Ederu plates of Vijayaditya II

These three plates are one of the two known grants of Vijayaditya II, the Eastern Chalukya king whom other records call Narendramrigaraja.¹² They are undated, and their date rests on the length of his reign, which J. F. Fleet put at about 799–843.³⁴

Discovery

F. Kielhorn wrote in 1899 that the plates “were found, about twenty-five years ago, at the village of Ederu” in the Nuzvid zamindari (landholder’s estate) of Krishna (then Kistna) district.³ He placed the village on sheet 94 of the Indian Atlas, at longitude 80° 48′ E, latitude 16° 43′ N.³ By then the plates were in the Madras Museum.³

Robert Sewell’s list of 1884 records that the zamindar (landholder) of Nuzvid sent them to the Museum.⁵ They went together with the Ederu plates of Amma I and a later grant (see G.O. No. 367, Public, of 7 April 1873).⁵ V. Rangacharya, in 1919, entered the findspot under the Nuzvid taluk as “(Ederu) Idara”.⁶ He noted that the village was said to be in the Nuzvid zamindari but did not appear in the alphabetical list of inscriptions.⁶ See Ederu.

Pandit S. M. Natesa Sastri first published the inscription in the Indian Antiquary (Vol. XIII, p. 55).³ Kielhorn re-edited it from “an excellent impression” supplied by E. Hultzsch.³

Description

There are three plates, the first and last written on one side only.³¹ Each is about 7 inches broad and 2⅞ inches high, with slightly raised rims.³¹ They hang on a ring about 3¾ inches across, which had not been cut when Hultzsch took his impression.¹ The ring’s ends are fixed in an oval seal, about 2 by 1¾ inches.¹ Across the seal runs the legend Sri-Tribhuvanankusa, with an open lotus below it and the sun within the crescent moon above.¹

Kielhorn found the writing “rather roughly engraved”, but well preserved on the whole.¹⁵ Sewell had called the plates “very roughly executed”.¹⁵ The letters are of the southern class, of the regular type of their period and region.¹ Kielhorn noted older square forms of several letters.¹ He also noted the open form of b that is already used throughout in the Chipurupalle plates of Vishnuvardhana I of 632.¹

Language and content

The language is Sanskrit, in prose except for three verses at the end.¹ Kielhorn found the text plain but full of careless mistakes by the writer or engraver.¹ It traces the king’s descent only two generations back.¹ In Kielhorn’s abstract, Vijayaditya is “the son’s son of Vikramarama” and “the dear son of the Maharaja Vishnuvardhana”.⁷ He bears the titles Maharajadhiraja, Paramesvara and Bhattaraka.⁷ Kielhorn read the grandfather’s name as Vikramarama and took it to mean, “apparently”, Vijayaditya I.¹

The king speaks to the cultivators of the village of Vandrupiteyu in the Kanderuvadi district (vishaya).⁷ He announces a gift, made on an eclipse of the sun, to a Brahmin named Palla-bhattaraka, of Minamini.⁷ He has given him a dwelling-place and a field large enough to be sown with twelve khandikas of udrava grain, free of all taxes.⁷

The boundaries were these:⁷⁸

• the boundary-line of Korraparu on the east⁷⁸
• a tank on the south⁷⁸
• Ramati on the west⁷⁸
• Renduvati and Bolarenduvati on the north⁷⁸

The officer who conveyed the order (ajnapti) was Bolama.⁷⁸ Kielhorn could identify none of these places, but noted that the Kanderuvadi district appears in other Eastern Chalukya grants.¹ The king’s other known grant mentions Vandrupiteyu and Korraparu too.¹

Is the grant genuine?

In 1891 Fleet listed the grant among the records of Vijayaditya II, and quoted it from his own reading of the plates, without questioning it.² Writing in 1902–03, however, he described it as “a record which purports to be of the same period” but “is of somewhat doubtful authenticity”.⁹ He set it beside a doubtful grant ascribed to Jayasimha I.⁹ He did not give his reasons in that passage. Kielhorn’s edition does not raise the question.¹

The king’s reign

Fleet noted that the grants disagree on the length of Vijayaditya II’s reign:⁴

• some give 40 years⁴
• one gives 44⁴
• most give 48⁴

He preferred 44.⁴ He suggested that four earlier years as crown prince (yuvaraja) had been added in some records and wrongly taken away in others.⁴ That gave the dates 799–843.⁴ Rangacharya gave the reign as 794–842.⁶

Footnotes

1. Kielhorn, “Six Eastern Chalukya Copper-plate Inscriptions” (1899), p. 119 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸

2. Fleet, “The Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 101 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

3. F. Kielhorn, “Six Eastern Chalukya Copper-plate Inscriptions”, Epigraphia Indica V (1898–99), p. 118 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

4. J. F. Fleet, “The Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings”, Indian Antiquary XX (1891), p. 100 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

5. Robert Sewell, Lists of the Antiquarian Remains in the Presidency of Madras, Vol. II (1884), p. 26, No. 180 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

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)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. Kielhorn, “Six Eastern Chalukya Copper-plate Inscriptions” (1899), p. 121, text and abstract of contents (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

8. Kielhorn, “Six Eastern Chalukya Copper-plate Inscriptions” (1899), p. 122 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

9. J. F. Fleet, “Kaluchumbarru Grant of Vijayaditya-Amma II”, Epigraphia Indica VII (1902–03), p. 184 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²