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 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; and who, by intrepidly driving the one named the Kannara along with Śaṁkila from the spacious inhabited land into the badland 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 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 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.
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 Tāḍa 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 Tāḍapa’s son King dharādhīśa Yuddhamalla, a lord of kindly speech, protected the land for seven years.
After dislodging that Yuddhamalla from the earth by a raid, King bhū-vallabha Bhīma, the fulcrum of the earth, King Amma’s famous brother born of a different mother, ruled pā- at will the entire country of Veṅgī along with the Three Kaliṅgas for twelve years, also striking down other powerful enemies in battles.
That king had a son named Ammarāja II, respected by the wise. The greatest poets became contented, having achieved their purpose, once they had extolled him joyously.
Terrifying as Yama in battle, he—the lone hero breaking regiments of elephants with just a single tusker and slaying their many riders, well-armed men distinguished in the fray—seized Lady Victory from his rivals and then protected pā- the land of Veṅgī valiantly for twenty-five years.
Striking down in battle that King Amma swaggering with his army bristling with rutting elephants, heroic soldiers and thoroughbred horses, Dānārṇava himself, the son of King Bhīma, ruled pāl- the country of Andhra for three years altogether.
After King Dānārṇava, the realm of Andhra, together with the Kaliṅgas, became rulerless for twenty-seven years.
Then Śaktivarman, the son of Dānārṇava and Queen mahādevī Āryā endowed with the three powers śakti-traya became king.
He—Cālukya-Nārāyaṇa who subjugates swarms of enemy kings—surpasses by his qualities Gupta’s son in renunciation, the earth in steadfastness, Yudhiṣṭhira the son of Dharma in adherence to truth, the unborn Brahmā in knowledge, the divine mountain Meru in elevation, the five-faced Śiva in heroism, the Love God in beauty, the sun in resplendence, the moon in charm.I cannot guess who “Gupta’s son” might be. Could it refer to a historic king of the Gupta dynasty? Compare Gupta mentioned as an exemplary king of yore in stanza 4 of the [Ciṁbuluru plates of Vijayāditya III](DHARMA_INSVengiCalukya00062.xml).
Who already as a stripling acquired glory when he was wounded in a battle with the Tamils drāviḍa; who, unconquered in battle, defeated King mahārāja Baddema and others; who, all alone, mightily smote the soldiers sent as assassins by his enemy; who dispatched the presumptuous King nr̥pati Coḍa-Bhīma to Death’s abode—
—that shelter of all the world sarva-lokāśraya, His Majesty Viṣṇuvardhana, the Supreme Lord parameśvara of Emperors mahārājādhirāja, the Supreme Sovereign parama-bhaṭṭāraka, supremely pious and supreme devotee of Maheśvara, deliberately appointed as heir by his mother and father; whose pair of feet are are engilded by a mass of stamens that are the rays from the multitude of gems on the crowns of hastily bowing enemy kings; the poles of whose arms are studded with a conglomeration of pearls ejected from the surfaces of the forehead globes of the elephants of enemy rulers cracked by blowsSee the apparatus to line 46 for a textual problem associated with this phrase. I translate assuming that only prahāra was meant to be present here. of the frond that is his sharpened sword; the canopy of whose glory spreads over the ten divisions of the directions; who grants the desires of all supplicants like the wish-fulfilling tree; who is a seat of infinite ownership like Hari whose seat is the hoods of the serpent Ananta; who is flawless on both sides of a dispute like a royal goose both of whose wings are immaculate—he, Śaktivarman at a certain timeI am uncertain about the function of kadācit in line 46 and can do nothing better than to take it in its literal sense and construe it with the bracketing sentence that continues at the end of line 51. convokes all householders kuṭumbin—including foremost the territorial overseers rāṣṭrakūṭa—who reside in Guṇḍikaṟṟu district viṣaya and commands them as follows. To wit:
Once upon a time, the majestic god-on-earth Brahmin Pillemarāja received from the king the many emblems and other distinctions of a Great Vassal mahā-sāmanta along with splendid pageantry. His son, then, was the lofty Vaidarāja, and his son, Nalliya. From him was born Pillemarāja of blazing glory, and from him came Nalliya.
Skilled in the Vedas and śāstras; with a mind that recognises the covert intentions of others; with discipline and generosity for jewels; knowing the essence of the processes of state affairs; devoted to his lord—so shines Nalliya here.
To that Nalliyaśarman, a resident of Kāraṁceḍu, of the Āṅgirasa gotra, learned in the Vedas, Vedāṅgas, Itihāsas and in śāstras such as the Mīmāṁsā, on the occasion of the winter solstice we have given the village named Guṇḍipoduṟu in your district with a remission of all taxes, converted to a Brahmanical holding agrahāra, the donation being sanctified by a libation of water. Let this be known to you.
The boundaries of that village are as follows. To the east, the village named Inumanabeḍaru. To the south, the village named Visunūru. To the west, the village named Nīraṭūru. To the north, the village named Maṭlūru. The boundaries of its fields are as follows. To the east, the Modi pond. To the south, the Koṟu tank. To the west, the Koṟu tank. To the north, tevūdi sāniguṇḍi bhāḍāri. Let no-one pose an obstacle to his enjoyment of his rights over it. He who does so shall have the five great sins. So too Manu 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 thousand years.
The author is the composer of decrees,The text is grammatically incorrect or involves an opaque scribal mistake here. The intent was probably close to what I translate.. Bhīma, the crest jewel of the literati. The executor is the Castellan kaṭakādhīśa, and Dhokācārya is the writer lekhaka.