Devalanagaram inscription of Nagamba (1429)

What it is

This inscription is cut on a stone pillar on the bund (dam) of a tank called Nagasamudram.¹²³ The 1910 chronicle of the Velugoti family printed its text.¹ It places the stone near the village of Nagaram, north of Rachakonda.¹ Epigraphia Telanganica calls the village Devalanagaram, in the Ramannapet taluk (sub-district) of the Nalgonda district.²³

The record tells of the tank dug by Nagamba (Nagambika), the wife of Ravu Madhava of the Recherla family.⁴³ It is the main source for the line of the Rachakonda kings after Anapota.⁴³ Alladi Jagannatha Sastri put the tank at Nagaram, four miles north-east of Rachakonda.⁵⁶ He printed the inscription as an appendix to his family history of 1922.⁵⁶ See the Recherla Velamas.

The genealogy

According to Epigraphia Telanganica, the first verses praise the boar incarnation of Vishnu, Rama, and Vishnu as the lord from whose feet the family took its birth.³ The verses printed in 1910 then trace the family from Era Dacha, “the full moon of the ocean of the Recherla family”.⁴ The line runs through his son Singa and grandson Annapota to Annapota’s son Singa.⁴ It ends with Singa’s son, Ravu Madhava, “the crest-jewel of kings” (our translations).⁴

Epigraphia Telanganica gives the same line from the later editions: Era Dacha, Singa I, Annavota, Singa and Ravu Madhava.²³ See Anapota Nayaka and Singabhupala.

The Raghaviya

The inscription praises Ravu Madhava as a devotee of Rama.⁴³ It says that in the Saka year 1349, the year Plavanga, in the month Asvayuja (October 1427), he laid at Rama’s feet a commentary on the Ramayana called Raghaviya.⁴³ Jagannatha Sastri describes the work as a commentary on the Ramayana “duly dedicated to Sree Rama”.⁶

The tank and its date

According to the verses, Nagambika dug the tank Nagasamudram near Rajasaila, the king’s hill.⁷ The poem compares its dam to the bridge that Rama’s monkeys built across the sea.⁷ The date is given as Saka 1351 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years), the year Saumya, in the month Mina (Chaitra).⁷ Epigraphia Telanganica converts it to March–April 1429, or to 26 March 1429 in the edition of 1994.²³

The verses were composed by the poet Sambhunatha.⁷⁸³ The 1910 text calls him the son of Madhava-suri and a descendant of Raghava.⁷ The editions summarised in Epigraphia Telanganica add the name of his grandfather, Sodu or Soma.⁸³

The catalogue of 1964, as quoted in Epigraphia Telanganica, lists what appears to be the same record, under Saka 1451 (1529).⁹ It has the same family line, the same commentary and the same tank.⁹

Footnotes

1. Vellala Sadasiva Sastri, Velugotivari Vamsacaritramu (1910), appendix, p. 43 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Gajjala Vasanta Lakshmi (ed.), Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 4 (2023), pp. 34–35, No. 18. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 4 (2023), p. 36, No. 20. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

4. Sadasiva Sastri, Velugotivari Vamsacaritramu (1910), appendix, pp. 44–45, verses 1–17 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Sanskrit; paraphrase and translation ours. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

5. Alladi Jagannatha Sastri, A Family History of Venkatagiri Rajas (1922), p. 28 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

6. Jagannatha Sastri, Family History of Venkatagiri Rajas (1922), p. 29 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. Sadasiva Sastri, Velugotivari Vamsacaritramu (1910), appendix, pp. 46–47, verses 18–27 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Sanskrit; paraphrase ours. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

8. Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 4 (2023), p. 35, No. 18. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

9. Epigraphia Telanganica, vol. 4 (2023), pp. 38–39, No. 24. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²