Erragudipadu inscription of Erikal-Mutturaju

This stone at Erragudipadu records a grant of land to a Brahmana in the reign of an Erikal-Mutturaju.¹ Its editors assigned it to the last quarter of the 6th century or a little later.² With the Kalamalla pillar, it is among the earliest records written in Telugu in the Telugu Chola country.²

The stone and its letters

The inscription is cut in bold, large letters on two sides of a stone.² The stone stands to the right of the Chennakesava temple at Erragudipadu, in the Kamalapuram taluk (sub-district) of the Kadapa (then Cuddapah) district.² K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and M. Venkataramayya edited it in 1956.²

They found that its letters are like those of the Kalamalla pillar in almost every detail, though written in a more running hand.² They assigned it to the last quarter of the 6th century or a little later.² They pointed out that a letter written below another keeps its full form.² This is a feature of the early Telugu-Kannada script.²

Contents

The record registers a grant of a pannasa of 24 marunturu of land in the kottam (territorial division) to a Brahmana.¹ It was made in the reign of an Erikal-Mutturaju, at the request of, or by, one Kundikallu.¹ The witnesses were Dujayarajula Mutturajulu, Navapriya Mutturajulu and Vallava Dukarajulu.¹

The amount of land is written in words, as four preceded by twenty.³ The editors compared this way of writing two-digit numbers with other early records.³

The words of the grant

The editors discussed several words.³ Pannasa is often taken to mean “fifty”, but it cannot mean that here, since the land given is 24 units.³ They thought it a kind of tenure linked with a tax.³ They took it as the Telugu counterpart of the Tamil word for tax-free land.³

Kottambu means a settlement or territorial division.³¹ They derived it from Sanskrit goshtha, a settlement of cowherds.³¹ Sakshi means witness.³¹

They showed that the forms Dukaraju, Tugaraju and Dugaraju are Telugu forms of yuvaraja, heir-apparent.³ They compared the Eastern Chalukya prince Mangi Yuvaraja, who is also called Mangi Dogaraju.³

Who is named

The editors could not say for certain that this Erikal-Mutturaju is Dhananjaya of the Kalamalla pillar.¹ But the letters and the place where the stone was found make it plausible.¹ They suggested that Dujayaraju stands for Durjayaraju.¹ They recalled that the Kakatiyas and other later Telugu dynasties claimed descent from a Durjaya.¹

They took Navapriya Mutturaju to be Mahendravikrama, Dhananjaya’s son.¹ They took Vallava Dukaraju to be a crown prince of the Pallavas of Kanchi in the time of Simhavishnu.¹ But they allowed that Vallava might stand for Vallabha, a name of the Chalukyas.¹ If the Pallava reading is right, the record links the Telugu Cholas with the Pallavas in the late 6th century, as subordinates or as allies.¹

Significance

The editors dated the Kalamalla pillar to the same period.² With that pillar, this is among the earliest records written in Telugu in the Telugu Chola country, in the Kamalapuram taluk of Kadapa.² The village is not the Erragudi of the Asoka edicts.

Footnotes

1. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), p. 227 and notes (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

2. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and M. Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records from Anantapur and Cuddapah”, Epigraphia Indica XXVII (1956), p. 225 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

3. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), p. 226 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹