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Greetings from the majestic residence at Kallūra. The dear grandson of His Majesty Kīrtivarman, whose actions dispel the suffering of all the world, a jewel of a king arisen from the ocean that is the family of the Calukyas—who attained kingship by grace of the lotus feet of Lord Bhaṭṭāraka, who are the darling sons of Hārītī, who are of the Mānavya gotra and who have performed the Aśvamedha sacrifice—; the dear son of King mahārāja Viṣṇuvardhana, a veritable Supreme Viṣṇu of this epoch, who is resplendent because he is illuminated by a host of virtues not inferior to those of his father; namely His Majesty the supremely pious King mahārāja Pr̥thivī-Jayasiṁha Vallabha, who was deliberately appointed as heir by his mother and father, whose pair of lotus feet are engilded by a mass of beam clusters from gems fitted to the surfaces of the crowns of enemy kings forced to bow by his ever-increasing valour, commands the householders kuṭumbin of Pḻakki district viṣaya as follows.
To wit: to the grandsons of Kumāraśarman of the Maudgalya gotra and of the school the Kauthuma-Chandogas, the sons of Vasuśarman, namely to Vinayaśarman and Viṣṇuśarman—who have fully perused the three thousand trisahasra-pāragaSee 145-146 for a discussion of the term. and are devoted to the six duties of a Brahmin—on the occasion of an eclipse of the moon, in order to further augment our my vitality, health, victory and glory, having performed a libation of water, I have assigned a homestead vasati in their original domicile ādi-vāsa in the village Punnāgapadra, and donated the western part of that village together with the Kuḻivāṭaka field, converted into a rent-free holding agrahāra by a remission of all taxes, to remain their property as long as the moon, sun and stars remain.
Having learned this, you shall continue living in equanimity, providing for them the appropriate dues bhāga and commodities bhoga. Let no-one pose an obstacle to their enjoyment of their rights. The following verses were sung by Vyāsa:
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.
O Yudhiṣṭhira, diligently preserve land that has been donated, whether by yourself or another. O best of land-possessors, preserving a grant is superior to making a grant.
The executor ājñapti is Parameśvaravarman. Year 18, the 8th fortnight of the winter season, day 15.
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Om ! Prospérité ! De la résidence de l’illustre Kallūra,
le cher petit-fils de l’illustre de Kīrtivarman, joyau des rois nés dans l’océan qu’est la lignée des Calukya,Ces deux composés : kula-jalanidhi-samudbhūta-rāja-ratnasya sakala-jagad-ā[r*]tti-hara-karmmaṇaḥ śrī-kīrttivarmaṇaḥ, qualifient aussi le biruda Kīrtivarman dans l’insc. n° 15. On retrouve également le premier dans les insc. nos 16, avec la variante kula-jaladhi° , et dans l’insc. n°19 avec la variante kula-jalanidhi-samutpanna°. Le second apparaît dans les insc. nos 15 et 17. Ces composés glosent toujours le biruda Kīrtivarman. destructeur des souffrances de tout l’univers, rois qui ont obtenu leur royaume à la faveur des pieds de lotus du seigneur Bhaṭṭāraka, fils de Hārītī, du même gotra que les descendants de Manu, qui pratiquent l’aśvamedha,
le cher fils du grand roi Viṣṇuvardhana, grand Viṣṇu du yuga,Nous avons rencontré ce composé dans trois autres inscriptions du même roi (insc. nos 15, 16, 17). Nous pouvons formuler l’hypothèse qu’il s’agit d’un dérivé à vr̥ddhi initiale sur la base du syntagme idaṁ yugam. Nous serions alors en présence d’un exemple assez intéressant de délocutivité, idam référant au locuteur, donc au discours. Ce composé fait allusion à un exploit de Viṣṇu : à la fin du Kaliyuga, Viṣṇu s’incarne en Kalki et remet les méchants sur la voie du bien. brillant et luisant d’une multitude de vertus qui n’étaient pas inférieures à celle de son père, l’illustre grand roi Pr̥thivī Jayasiṁha Vallabha, dont les deux pieds de lotus sont rougis par les bourgeons que sont les rayons émis par les pierres serties sur l’orbe des diadèmes des rois ennemis, que son auguste majesté fait courber, très pieux, méditant aux pieds de sa mère et de son père, ordonne aux chefs de famille habitant le viṣaya de Pḻakki :
je donne aux deux petit-fils de Kumāraśarman, du même gotra que les Maudgalya, disciple de l’école des Kauthuma Chandoga, aux deux fils de Vasuśarman, à Vinayaśarman et à Viṣṇuśarman, qui connaissent parfaitement les Trisahasra, dévoués à leurs six devoirs,Sur les six devoirs cf. Manusmr̥ti, X, 75. en vue de l’accroissement de notre vie, santé, victoire et gloire, lors de l’éclipse de lune, après avoir fait une libation d’eau, à Ādivāsa, après avoir fait ?,Ce passage demeure obscur. une parcelle à l’ouest, jointe à des terrains de Kuḻivāṭaka, exemptés de toute taxe, en qualité d’agrahāra, pour aussi longtemps qu’existeront la lune et les étoiles. Sachant cela, ceux qui procurent la jouissance de ce lot vivent dans le bonheur. Aucune charge ne doit lui être imposée. Les vers de Vyāsa sont :
beaucoup ont donné une terre, beaucoup l’on protégée, celui qui possède la terre en possède le fruit.
Qu’elle soit donnée par lui ou par un autre, ô Yudhiṣṭhira, protège avec force la terre ! ô meilleur des possesseurs de la terre, la protection de la terre est plus méritoire que le don.
L’exécuteur est Parameśvaravarman. La huitième quinzaine de Hemanta, dans la dix-huitième année de règne.
Somasekhara Sarma (136, hereafter: SS) argues that [Guḍivāḍa Set 2](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00006.xml) was issued first, creating the village of Kuḍivāḍa/Guḍivāḍa or creating an agrahāra from that village. Later on, [Set 1](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00005.xml) detached some of this land and granted it to Vinayaśarman and Viṣṇuśarman of the Maudgalya gotra, along with land detached from the village of Ādivāsa. Later or simultaneously, [Set 3](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00007.xml) compensated the original donees (Svāmiyaśas and Viṣṇuyaśas of the Vatsa gotra) by giving them land detached from the village of Kundūra.
SS’s editor finds his argument unconvincing, observing that both the village and the donee names are different in the first two grants, and the third grant seems to be a later modified copy of the second. The difference in donee names is a major part of SS’s point, and SS is in my opinion probably correct to assume that the Kuḻivāṭaka kṣetra of the first set is identical (or at least connected) to the Kuḍivāḍa of the other two sets, all being connected to modern Guḍivāḍa. However, both the second and third set definitely concern land split off from Kundūra, although Set 2 specifies the extent of this land while Set 3 does not, and Set 2 contains a clause about the brothers passing on a ninth of their grant to their nephew, while Set 3 describes the borders.
For some reason, SS entirely ignores the obvious toponym Punnāgapadra while treating the adjacent word ādivāsa as the name of a village. The expression in Set 1 (as received) is Ādivāse punnāgapadra vastādiṁ kr̥tvā kuḻivāṭaka-kṣetra-sahitaṁ paścima-khaṇḍaḥ … °āgrahāraṁ kr̥tvā. Here, vastādiṁ was apparently meant for vasatiṁ, as noted by SS’s editor, while SS himself tentatively offers a major emendation to punnāgopavana-gr̥ha-sthānam. The phrase is paralleled in Set 2 by kuḍivāḍa nāma grāma vasati kr̥tvā and in Set 3 by kuḍivāḍa nāma grāmaḥ vasatiṁ kr̥tvā, both followed by a description of the donated land being separated off existing villages. It is thus certain that vasatiṁ kr̥tvā was likewise intended in Set 1. Elsewhere in the corpus, the word vasati occurs in the sense of a Jain institution, but not in a meaning that would be appropriate for the present context, so I can only assume that it means a domicile or residence for the donee, equivalent to gr̥ha-sthānam (which SS suggested as an emendation, and which occurs in several cognate grants). The donees of all three Guḍivāḍa sets thus receive on the one hand a homestead plot, and on the other hand cultivable land. The homestead in the first set is in my opinion situated in a village named Punnāgapadra, while ādivāsa is not a toponym but a statement that this Punnāgapadra is in fact the place where the donees are already residing to begin with. The field they receive is the western part (paścima-khaṇḍa) of something, presumably of the fields of the same village Punnāgapadra, including or joined to (sahita) the field named Kuḻivāṭaka-kṣetra, which in agreement with SS I take to be connected to modern Guḍivāḍa. I find SS’s interpretation (that the donated land is the western part of the Kuḻivāṭaka-kṣetra) unacceptable.
Thus, there is no reason to believe that the land concerned by Set 1 overlaps with that concerned by the other two sets. The land in Set 2 and Set 3, whose donees are identical, is split off from the lands of the village Kundūra, and the homestead plot for the donees is in the village of Kuḍivāḍa. The difference between these two grants is that in Set 2 the amount of land is specified as 32 nivartanas, and a ninth share of this is passed on to the donees’ sister’s son. In Set 3, conversely, the extent of the land is left unsaid, there is no mention of passing anything on, but the boundaries of the land are listed. The description of the issuer, his predecessors, and of the donees is somewhat shorter in this latter set, but apart from the omission of some phrases, the descriptions are almost verbatim identical to those in Set 2. Given that the script of Set 3 exhibits some late-seeming features (such as the elaborate shape of ba and ja, and the occasional use of a single-stroke o marker such as in l15, Agniṣṭoma), I believe SS’s editor was correct to assume that Set 3 is essentially a reissue of Set 2. This may have been made a generation or two after the original issue, probably specifically for the purpose of describing the exact boundaries. The unique seal of Set 3, without a legend and a royal emblem, may mean that the reissue was from a regional authority, but there is no reason to suspect it of being a forgery.
S. Sarma is right to point out that dating by season (l24) is very unusual at this late time. The [Puloṁbūra grant of Jayasiṁha I](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00010.xml), also dated in this manner, is the reconfirmation of an earlier Viṣṇukuṇḍi grant. Another important observation of his is that since an eclipse of the moon must have taken place on a full-moon day, and the date is the 15th day of the last (8th) fortnight of winter, the months must have been reckoned as pūrṇimānta (unless the season change happened in the middle of a month, something I am not sure can be excluded).