Bezwada plates of Chalukya-Bhima I

These plates were the first record found of the Eastern Chalukya king Chalukya-Bhima I. F. Kielhorn edited them in 1899.¹² He noted that the grant was also, up to that time, “the earliest record which gives the full historical genealogy, with the lengths of the reigns”.¹² Their findspot, Bezwada, was already the home of a writer of Eastern Chalukya charters in the reign of Vijayaditya II.³

Discovery

The plates “were found on the 25th June 1897 in the rock-hewn chamber of the quarry-compound at Bezvada”.¹ J. K. Batten, the Acting Collector of Kistna district, sent them to E. Hultzsch.¹ Kielhorn edited them from Hultzsch’s impression.¹ A second set of plates was found with them, claiming to be a grant of Vishnuvardhana III.¹ Kielhorn considered it false.¹

Description

There are five copper plates, each about 7 inches broad and 3 inches high, with high rims.¹ Plates 2–5 are written on both sides, though the second side of the fifth has less than half a line.¹ The first plate is written only on its second side.¹ Its first side shows a conch-shell, the sun and a club.¹

The ring is about 4½ inches across, and was uncut when it reached Hultzsch.¹ It is fixed in a round seal about 2¼ inches across.¹ On the seal are the legend Sri-Tribhuvanankusah and a flower below it.¹ Above it is a couchant (lying) boar facing left, with the sun and crescent moon over it and an elephant-goad behind.¹

The plates, perhaps except the first, are what Kielhorn called “quasi-palimpsests”.¹ An earlier text had been beaten in, and on the fifth plate it can still be read.¹ Its letters are very like the later writing, and its last words name a king Vishnuvardhana.¹ Kielhorn concluded that “these plates originally were used for another grant of Bhima I., which either was not completed or for some reason or other was cancelled”.¹

Script and language

The letters are of the southern class of their time and region, mostly in the later cursive (running) forms.¹ The language is Sanskrit, but some proper names are Telugu.¹ The boundaries, for example, are tanks with Telugu names:⁴

• the Potaryangari-cheruvu⁴
• the Paruvula-gunta⁴
• the Cheki-cheruvu⁴
• the Chintareni-cheruvu⁴
• the Juvvi-gunta⁴
• the Airiviya-gunta⁴

Apart from five verses of blessing and curse, there is one verse on the donor and one naming the ajnapti (executor).¹ The rest is prose, which Kielhorn found “full of minor mistakes”.¹ J. Ramayya Pantulu, writing in 1920, found the script of this grant very like that of the Bezwada pillar inscription of Yuddhamalla.⁵ He used it to date that record.⁵

Content

The grant opens with the full line of kings and their reigns.⁶ It begins with “Kubja-Vishnuvardhana … the brother of Satyasraya-vallabhendra”, who reigned eighteen years.⁶ It runs to Vijayaditya III, who reigned 44 years.⁶ Among them it says that Vijayaditya II “built a hundred and eight temples of (Siva) Narendresvara” and reigned forty years.⁶ Kielhorn pointed out that most records give him 48 years.⁶ The grant names Bhima as the son of Vijayaditya III’s brother, the crown prince (yuvaraja) Vikramaditya.⁶ See Kubja Vishnuvardhana and Gunaga Vijayaditya III.

A verse then states that king Bhima, “at the time of his coronation, well pleased, has given a village in perpetuity, requested to do so”.⁶ As Maharajadhiraja, Paramesvara and Paramabhattaraka, under his second name Vishnuvardhana, he speaks to the cultivators of the Uttarakanderuvadi district.⁶ He announces the gift of Kukiparru, free of all taxes, to Potamayya.⁶ Potamayya was a student of the kramapatha (a method of reciting the Veda), son of Dronabhatta and grandson of Revamayya of the Kaundinya gotra (clan), of Ummarakanthibol.⁶

Kielhorn noted that this grant gave Bhima I the second name Vishnuvardhana.² The places have not been identified.²

The ajnapti was Kadeyaraja, “whose grandfather was Pandaranga”, and the writer was Kondacharya.⁴ Pandaranga had conveyed a grant of Bhima’s uncle Vijayaditya III (see Masulipatam (?) plates of Vijayaditya III).²⁷ He is the hero of the Addanki inscription.²⁷

Date

The grant is not dated. Its verse ties it to Bhima’s coronation.²⁶ Kielhorn headed it with Fleet’s dates for the reign, 888–918.¹ Fleet gave Bhima I a reign of thirty years, from 888.⁸ He noted that after Vijayaditya III’s death the Rashtrakutas overran Vengi, which Bhima had to win back.⁸

Footnotes

1. Kielhorn, “Six Eastern Chalukya Copper-plate Inscriptions” (1899), p. 127 (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 ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴

2. Kielhorn, “Six Eastern Chalukya Copper-plate Inscriptions” (1899), p. 128 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. J. F. Fleet, “The Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings”, Indian Antiquary XX (1891), p. 101 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

4. Kielhorn, “Six Eastern Chalukya Copper-plate Inscriptions” (1899), p. 131 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

5. J. Ramayya Pantulu, “The Bezwada Pillar Inscription of Yuddhamalla”, Epigraphia Indica XV (1919–20), p. 151 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

6. Kielhorn, “Six Eastern Chalukya Copper-plate Inscriptions” (1899), p. 130, text and abstract of contents (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

7. F. Kielhorn, “Six Eastern Chalukya Copper-plate Inscriptions”, Epigraphia Indica V (1898–99), p. 123 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

8. Fleet, “The Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 103 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²