Plates
May the ruddy, divinely glowing dreadlocks of the dark-necked Śiva, in which the conches in the pools of the divine river Gaṅgā appear like so many hands folded in homage, bring prosperity to all the worlds.The text as read by MN is unintelligible and I am unable to propose a plausible reconstruction; see also the apparatus to line 1. I believe the composer probably intended to express something similar to my translation here. The river goddess Gaṅgā resides in Śiva’s hair.
Greetings. Satyāśraya Vallabhendra Pulakeśin II was eager to adorn the lineage of the majestic Cāḷukyas—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, the dynasty’s first lord of royal majesty śrī, having seized this earth by means of his valour from the powerful Durjaya,Either, neither or both of the words balin and durjaya may be names here. Compare line 8 of the [Kākamrāṇu grant of Bhīma I](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00025.xml), where it is claimed that Viṣṇuvardhana uprooted a Durjaya (if this is a name) to obtain the country of Veṅgī. The slightly different parallel stanza in the [Kalucuṁbaṟṟu grant of Amma II](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00037.xml) is likewise ambiguous. just as the grotesque Viṣṇu (Vāmana), the primeval husband of Śrī, seized by means of his stride the earth from Bali, who was hard to overcome, and protected pā- it for eighteen years.
His son Jayasiṁha I, for thirty-three. His younger brother Indrarāja’s Indra Bhaṭṭāraka’s son Viṣṇuvardhana II, for nine. 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. His son Vijayāditya I Bhaṭṭāraka, for eighteen. His son Viṣṇuvardhana IV, for thirty-six.
His son, brilliant as the sun, constructed—according to the count of his battles—a staggering one hundred and eight temples of the blue-necked Śiva, abodes of virtuous men complete with villages and parks and replete with graceful dancing ladies. Steadfast as a hero, he ruled bhuj- the earth for forty years and eight as king narendra, renowned among the populace by the name Vijayāditya II, Narendramr̥garāja.
His son Kali-Viṣṇuvardhana V, for a year and a half. His dear son—
The fearless-hearted lord who with his own flashing sword gleefully caused the uppermost member head of King rājan Maṅgi to topple from his body to the field of battle as lightning causes the summit to topple from a towering mountain to the earth; and who, by intrepidly driving the one named the Kannara along with Śaṁkila from the spacious inhabited land into the badlands durgama and pressing them swiftly into a forest fire dāva, protected the one named Baddega.
That majestic King Vijayāditya III, Guṇaga enjoyed bhuj- the earth for forty and four years together with his brothers.
His brother Prince bhūpati Vikramāditya, the good general of the army whose neck was garlanded with the flashing locket of the heir-apparent, had a judicious son:
He, the dear Cālukya-Bhīma—who was like a mother to the destitute, the helpless and the sick, to the congregation of excellent Brahmins, to supplicants, to ascetics, as well as to skilled and excellent actors,Or, if MN’s edition is incorrect here, “to clever Brahmin pupils, actors.” See the apparatus to line 22. good singers and poets arriving from various lands, because he presented them with the objects of their desires and protected them—ruled bhuj- the earth for thirty years.
His son—who with the sword held in his arm crushed enemy rulers; who, having forcibly conquered the eastern vāsavī region, established a victory pillar in Viraja; the craftiest one in battle who ascended a balance scale with gold; who is surely incomparable to any other kṣatriyas on the surface of this earth—protected rakṣ- the earth for half a year as Vijayāditya IV, Kollabigaṇḍa, brilliant as the sun mitra.See the apparatus to line 25 for textual problems with this stanza. Vijayāditya IV's ascension of a balance scale is also mentioned in close proximity to his erection of a victory pillar in Viraja in stanza 32 of the [Diggubaṟṟu grant of Bhīma II](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00032.xml).
His son—the lotus of whose feet was kissed all over by bees that were the jewels dangling from the heads of prostrate enemies, and who mocked Mount Meru with the brilliance of a heap of gold that was on a par with MeruOr perhaps: with the brilliance of the heap of gold that had been weighed in the balance against him.—protected pā- the earth for seven years as Ammarāja I.
After assaulting and effortlessly dethroning his son the child Vijayāditya V, Lord adhipati Tāla protected pā- the earth for one month.
After defeating him in battle, King bhūmipati Cālukya-Bhīma’s son, King bhūpa Vikramāditya II, protected the earth for eleven months.
Then, King rājan Tāḻapa’s son King dharādhīśa Yuddhamalla, a lord of kindly speech, protected the land for seven years.
Having vanquished him and expelled him from the country, having made other haughty rivals dāyāda resemble clusters of stars vanishing in the rays of the sun, the younger brother of King nr̥pati Amma I—Bhīma II of fearsome bhīma prowess, who took after Arjuna—ruled bhuj- the earth for twelve years, as the Thunderbolt-wielder Indra rules the high heaven.
And his son Ammarāja II ruled the kingdom for twenty-five years. Dedicated to righteousness dharma, he gratified the Brahmins, defeated his enemies and had a great reputation.
And his elder brother by a different mother—the majestic Lord īśa Dānapa, rich in truthfulness, with great and powerful arms, victorious over enemies—became the governor adhipa of the good country of Veṅgī while he Amma II was still reigning over the earth.
Lord adhipa Bhīma II was the son—by Ūrjapā, the virtuous daughter of the Lord of Kaliṅga—of Vijayāditya IV the son of the great King Bhīma I who in turn was the grandson of the connoisseur of arts named Kali Viṣṇuvardhana V.According to MN, and the prevailing opinion in secondary literature, this stanza describes the birth of Dānārṇava as the son of Bhīma II and Ūrjapā. I see no way to obtain this meaning; see the commentary for details.
His Dānārṇava’sI believe that a stanza about Dānārṇava’s birth must have been omitted before this one. See also the commentary to stanza XVI. chest is wide like a gate, his arms are strong and long; he is capable in the duties of a warrior kṣātra; he raises up those who seek shelter. Cherishing the populace of the earth, he is widely famed and resplendent like Dharma himself embodied.See the apparatus to lines 39 and 40 for textual problems that make the interpretation of this stanza difficult.
Already as a child, he had all royal education that one could acquire; he follows the counsel of preceptors learned in the sciences; logic he has attained fame
The majestic and powerful Dānārṇava, son of King Cālukya-Bhīma II ascended to the throne at a multitude of Śaka years marked by two, nine and the Vasus 8 i.e. Śaka 892 expired, on the eighth tithi , a good Thursday, at an auspicious moment muhūrta, having propitiated the gods to their pleasure.
The liberality of this king innumerable crushing the pride of valour ever praised by the noble King Dānārṇava, son of the majestic and beloved King Calukya-Bhīma.
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, deliberately appointed to kingship by his mother and father, convokes the minister mantrin, the chaplain purohita, the general senāpati, the crown prince yuvarāja and the commander of the guard dauvārikādhyakṣa, and commands all householders kuṭumbin—including foremost the territorial overseers rāṣṭrakūṭa—who reside in Pottepināṇḍu district viṣaya as follows.See the apparatus notes to lines 47 to 50 about the restorations in this passage.
He who was born in the Mudugoṇḍa Caḻukya lineage, renowned Malla enjoys , having attained property on earth.Most of this stanza is lost, and the extant last quarter is metrically problematic. My tentative translation is along the lines suggested in my commentary to this stanza. Malla may be the name (or the beginning of the name) of the progenitor introduced here, or it may be a simple epithet, “champion,” to a name in the lost part. The reading Malli- (for Malliya, as in line 59) is also possible.
His son intelligent, victorious with his bow over many enemies, donating to the worthy, endowed with warriorly kṣatra qualities.
His wife was Perakāmbā, noble, acting to the advantage of the gods, shapely for the sake of morality dharma the son of the Lord Bahumukha.MN interprets this stanza to mean that the a member of the lineage had a son named Smara. This seems very unlikely, but my own reading of the last quarter is also uncertain and not readily interpretable. See also the apparatus to line 54.
These two had many sons, distinguished and staying away from the wives of others most prominent among whom were the two named Malyana and Guṇḍiya, renowned in this world.Again, my interpretation and semantic restoration of this highly lacunose verse is quite uncertain.
These two , ranking high among good men, being trustworthy, they have been granted, by none other than us Dānārṇava, all insignia stipulated for kings kṣitipa, such as gold, a pair of bright parasols fitted with brilliant ornaments, excellent clothing, the kettledrum, staṁbha-bandhaṁ and many good vistāraka covered by white cloth.Much of this stanza is uncertainly read and difficult to interpret. MN’s summary of the context renders it this way: To these two princes, Mallana and Goṇḍiya, who have enriched my Treasury and thereby pleased Us, We have bestowed in our royal pleasure two sparkling white large parasals(sic), royal robes, the war drum, the stambha, the fillet, large white silken tents with poles, elephants and all the insignia of feudatory chieftains (sāmanta)
. Here, “fillet” must correspond to bandha, which is not very convincing. “Tents” are an intriguing idea, but I am not certain if vistāraka can mean a tent pole. I do not know where he finds “elephants” in the text, unless this is the word bhadra. A grant of Amma II (CP 7 of 1937-38) is reported (82) to list the privilege of tying plantain trees to pillars (before his residence)
in a list of insignia and prerogatives conferred on a mahāsāmanta. The original phrase is not cited, but I wonder if staṁbha-bandha may mean the same.
To these two, Malliyarāja and Goṇḍiyarāja, being pleased with their tribulations undertaken on our behalf, we have granted the Pottepināṇḍu three-hundred in your district, substantiated as a copperplate charter with a remission of all taxes. Let this be known to you.
Its boundaries are as follows. To the east, the river named Paṁpavādi.MN suggests that this is the Pampāvatī river near modern Hampi, but this seems far from certain. The name is less than identical (see also the apparatus to line 60), and the region is too far outside the Eastern Cālukya domain. The donated land is bounded on the west by Minuṁbākanāṇḍū. A Mīnuṁbāka viṣaya is featured in the [Peddāpurappāḍu plates (set 2)](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00057.xml) of Viṣṇuvardhana II, with a capital (rāja-dhānī) at Kasimi or Kisimi. The first editor of these plates (47-48) identifies this place as Kasimkoṭa in the Pithapuram taluk of East Godavari District. Even if that identification is incorrect, a district where Viṣṇuvardhana II (or a contemporary of his) granted land could not have been to the west of the Pampāvatī. To the south, Uttaravarusa. To the west, Minuṁbāka-nāṇḍū. To the north, the Vedeguna seventy.MN silently normalises the word ḍebhbhadi to ḍebbadi, Telugu for seventy. I assume that the interpretation is correct.
The prince yuvarāja who controls an elephant force and whose troops are a host of two thousand and thirty-two warriors.These words are not linked in any way to the surrounding text. MN and his editor are probably correct in assuming that the person mentioned here is charged with enforcing and protecting the grant as per the next sentence. MN believes that this yuvarāja is the Eastern Cālukya crown prince. His editor objects, noting that this is probably a different dignitary, and points to the yuvarāja Ballaladeva velā-bhaṭa in the [Pāṁbaṟṟu grant of Amma II](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00044.xml) for a parallel, whom he equates to velā-bhaṭa in the [Guṇḍugolanu grant of Amma II](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00036.xml), where he seems to be charged with the protection of the grant and is said to possess a force of elephants and (or four) two thousand warriors. The relevant passages of both these grants are problematic, but at any rate, the yuvarāja mentioned here is indeed probably not a Cālukya crown prince. This decree is to be protected as long as the moon, the stars, the earth and the noble mountains kula-śaila remain. Let no-one pose an obstacle over it. He who does so shall have the five great sins. So Vyāsa has said:
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 millennia.
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 provision dharma of mine in its integrity.
Even a dog, though a consumer of the vomit of others, does not eat its own puke. The villain who revokes his own gift is more miserable than a dog.
The executor ājñapti is the castellan kaṭaka-rāja. Written likhita by Jontācārya. The poetry is Nāgamabhaṭṭa’s.