Arumbaka plates of Badapa

These plates are the grant of Badapa, a prince of the junior line of the Eastern Chalukyas and a son of Yuddhamalla II.¹ K. V. Lakshmana Rao edited them in 1928, together with the Sripundi plates of Badapa’s younger brother Tala II.¹ He wrote that both princes had not been known before.¹

Their importance lies in one claim.²³ The grant claims that Badapa, with Rashtrakuta help, drove the reigning king Amma II out of the country.²³

Discovery and description

According to Lakshmana Rao, the plates were found in 1921 buried underground in a pot at Polamuru.¹⁴ Polamuru is in the Tanuku taluk of what was then the Krishna (then Kistna) district.¹⁴ He got the plates from a gentleman of the village and sent them to the Assistant Archaeological Superintendent for Epigraphy at Madras.¹⁴ They were registered as No. 16 of Appendix A in the epigraphy report for 1920–21.¹⁴

There are five plates, 4½ inches high and 9 inches broad.¹⁴ They hang on a ring 5 inches across, which had not been cut when the plates were first sent to the editor.¹⁴ A massive seal is fixed to the ring.¹⁴

The 1921 report describes the seal.¹⁴ It has a crescent at the top, with an elephant-goad (ankusa) laid horizontally below it.¹⁴ Then comes the legend Sri-Tribhuvanankusa in two lines.¹⁴ Below that is the boar standing on a lotus, with the sun near the boar’s head.¹⁴

Language and the name

The language is Sanskrit.² Lakshmana Rao noted a Dravidian letter, the la of Tamil.² The Bezwada pillar inscription of Yuddhamalla had first shown this letter to exist in early Telugu.²

The same letter is used in the name Tala, which the family’s grants spell in several ways.² He took the variation as a sign that the sound gave way to da in the Telugu country and to la in the Kannada country.² He read the donor’s name with a dental d, Badapa, where the epigraphy reports had a lingual d.¹

Content

After the usual praise of the Chalukya family, the grant lists the kings from Kubja-Vishnuvardhana to Chalukya-Bhima II with their reigns.² Lakshmana Rao noted that these agree with those in other grants of the family.²

In his translation, the list runs from Kubja-Vishnuvardhana (18 years) through Gunaga-Vijayaditya (44 years) and Chalukya-Bhima I (30 years).⁵ It goes on to Kollabiganda-Vijayaditya (6 months) and Amma I (7 years).⁵ Then come:⁵

• Talapa, who dethroned Amma I’s son Vijayaditya, “who was a boy”, and reigned for one month⁵
• Vikramaditya, the son of Chalukya-Bhima, for eleven months⁵
• Talaparaja’s son Yuddhamalla, for seven years⁵
• Bhimaraja, the son of Kollabiganda-Vijayaditya, who conquered him, for twelve years⁵

The grant then praises Amma II, Bhima’s son by Lokamahadevi, who “ruled well the Vengi country with Trikalinga”.²⁵ It does not give the length of his reign.²⁵

The next verse, in Lakshmana Rao’s translation, says: “Badapa with the help of the Vallabha (king) called Karnaraja drove away from the country the prosperous (king) called Ammaraja”.⁵ Badapa, “son of king Yuddhamalla, lord of Vengi”, is said to have defeated his agnates (dayadas, kinsmen).⁵ He is said to rule the earth according to the laws of Manu.⁵ He takes the titles Samastabhuvanasraya, Vijayaditya, Maharajadhiraja, Paramesvara and Paramamahesvara, and is also called Adhiraja.²⁵

Badapa addresses “all the chiefs of families headed by the Rashtrakutas” of the Velanandu district (vishaya).⁵ He gives the village of Arumbaka in Velanandu, free of all taxes, to Gandanarayana, whose name was Bhaskara.⁶⁷ Gandanarayana in turn gives it to Chandena, the son of Samakamba, his mother’s younger sister.⁶⁷

The boundaries are Cherakumballi to the east, Sripundi to the south, Kavuru to the west and Gomaduvu to the north.⁸⁷ The executor (ajnapti) was Kataka-nripa, the poet Ayyana-bhatta and the writer Bhattadeva.⁸⁷

Lakshmana Rao identified Arumbaka with the village of the same name in the Repalle taluk of Guntur district.⁸ He found the other villages within four miles of it.⁸ He took Sripundi to be Sripudi and Cherakumballi to be Cherukumilli, and he found Kavuru under its old name.⁸

He was told that Gomaduvu was Govada, three miles to the north in the Tenali taluk.⁸ Sripundi, the southern boundary, is the village granted by Badapa’s brother in the Sripundi plates.⁸ The 1921 report made the same identification of Arumbaka.³ See Arumbaka.

The family of the man who received the grant

More than thirty lines praise the donee and his ancestors.⁸ His grandfather is named in the plates as an expert archer.²⁹ The grandfather had a son Nripakama, called Karmuk-arjuna (“an Arjuna with the bow”), Satya-Ballata and Saronatha, “lord of the lake”.²⁹ Nripakama’s wife was Nayamamba, and their son was Gandanarayana.²⁹

Lakshmana Rao took Nripakama for a petty chief, perhaps of the region of the Kolleru lake.⁶ The 1921 report read the grandfather’s name as Choladitya.³ It suggested that “lord of the lake” meant lord of Kolanu.³ It linked the family with the later Kolanu chiefs and, through Kielhorn’s list, with a Chola family.³

Lakshmana Rao identified Nripakama and Nayamamba with the father-in-law and mother-in-law of Amma II named in the Gundugolanu plates.⁶ That made Gandanarayana a brother-in-law of the king whom Badapa claimed to have expelled.⁶ He found it “very strange” that Badapa should patronise him.⁶ He suggested that political adventurers often changed sides, and that Gandanarayana may have helped to overthrow Amma II.⁶

B. V. Krishna Rao, writing in 1930, also held that Amma II’s father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law turned against the king.¹⁰ In his view Bhaskara deserted to Badapa.¹⁰

Who was Karnaraja-Vallabha?

Lakshmana Rao took Karnaraja-Vallabha to be a Rashtrakuta king, “as the epithet Vallabha clearly indicated”.⁸ He identified him with Kanna or Krishna III, a contemporary of Amma II whom he dated 939–968.⁸ He thought the poet had mistaken the name Kanna for a form of Karna, though it was a Prakrit form of Krishna.⁸

The 1921 report read the name as “the Vallabha (i.e., Rashtrakuta) Krishnaraja”.³ It also identified the ally with Krishna III.³

Date, and the years without a ruler

The plates are not dated, and the editors drew different conclusions from Badapa’s claim:

• The 1921 epigraphy report assigned the grant to the years immediately after 956.⁴³ It relied on the Mangallu grant, which says that Amma II left for the north after eleven years.⁴³ It concluded that Danarnava ruled the Natavadi district in the west in Amma’s name.⁴³ It held that the pretender Badapa meanwhile held the Velanandu district in the east, “perhaps temporarily”.⁴³
• K. V. Lakshmana Rao (1928) argued that Badapa conquered Amma II and reigned immediately after him.⁸ So, in his view, Badapa issued the grant after Amma’s twenty-five years ended in 970.⁸ The later grants place twenty-seven years without a ruler after Danarnava, 973–999.⁸ In Lakshmana Rao’s view this was no interregnum: the junior line had then ruled the country, and the senior line, in exile, did not recognise it.⁸ He promised a separate article on this period, but died before writing it.⁸
• H. Krishna Sastri, editing the volume, added a note that this was “very doubtful”.⁸ In his view the wording could not show that Badapa had ousted Amma II “once for all”, and Badapa might have displaced him for a time.⁸ He cited the Mangallu plates, by which Amma II went in his eleventh year to fight Krishna III.⁸ By the Arumbaka plates, this was the king who befriended Badapa.⁸
• B. V. Krishna Rao (1930) held that Badapa seized the throne about 970 with the help of the Rashtrakutas and the “traitor” Bhaskara.¹¹ He thought that the civil war of 970–973 was Danarnava’s struggle against Badapa.¹¹ In his view Badapa’s rule, perhaps twenty-seven years long, was the period the later kings called the interregnum.¹¹
• B. V. Krishna Rao (1936), editing the Tandikonda grant, described Amma II’s expedition to Kalinga as a war against a coalition led by Krishna III.¹² Krishna III, he wrote, wished to put his protégé Badapa on the throne.¹² He cited the Arumbaka plates for this.¹²
• V. Rangacharya (1960) thought that Yuddhamalla II’s two sons had fled to the Rashtrakuta court after their father’s fall in 933–34.¹³¹⁴ In his view, Krishna III, incited by them, invaded Vengi in or a little before 956.¹³¹⁴

Footnotes

1. K. V. Lakshmana Rao, “Two Copper-plate Inscriptions of Eastern Chalukya Princes”, Epigraphia Indica XIX (1927–28), p. 137 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

2. Lakshmana Rao, “Two Copper-plate Inscriptions” (1928), p. 139 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

3. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1920–21 (1921), Part II, para. 14, p. 91 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

4. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1920–21 (1921), Part II, paras. 13–14, p. 90 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

5. Lakshmana Rao, “Two Copper-plate Inscriptions” (1928), p. 146, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

6. Lakshmana Rao, “Two Copper-plate Inscriptions” (1928), p. 141 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

7. Lakshmana Rao, “Two Copper-plate Inscriptions” (1928), p. 148, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

8. Lakshmana Rao, “Two Copper-plate Inscriptions” (1928), p. 140, with notes 1 and 2 by H. Krishna Sastri and the editor (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰

9. Lakshmana Rao, “Two Copper-plate Inscriptions” (1928), p. 147, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

10. B. V. Krishna Rao, “Telugu Academy Plates of Saktivarman II”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society V, pt. 1 (1930), p. 35 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

11. Krishna Rao, “Telugu Academy Plates of Saktivarman II” (1930), p. 36 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

12. B. V. Krishna Rao, “Tandikonda Grant of Ammaraja II”, Epigraphia Indica XXIII (1935–36), p. 162 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

13. V. Rangacharya, “Mangallu Grant of Amma II”, Epigraphia Indica XXXI (1955–56, publ. 1960), p. 39 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

14. Rangacharya, “Mangallu Grant of Amma II” (1960), p. 40 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²