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Copyright (c) 2019-2025 by Dániel Balogh.
Halantas. Final T (e.g. line 8) resembles ta without a headmark. Final N (a fairly clear instance in l36) is probably a minuscule simplified na, raised and with a sinuous vertical tail.
Original punctuation marks are single or double vertical bars. Some, especially on the first plate, have a small triangular serif on top; others are plain, while yet others are slightly sinuous and may have a small hook toward the right at the top.
Other palaeographic observations. The script is very elegant and ornate. Anusvāra is sometimes a dot, at other times a conspicuous circle at headline height after the character to which it belongs.PS notes that dependent ā is sometimes indicated by a vertical line on top of the character (e.g. l2, l4), while dependent ī is distinguished by a dot in the centre of the circle.
The project DHARMA has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no 809994).
Public URIs with the prefix bib to point to a Zotero Group Library named ERC-DHARMA whose data are open to the public.
Internal URIs using the part prefix to point to person elements in the DHARMA_IdListMembers_v01.xml file.
gotrāṇāṁ hārīti-putrāṇāṁ kauśikī-vara-prasāda-labdha-rājyān
mātr̥-gaṇa-paripālitānāṁ svāmi-mahā
nāṁ bhaga
rāha-l
śvame
m alaṁkari
pa
ta
ṭtriṁśataṁ| tat-suto bha
catvāriṁśataṁ|
t-suto
ja-yuva
ma-bhūpā
sa sa
lokāśraya-śrī-viṣṇuvarddha
raḥ para
rāṣṭrakū
jñāpayati
tasmai Indapa
-rājākhy
śāsanā
stu vaḥ
Asyāvadhayaḥ
mā| dakṣ
ṇḍi sīmā| Uttarataḥ velaṇṭhuru sīmā
nacid bā
vati| tathā coktaṁ vyāsena
Ājñaptiḥ kaṭṭa-rā
-likhita
for the sake of the metre. The emendation would in fact break the metre (resulting in an invalid pattern in the fourth foot), though it would bring the total mora count of the hemistich to the same as that of the second hemistich. The stanza is in fact a completely correct
Greetings. Satyāśraya Vallabhendra
His son—who with the sword
To him
From this Gaṇḍaragaṇḍa, lord of the
Surmounting the Mind-Born
that shelter of all the world
The overlord of majestic Mānyakeṭa—
named Indapa-rāja
His son, a lion among the Raṭṭiya kings,
His wife, known as Goindakāmbā,
As the Six-faced
An image of Nakula and Sahadeva in the way he follows
To that one named Indapa-rāja
Its boundaries
Many
He who would seize land, whether given by himself or by another, shall be born as a worm in faeces for sixty thousand years.
The executor
Assigning this grant to Amma I is highly problematic. Stanza I is attested in the Kaṇḍyam plates of Dānārṇava and the Andhra Sahitya Parishad plates of Śaktivarman, but not in any earlier plates. Stanza II is very similar to one found (with some variance) in many grants of Amma II, but the name of Amma I’s mother in the present version happens to break the metre, whereas Amma II’s mother’s name fits it.
Given the anomalies so far and given that Dānārṇava was supported by the Rāṣṭrakūṭas, it seems probable that the current grant was created in or shortly after his time, with royal approval, but set up as if it were an earlier grant issued by Amma I.
The name of the composer Mahākāla Bhaṭṭa is known as that of the composer of the Vemalūrpāḍu plates of Amma II. He may or may not be identical to Bhaṭṭa Mahākāla, composer of the Cevuru plates of Amma I. The latter may or may not be identical to Mahākāla, who is said in the Drujjūru grant of Amma I to have been a general of Bhīma I, and is granted a village by Amma I. The engraver Jontācārya is the engraver of no fewer than five grants of Amma II (called Jayantācārya in one of the five) as well as of the Kaṇḍyam plates of Dānārṇava and the Raṇastipūṇḍi grant of Vimalāditya. The latter may be the same person at a venerable age or a successor, perhaps a grandson of Amma II’s and Dānārṇava’s “primary” Jontācārya. The possibility that a predecessor, perhaps a grandfather, of that Jontācārya was active in the reign of Amma I cannot be excluded, but it is more parsimonious to assume that the plates are in fact the work of the “primary” Jontācārya, who signed his name even though the plates were supposed to have been engraved before his time. The composition may be that of Mahākāla Bhaṭṭa, still active at a time; or it may belong to an anonymous author, with Mahākāla Bhaṭṭa’s name featured in order to lend authenticity to the grant’s being of Amma I’s time.
Continuing the speculative line further, once Dānārṇava was established as ruler of Veṅgī after Amma II’s death, he would not have needed such subterfuge to reward someone who had helped him. The same stands for Dānārṇava’s descendants. However, Dānārṇava first occupied the throne at the time when Amma II had fled to Kaliṅga from Kr̥ṣṇa II’s wrath after having reigned for eleven years (Māṁgallu grant of Dānārṇava), i.e. around 955 CE. At this time, as the Māṁgallu grant shows, he ruled in Amma II’s name (as Vijayāditya, whereas he was Viṣṇuvardhana in his Kaṇḍyam plates issued after Amma II’s death) and had to beat around the bush explaining why he rewarded Kākatya Guṇḍyana. Backdating a grant to Amma I’s time sounds like a strategy he may well have employed at this time.
As to the identity of the donee, the question certainly needs more research. PS cites and dismisses D. C. Ganguly’s opinion that he is a son of Amoghavarṣa II, and thus a grandson of Indra III (identified with Indapa I of our grant). According to PS, Amoghavarṣa II cannot have taken shelter with Amma I after being ousted by Govinda IV, because he lost his throne only in 930 CE, while Amma I’s reign ended in 927. Instead, PS suggests, the donee is Amoghavarṣa III, for which his evidence is that Amoghavarṣa III’s mother was named Govindāmbā. However, neither Amoghavarṣa III, nor his grandfather Kr̥ṣṇa II are known to have borne the name Indapa or Indra.
Keeping in mind that according to our grant Indapa I was in fact the ruler of Mānyaketa (i.e. Mānyakheta), it is certainly tempting to identify him with Indra III. However, according to Altekar in
Reported in