Chura grant of Vijaya-Vishnugopavarman

The Chura grant adds one more generation to the Pallava line of the Nellore–Guntur country: a king Vijaya-Vishnugopavarman, son of a Simhavarman.¹² It was noticed in the Madras epigraphy report for 1914 and edited by C. R. Krishnamacharlu in 1938.²³

Discovery and description

The Revenue Divisional Officer of Narasaraopet obtained the plates from Mulla Sheik Miran of Narasaraopet.⁴ Miran said they had been granted to an ancestor of his as the title deed of a jagir (land grant).⁴ Krishnamacharlu thought they had probably been found at or near Chura itself.⁴

There are three plates on a ring, with an oval seal showing a couchant (lying) bull facing right.⁴ The plates are badly worn.⁴ With ring and seal they weigh 31 tolas.⁴

Language

The language is Sanskrit.¹ But Krishnamacharlu noted Telugu expressions in the boundaries, such as muyuru-kutuva, “the meeting-place of three villages”, and an old tank called Muditi-tataka.¹ He judged from the letters that the plates were a copy made at the beginning of the 7th century.²

Content

The grant was issued from Vijaya-Palotkata.¹ The donor was the Dharma-maharaja Vijaya-Vishnugopavarman, son of Simhavarman.¹ He was the grandson of the Maharaja Vishnugopavarman and great-grandson of Kandavarman (Skandavarman).¹

The king gave one hundred and eight nivartanas (land measures) of land and a house site with a garden in the village of Chura in Karmmarashtra.¹ The donee was Chasamisarman, son of Vriddhasarman, of the Kasyapa gotra (clan).¹ He was learned in the four Vedas and lived at Kundur.¹ The gift was made on the occasion of the winter solstice, with all exemptions.¹

The places

Krishnamacharlu identified the boundary villages Lagubamru, Paguhuru and Nagolami with Daggupadu, Pavuluru and Nagulla in the Bapatla taluk of the Guntur district.⁵ He placed Chura at a deserted village shown on the maps between Nagulla and Daggupadu.⁵

He noted that Karmmarashtra, the Kamma-nadu of later records, appears much earlier.⁵ It appears as the province of Kammaka in the Jaggayyapeta inscriptions of the Ikshvaku king Virapurushadatta.⁵ D. C. Sircar took Palotkata to be the same as Palakkada, the place from which the crown prince Vishnugopa issued the Uruvupalli grant.³

Who was Vijaya-Vishnugopavarman?

Krishnamacharlu and Sircar took him to be the son of the Simhavarman of the Pikira, Mangalur and Omgodu grants.²⁶ They took him to be the grandson of the crown prince Vishnugopa.²⁶

H. Krishna Sastri had first thought him a later member of the line.² Later he considered the plates untrustworthy for the Pallava succession, because of their late letters.²

Krishnamacharlu suggested a reason why copies were made.² In his view, the move of the Eastern Chalukyas into Karmmarashtra early in the 7th century may have caused the loss of the original grants.² G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, using the epigraphy report of 1914, called him king of Palakkada and placed him 525–550 in his family tree of 1920.⁷⁸

Footnotes

1. Krishnamacharlu, “Chura Grant” (1938), p. 138 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

2. Krishnamacharlu, “Chura Grant” (1938), p. 139 and editor’s note (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

3. D. C. Sircar, The Successors of the Satavahanas in Lower Deccan (1939), p. 172 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

4. C. R. Krishnamacharlu, “Chura Grant of Pallava Vijaya-Vishnugopavarman”, Epigraphia Indica XXIV (1937–38), p. 137 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

5. Krishnamacharlu, “Chura Grant” (1938), p. 141 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 173 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

7. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (1920), pp. 62–63, 68 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

8. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, The Pallavas (1917), p. 16 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩