja Indra Bhaṭṭāraka,See the apparatus to line 33 about an error in the text that has, in my opinion, been corrected in the original. for seven days. His son Viṣṇuvardhana II, for nine years. His son Maṅgi Yuvarāja, for twenty-five. His son Jayasiṁha II, for thirteen. His younger brother, 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 Vijayāditya IV Kollabigaṇḍa, for six months. His son Ammarāja I, for seven years. After dethroning his son the child Vijayāditya V, King rājan Tāḍapa, for one month. After defeating him, Cālukya-Bhīma’s son Vikramāditya II, for eleven months. Then that King rājan Tāḍapa’s son Yuddhamalla, for seven years. Then—
Having defeated that Yuddhamalla, Ammarāja’s younger brother, Rāja-Bhīma II of fearsome bhīma prowess ruled the earth for twelve years.
That Bhīma, comparable to Daśaratha, had two worthy sons like Rāma and Bharata, specifically Kings nr̥pa Dānārṇava and Amma. The younger of these two, Ammarāja II, protected rakṣ- the surface of the earth for twenty-five years.
Learned in the sixty-four sciences prescribed for kings, his eldest brother called Dānārṇava, being comparable to a wish-granting divine tree, surpassed Karṇa and his like with his copious giving and thereby made his name “Ocean of Gifts” forever literally true among the populace. He married the earth, gorgeous in her dress of forests, for a span of three years.Since the earth is spoken of as a woman here and in the next stanza, I assume that the verb vah-, literally “carry,” means “take for wife” in this sentence. However, related inscriptions do not normally speak of the king as married to the land, so perhaps the composer’s intent was simply that he “bore” the earth. The same verb is apparently used in this latter sense in stanza XIII below.
Thereafter the earth, left without a leader, seemed for twenty-seven years to be performing austerities to obtain a suitable husband.
Then there was a king rājan, a veritable Moon of the Cālukyas cālukya-candra—born of Dānārṇava, endowed with the arts possessing digits, a disperser of the darkness of enemies—who dispelled the suffering of the earth.
He, His Majesty Śaktivarman, seizing the earth by force from the forceful host of his enemies as if seizing it from Bali, the enemy of the gods, ruled it for twelve years as Cālukya-Nārāyaṇa.
After him, the one born after him i.e. his younger brother, King bhūpa Rājamārtaṇḍa Vimalāditya, a Sun among kings blazingly brilliant and adept at dispersing the darkness of foes, bore the burden of the earth for seven years, glorious as the seven-horsed sun, with his foot planted on the heads of all rulers of the earth.
Of that Vimalāditya, comparable to Viṣṇu the husband of Lakṣmī, and of Rājarāja’s daughter born of the Milk Ocean of the Coḍa Dynasty, Queen Kuṁdāṁbikā herself comparable to Śrī i.e. Lakṣmī, born of the Milk Ocean, was born a son, His Majesty King adhipa Rājarāja, who dweltThe participle prativasan is evidently used in place of a finite verb here. in the hearts of women all over the three worlds, like another Kandarpa Kāma.
Already in childhood, the jewelled locket of the heir-apparent became the ornament of his neck, like a garland conferred on him by the earth itself in her choice of a husband, smitten with his virtues.
He, King nr̥pa Rājarāja, the repository of virtue, donned the royal turban in order to save the entire earth upon a multitude of Śaka years enumerated by the measure of the Vedas 4, oceans 4, treasures 9 i.e. Śaka 944, when the Sun was positioned in Leo siṁha, on the dark bahula fortnight’s second day, a Thursday, when the moon was conjoined with the asterism Uttara-Bhadrā, and the watch yāma of Libra vaṇij was ascendant.
His head, bound with the turban of royalty, shone all the more, as if it had been raised by the populace in order to bear the burden of the earth.The simile in this stanza is opaque to me. The reading may be incorrect; see the apparatus to line 56 and compare the slightly different version in stanza 22 of the [Korumelli grant](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00078.xml). Could the point of both (or at least of a hypothetical model from which both are distorted) be a comparison of the royal turban to the head padding worn by labourers who carry loads on their heads?
On the other hand,
The sole jewel of the Coḍa family, called Rājendra Coḍa, who delights the company of the truthful by a rain of generosity, is renowned as one whose footstool is tinted with a halo of luminescence cast by the gems atop the diadems of all lords of men.
That Mount Himavat was rendered holy, sprinkled by the pure waters of the Gaṅgā dripping onto him from the head of just one Lord Śiva. How much more so is this Rājendra, with light spilling on him from the heads of many bowing lords, which illumine the expanse of the world with the brilliance of gems?I find this stanza awkward. The text is quite clear and requires only minor and straightforward emendation, but instead of the irrelevant and repetitive mention of illumining the expanse of the world, I would expect something in the second part of the simile to correspond to the water of the Gaṅges in the first part. Perhaps the composer had intended ratnālokaiḥ instead of ratnāloka-, which would eliminate the need to supply “with light”, but in that case it would be the heads themselves that illumine the world. Going further with emendation, -prāṁgaṇair yaś would solve this new problem, but would still result in rather awkward syntax, so I refrain from emending so far. Venkataramanayya (60) sees in this stanza a reference to Rājendra Coḻa’s Gangetic campaign, but since the Ganges does not seem to be involved in the second part of the simile, the reference, if intended, is just a slight hint.
He who, after effortlessly conquering, with a mere stick with no other means than his army, the all-supporting earth whose moats are the four oceans, along with the islands,Venkataramanayya (60) opines that this stanza refers to Rājendra Coḻa’s overseas conquests. This is probably indeed correct. erected, all over every quarter, victory pillars marked with his name to dispel the illusion of independent supremacy of other rulers, as if erecting pickets to bind the elephants of the quarters, their minds blinded by pride.
Having learned to his satisfaction of the Cālukyan Jewel’s Rājarāja’s excellence in birth, discipline, generosity and renown, and his virtues such as intelligence, bravery, honesty, purity, craftiness, valour and forbearance, that Coḍa Lord Madhurāntaka Rājendra gave his own chaste daughter named Ammaṁga to be his prime queen.
While this king RājarājaThe stanza does not make the subject change entirely clear, but the relative pronouns in stanzas 18 to 20 correspond to a demonstrative pronoun in stanza 21, and the relative pronouns in stanzas 22 to 25 are logically picked up by the demonstrative in line 72. has been protecting the circle of the earth impartially and in the proper way, the conduct of the subjects has become rid of obstacles, free from sin, unspoiled and without envy.
The eternal fame of this king—who is himself dependent on the liana that is the royal Calukya lineage—decorates the fair lady who is the trinity of worlds as conspicuously as a row of necklaces of scented sandalwood, as a swaying brow ornament,The text is uncertainly read here, see the apparatus to line 67. I assume that lālāmakī, not attested to my knowledge but derivable from lalāma, means a flower or jewel worn on the forehead or in the parting of the hair (as a modern-day māṁg tīkā), but this word may have been misread. The preceding loleva is a conjectural reading; if it is wrong, then it is also possible that lālāmakī qualifies the garland in the next quarter, making it a head wreath. as a garland laced with strands of immaculate jasmine, as the allure of a gossamer shawl.Here too, I am uncertain of the interpretation, though the reading is quite secure. The other object of comparison are all physical, but in this case I see no other way but to understand lakṣmī, “beauty” as the object, and daukūla as “of something made of dukūla cloth.”
For this lord, His Majesty Paragaṇḍa Bhairava, whose majesty is heroism, it is the vultures—weaving circles in the firmament with pinions spread wide as they hanker to devour the brains spilling from the skulls of his foes’ elephants split asunder by the sword in his massive arms—that provide the splendour of a mass of waving feather fans piṁcchā.
His very enemies extol and propagate his valour unceasingly as they run from the battle fronts willy-nilly with perplexity, saying, “what martial hero could, mounted on just a single horse, again and again overcome a thousand steeds,Here too the reading is uncertain (see the apparatus to line 70), but the meaning must be something much like that translated here. and who could rain showers of arrows on the soldiers facing him?”
Greetings. That shelter of all the world sarva-lokāśraya, the supremely pious Supreme Lord parameśvara of Emperors mahārājādhirāja, Supreme Sovereign parama-bhaṭṭāraka and supreme devotee of Maheśvara, His Majesty Viṣṇuvardhana Rājarāja I, who was deliberately appointed as heir by his mother and father, seated on his throne of generosity, convokes all householders kuṭumbin—including foremost the territorial overseers rāṣṭrakūṭa—who reside in Pallapu-Gudravāra district viṣaya together with the district named Gāḍevalu and, in the presence of the counsellor mantrin, the chaplain purohita, the general senāpati, the crown prince yuvarāja, the commander of the guard dauvārika, the chief minister pradhāna and so on, commands them as follows. To wit:
There is a great general renowned as Rājarāja Brahma-mahārāja, the liana of whose reputation has been watered and nourished by the liquor that is the sympathy of King Madhurāntaka Rājendra Coḻa.
With his mighty, adroit and terrible arms, he is a serpent capable of protecting the great treasure that is the royal majesty of King Rājendra Coḍa.
When he received the command of the great King Rājendra, my Rājarāja’s incomparable maternal uncle, he forthwith proceeded from the southern direction to the land of Āndhra, accompanied by a great army, so fearsome that people looked on wondering, “Is this perchance another Death, greedy to drink the blood of enemies?”
Right along with him came another general, called Uttama-Śoḍa Coḍagon, who had pleased his lord with his devotion and efforts.
And there came yet another man, Uttama-Coḍa Milāḍuḍayān, the lord husband of an army devoted to its commander faithful to her husband, whose sight could not be borne by enemies who could not bear the sight of another man.
The three generals looked like three blazing fires lusting to burn to cinders the forest that was the army of Karṇāṭa.
Between the generals of Karṇāṭa and the Tamil lords there ensued a battle, frightful with the clash of elephants into one another.
Now it came to fisticuffs, then in a moment to hair-tearing; now staff upon staff, it is said, then immediately spear upon spear.
Some valiant bowmen, their wrath burgeoning in battle, were even slain by their own arrows, turned around by a wind whose force was generated by the volleys sent by both armies against one another.
Stalwart soldiers, as if they were moths to the torrent of sparks struck by the mighty clash of the swords of swordsmen, became filled with fear, their minds wavering, five cavalry and infantry.See the apparatus to line 88–89 about the lacuna here.
Headless torsos of elephants and torsos of horses led by torsos of men dance with joy: “on this day we have paid our debt, so our lord has not been feeding us in vain.”
Elephants by elephants, horses by horses and men by men alike were annihilated as the two forces, matched in combat, perished simultaneously in that battle at the compulsion of fate.See the apparatus to lines 91 and 92 for two emendations that may be unwarranted, but without which I cannot interpret this stanza in a coherent way.
“Surely this is our opportunity to go to heaven,” reflected the finest footmen and riders and, longing for union with the divine damsels, they departed all together from the earth because of fate’s ill will.I assume that yugma (normally, “pair”) is used in this stanza for yugya, “draught animal,” which in turn is used metonymically for elephant and horse soldiery.
Of these Tamil generals, the one named Rājarāja Brahma-mahārāja, having received the command of my maternal uncle the incomparable Madhurāntaka-deva and engaged in battle with the generals of Karṇāṭa, went to heaven together with those same generals, because the strength of their cavalry, elephant and infantry troops was matched. I the Cālukya Rājarāja I have founded at the village Kalidiṇḍi a Śiva temple āyatana dedicated to him, named Rājarājeśvara. I shall also found two further Śiva temples dedicated to the other two generals known as Uttama-śoḍa Coḍagon and Uttama-coḍa Milāḍuḍayān. In order to provide for auspicious and exalted music, for the renovation of what is broken and cracked khaṇḍa-sphuṭita, and for sacrifices bali, offerings upahāra and so forth at these See the apparatus to line 98 about a conjectural restoration here. three temples, and to provide for the feeding of fifty pupils chātra studying the treatises śāstra, I have granted the village named Kalidiṇḍi, henceforth to be renowned by the name Madhurāntaka-nallūru, along with the hamlet Māgaḍavaṟu,The syntax is a little problematic here; see the apparatus to lines 102 and 103. It is possible that the donation is only the hamlet Māgaḍavaṟu, located near the village Kalidiṇḍi. together with fifty and two courtesans veśyā, a hundred Brahmins knowledgeable of the Brahman and offering oblations in fire, a hundred Vaiśyas comparable to Dhanada Kubera, and a hundred Śūdras arisen from the lotus foot of Brahman.
Its boundaries are as follows. To the east, the border is none other than the border of Konneki. To the southeast, the border is none other than the border of lidoṟṟu. To the south, the border is Koṇṭhama.Koṇṭhama is probably another village name, in which case there is probably a scribal omission here, and the intended text was “the border is none other than the border of Koṇṭhama.” To the southwest, the border is none other than the border of Vevāka. To the west, the border is none other than the border of Kaḍapaṟṟu. To the northwest, the border is none other than the border of Dāḍināṇḍu. To the north, the border is none other than the border of Potuṁbaṟṟu. To the northeast, the border is none other than the border of Potuṁbaṟṟu.
Also, in Pallapu-Gudravāra district, the village named Kaḍapaṟṟu and the hamlet Duggiyapūṇḍi. Of this village, the border on the east is none other than the border of Kaludiṇḍi. To the southest, the same. To the south, the border is none other than the border of Vevāka. To the southwest, the same. To the west, the border is none other than the border of Āvakūru. To the northwest, the river named Tallikroyya tāmara-kolani krovviṇḍḍeṭaṁbāsina. To the north, the border is none other than the border of Kalvasaṇḍa. To the northeast the border is none other than the border of Tāḍināṇḍu.
Also, in Pallapu-Gudravāra district, the village named Āvakūru. The border on the east is none other than the border of Kaḍapaṟṟu. To the southeast, To the west, the border is none other than the border of Koṇḍika-Muṁjalūra. the border is none other than the border of ṟṟu. To the northeast, the border is none other than the border of Kaḍapaṟṟu. shall be conjoined with the five great sins.
He who would seize land, whether given by himself or by another, shall be born as a worm in faeces for sixty thousand years.
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.
“Each in your own time, you shall respect this bulwark of legality that is universally applicable to kings!”—thus Rāmabhadra begs all these future rulers over and over again.
Hereby I offer my respectful obeisance añjali to all future kings on earth, whether born in my lineage or a different royal lineage, who with minds averted from sin observe this ruling dharma of mine in its integrity.
His Majesty Rājarāja, comparable to , by the convention of superiority from the western Sunset Mountain, always by the convention of settingThis stanza is too fragmentarily preserved for any coherent interpretation, and I know of no parallels. The translations of the surviving fragments are offered as suggestions, but depending on the context, their meaning may have been quite different.
The executor ājñapti is the Castellan kaṭakeśa, Rāciya Pedderi’s son named Bhīmana. Most of this stanza is lost, and my restoration is conjectural; see also the apparatus to line 121.