Plates
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 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 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 younger brother, 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.
Always causing the crops consisting of flocks of the destitute, the blind, Brahmins, courtesans and supplicants to attain complete satisfaction by a shower of outstanding gifts, his son Kali Viṣṇuvardhana V is said to have protected pā- the earth for a year and a half.See the apparatus to line 13 for the textual problem in this stanza.
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; 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 four brothers.KR in his commentary interprets the text to mean that Vijayāditya III’s reign lasted 44 and a half years, rather than 44 as usually recorded. I agree with his editor (Sircar) that sārdham simply means “together with,” not “and a half.”
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 clever Brahmin pupils vaṭu, actors, 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 23 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). According to KR’s discussion, Vijayāditya conquered king Vāsava
, but as his editor (Sircar?) bluntly points out, the text mentions no such king; vāsavī qualifies āśā, meaning the eastern direction.
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 Tāḻa 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.
The son of the majestic Vijayāditya IV named Kollabigaṇḍa, Bhīma II of terrific bhīma prowess, ruled bhuj- the earth, viewed with respect, for twelve years. By a raid dislodging Yuddhamalla, who was girt for battle, he removed him from the land; and he also shattered the hopes (or chariots) of enemies, both civilised and uncivilised.A word has been omitted in the second quarter of this stanza; see the apparatus to line 31.
His son known as Ammarāja II, who already in the womb was possessed of a neck decorated with the locket of the heir-apparent, donned at his own initiative the turban of kingship honoured by all rulers, and always fostered the cause of the gods and gods-on-earth Brahmins.The reading and interpretation of part of this stanza is problematic; see also the apparatus to line 33. KR interpreted the text to mean that Amma II was born with an ornament-like tissue around his neck
, but I agree with his editor (Sircar?), whose footnote says, In fact Amma II was declared heir-apparent even when he was in the womb of his mother
. I translate the text as emended by me, and believe that the composer intended a contrast between the yuvarāja’s locket, which was bestowed on Amma when he had no say in the matter, and the royal turban, which he took as an act of will.
Because of his above-average skill at the suppression of enemy elephants in the midst of battle, his name Tribhuvanāṅkuśa the elephant-goad of the three worlds became permanently appropriate, even while his fondness for elephants gained successful expression in his heroic victories over lions.I translate with the lost word restored as suggested in the apparatus to line 36. Even so, the syntax of the second half is ambiguous and does not reveal whose fondness for elephants and whose heroic victory is meant, nor how a lion enters the picture. Lions are conventionally the arch-enemies of elephants, so my attempt at translation is not impossible, but it is grammatically quite awkward, especially because “lion” and “victory” are clearly in the singular.
Amma II, who was born , protected rakṣ- the earth for twenty-five years. His brother born of a different mother groups of enemies: Dānārṇava, the handsome son of His Majesty King Bhīma II.Several parts of this stanza are lost or illegible. The second hemistich seems to be about Dānārṇava, and the first about Amma II.
Called His Majesty Rājanārāyaṇa,
Dānārṇava, who completely surpassed the generosity of Karṇa and whose footstool was coloured by the gems in the diadems of kings—a treasury of knowledge and a treasury to learned men, distinguished in the fray—ruled bhuj- the entire earth for three years.
After King bhūmipati Dānārṇava, due to an act of fate this land of Āndhra was bereft of a king for twenty-seven years, completely dark like a moonless night.
On this occasion,
The son of Queen Āryā and that King Dāna, called Śaktivarman and equipped with the triad of powers śakti, endowed with political sense naya, discipline vinaya and valour—
who is as bright as the moon, so that his fame is like lime whitewash nectar for the palace that is the universe, and the effusion of his glory light shines permanently like a lamp in the middle of that palace—
the concealed pearls of the forehead globes of whose enemies’ elephants shine open to view when he splits the surface of those globes, strung like a string of flowers on the liana that is his sword—My translation involves stretching the boundaries of syntax and compound structure to the extreme in order to accommodate the unexpected word sthagita in the original which, if deliberate, was probably meant to countered by sphuṭam. If sthagita is a mistake for a word meaning something like “revealed,” then a much easier translation would be: “the string of pearls revealed by whose splitting of the surface of the forehead globes of his enemies’ elephants shine clearly like a string of flowers on the liana that is his sword—”. For a similar image, compare verse 15 of the [Raṇastipūṇḍi grant of Vimalāditya](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00049.xml).
who, aglow with wounds, attained fame even in childhood bālya in the battle with the Colas;According to KR, the same battle is referred to as dramiḷāhava in the Pabhupaṟṟu grant of Śaktivarman. Apparently (191), this grant has only been published in the Āndhra Sāhitya Parishad Patrikā, and neither the original nor any good facsimiles remain available. However, the [Guṇḍipoduṟu grant of Śaktivarman](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00103.xml) has now been edited and refers, probably, to the same episode as drāviḍa-saṁggare, so understanding caulika to refer to some Coḻa rulers is probably warranted even though Śaktivarman eventually married a Coḻa princess and reclaimed the throne of Veṅgī with his father-in-law’s support. KR’s interpretation that “a battle for the Coḻas/Tamils” is meant is not impossible, but rather forced. KR further notes that bālya probably indicates an age up to 16 years, as defined in Dharmaśāstras. who routed the overly conceited King mahārāja Badyema and others; who demonstrated his own fortitude, unrivalled in the world, by killing the assassins sent by his enemies (even) while he was wounded in the chestSee the apparatus to line 47 for a slight uncertainty in this passage.—the King adhipa His Majesty Śaktivarman.
Mentally laughing at the divine Nārāyaṇa, thinking, “he is said to have defeated the hosts of demons daitya in olden days by abandoning his own form and taking recourse to faked identities like the Fish,” this Cālukya-Nārāyaṇa Śaktivarman, in addition to having cast down his other enemies, put to death in battle His Majesty the masterful King adhipa Coḍa-Bhīma, who was a likeness of Rāvaṇa.Given the first hemistich, one would expect the stanza to say that Cālukya-Nārāyaṇa laugs at the divine Nārāyaṇa because he does not need a false guise to defeat his enemies. This is indeed how RK summarises the stanza, but I see no way to finding that meaning in the text. The second hemistich is an awkward jumble of words. Most jarringly, it lacks a verbal form to express the action. Moreover, it uses surprisingly flattering terminology īśa and śrī for the enemy Coḍa-Bhīma, and while api ought to imply a contradiction (“even though he had first cast down his enemies”), I see no such thing, nor any need for a reference to enemies in general here. Conversely, there is nothing in the second hemistich about Cālukya-Nārāyaṇa doing so in his own form, nor is there a counterpart here to prāk, “in olden days.” The only point where the second hemistich matches the first is that this human Nārāyaṇa defeats an enemy likened to Rāvaṇa, who was defeated by the divine Nārāyaṇa in the form of Rāma. The text on the plate is quite clearly legible and includes only one evident scribal mistake (°āṣāsta), where the composer’s original intent is quite straightforward (°āpāsta). I wonder if perhaps the fourth quarter belongs originally to a different stanza. Two stanzas may have been either cobbled together badly by a clumsy composer, or a quarter of the first and three quarters of the second may have been omitted by an inattentive scribe.
Churning with the power of his own arms the ocean of the army rathinī of the lord of Utkalikā—this ocean in which the sea monsters makara are fearsome, inexorable,I am somewhat baffled by the juxtaposition of vāraṇa and ibha, both normally meaning “elephant.” It may be that two different kinds of elephants were meant by the composer, but neither of these words has the connotation of a particular sort of elephant. I therefore prefer to take vāraṇa in the less common sense of “invincible.” raging elephants, in which the crocodiles nakra are processions of heroes, which swells with water that is blood and tumbles with thousands of strings of waves which are horses—this Cālukya-Nārāyaṇa seizes in battle the Royal Fortune śrī belonging to that lord of Utkalikā as the divine Nārāyaṇa churned the ocean and seized the goddess Śrī who had belonged to that ocean.
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 Vaṟanāṇḍu district viṣaya, and, witnessed by the minister mantrin, the chaplain purohita, the general senāpati, the crown prince yuvarāja and the gate guard dauvārika, commands them as follows. To wit:
In a lineage of Brahmans, there was born the excellent and most righteous , like a new sage Bhāradvāja, the enricher of his lineage, holy puṇya, familiar with all the treatises.
He had a son named Vennamayya, of the truthful, honourable and engaged in acts befitting honourable men, driven by Vedic injunction, of those rich in and possessed of diplomacy naya, with boosted by the ritual calls āśravaṇa and the ritual responses pratyāśravaṇa a great practicioner of sacrifices.
Then that one named Vennamayya had a son born, named Virājadevana, the most excellent of his priestly family.
He duly gratifies the gods as well as the ancestors pitr̥ by sacrificial offerings havya and oblations kavya and suchlike. His stains of sin have been washed off by the water of the ablutions offered to the feet of his guests. He is eternally a leaderOr perhaps “patron”? See the apparatus to line 63. granting the beneficial objects of their desire to the flock of the learned, his relatives and the destitute. He has come to the aid of his own lord’s administrative affairs kārya as well as his sword.
This peerless repository of virtues, with extensive acumen, has surpassed even that sage Bhāradvāja whose intellect is praised by savants, as that sage rescued his lineage gotra, which was deteriorating, merely by granting it his name, while he did so by The end of this stanza is lost, and the reading of the extant part is not entirely certain. The gist of the verse probably ran along lines similar to what is translated here. The name Bhāradvāja may refer to the patriarch Bharadvāja himself (with the first syllable lengthened for the sake of the metre), or it may indicate a famous personage descended from him, possibly Droṇa, the son of Bharadvāja, who in spite of being a Brahmin was famed for his skill with weapons.