Ederu plates of Amma I · Telugu History

E. Hultzsch edited these plates in 1890.¹ He chose them because the inscription “deserves to be published more carefully owing to its bearing on a part of the history of the Eastern Chalukyas”.¹ Robert Sewell had called it “an extremely handsome and well preserved grant”.² He also said it had “the clearest and best seal I have yet met with”.²

Discovery

According to Sewell, the plates were “found at the close of the year 1871 buried in the ground”.²³ They lay “in a field in the village of Ederu near Akiripalle in the Kistna District”.²³ He placed Ederu “15 miles north-east of Bezvada, a village belonging to the present Zamindari of Nuzividu”.²³ The zamindar (landholder) presented the plates to the Madras Museum, where they became Plate No. 20.²³

Sewell added that the find lay “in the heart of the Eastern Chalukyan country”.² The plates reached the Museum together with the Ederu plates of Vijayaditya II and a later grant.²⁴ A government order of April 1873 carried what Sewell called “a poor translation”.²⁴

S. M. Natesa Sastri published a rough transcript and paraphrase.¹ Hultzsch then edited the text from the original plates, lent by E. Thurston of the Madras Museum.¹ See Ederu.

Description

The five plates have raised rims and are “not less than ¼ inch thick”.¹ Each measures 9¼ by 4¼ inches.¹ The first and fifth are inscribed only on their inner sides.¹ In Hultzsch’s words, “the characters are extremely elegant and must have been engraved by an accomplished calligraphist”.¹ The plates hang on a slightly elliptic ring, ½ inch thick and about 5 inches across.¹

The ring’s circular seal, 3¼ inches across, rests on an expanded lotus.¹ It shows a recumbent (lying) boar facing right, with the moon and sun above.¹ It also shows two fly-whisks (chamaras), an elephant-goad and a symbol Hultzsch could not make out.¹ Across the centre is the legend Sri-Tribhuvanankusa, and at the bottom a lotus seen from the side.¹ Plates and seal are in excellent preservation.¹

The king’s ancestors

The grant gives the names and reigns of the kings from Kubja-Vishnuvardhana to Vishnuvardhana IV.⁵¹ It begins with “Kubja-Vishnuvardhana, the brother of Satyasraya-Vallabha”, who ruled eighteen years.⁵¹

It then praises Vijayaditya II in verse.⁵ It says that he “fought 108 battles, in which he acquired power by his arm”.⁵ He fought them “with the armies of the Gangas and Rattas for twelve years, by day and by night”.⁵ He then “built the same number (i.e., 108) large temples of Siva”.⁵ It adds that, “having ruled his kingdom for forty-four years, this lord of Vengi became a companion of Indra”.⁵

Hultzsch noted that two other inscriptions say Vijayaditya II founded 108 temples of Narendresvara.⁶ This is Siva named after the king’s surname Narendra.⁶ J. F. Fleet took the 44 years in this record to be the correct length of the reign, against the 40 or 48 years of other grants.⁷⁸

Of Vijayaditya III, the grant says that he was “challenged by the lord of the Rattas”.⁹ He “conquered the unequalled Gangas, cut off the head of Mangi in battle”.⁹ He also “frightened the firebrand Krishna and burnt his city completely”.⁹ Hultzsch took this Krishna to be the Rashtrakuta king Krishna II.⁶

The grant says that Vijayaditya’s nephew Chalukya-Bhima I, “whose other name was Droharjuna”, “illumined the country of Vengi”.⁹ Vengi “had been overrun by the army of the Ratta claimants, just as by dense darkness after sunset”.⁹ He lit it up “by the flashing of his sword”.⁹

Sewell had read the same passage as saying that “the kinsmen of Nava Ratta” usurped the Vengi kingdom for an unstated time.⁴ He warned that “if true, it may upset previous calculations on the earlier chronology”.⁴

The grant speaks of Amma I “having drawn his sword, which broke the dishonest hearts of his feudatory relatives”.⁶ These relatives “had joined the party of his natural adversaries”.⁶ He then won the affection of the subjects and the army of his father and grandfather.⁶ Hultzsch thought these adversaries were probably the Rashtrakutas.⁶

The grant

Amma I addresses the people of the Kanderuvadi district (vishaya).⁶¹⁰ He gives the village of Gonturu, with twelve hamlets and free of all taxes, to Bhandanaditya, also called Kuntaditya, one of his military officers.⁶¹⁰

The donee belonged to the Pattavardhini family.¹⁰⁶ His ancestor Kalakampa, “the follower of Kubja-Vishnuvardhana”, had killed in battle a king called Daddara and seized his banners.¹⁰⁶ Bhandanaditya himself had served the king’s father, called here Vijayaditya-Kaliyarttyanka.¹⁰⁶ The grant lists the four boundaries and the twelve hamlets, and closes with two of the usual imprecatory verses (curses).¹⁰

Sewell wondered in 1884 whether Gonturu might be Guntur, “one of the most important towns in the Kistna District”.⁴ But he thought the surrounding places must be identified first.⁴ Hultzsch, citing Sewell, wrote that “it remains doubtful”.⁶ V. Rangacharya’s topographical list of 1919 enters the grant under Ederu, in the Nuzvid taluk.¹¹

Date

The grant bears no date.² Its king is Amma I, called Rajamahendra and Vishnuvardhana VI by Hultzsch.⁶²¹² Sewell and Fleet placed his reign about 918–925.⁶²¹²

Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions I (1890), p. 37 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶
Robert Sewell, Lists of the Antiquarian Remains in the Presidency of Madras, Vol. II (1884), p. 25, No. 179 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²
E. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), p. 36, No. 36 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Sewell, Lists of the Antiquarian Remains, Vol. II (1884), p. 26 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions I (1890), p. 41, translation (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions I (1890), p. 38 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵
J. F. Fleet, “The Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings”, Indian Antiquary XX (1891), p. 100 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
Fleet, “The Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 101 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions I (1890), p. 42, translation (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions I (1890), p. 43, translation (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II (1919), p. 904 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
F. Kielhorn, “Six Eastern Chalukya Copper-plate Inscriptions”, Epigraphia Indica V (1898–99), p. 131 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²