Gooty rock inscription of Bukka I

The rock and the verse

E. Hultzsch published the inscription in 1890, in the first volume of South-Indian Inscriptions.¹ He wrote that it “is engraved on a rock not far from the summit of the fort of Gutti (Gooty) in the Anantapur District”.¹ It “consists of one verse in the Sragdhara metre.”¹ He noted that the same fort bears three rough rock inscriptions in Kanarese (Kannada) of the Western Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI.¹ Two of them are dated in 1121–22 and 1122–23.¹

V. Rangacharya’s list of 1919 gives the verse as No. 85 of the Government Epigraphist’s collection for 1903.² It places the verse “on a rock near the deserted Narasimhasvami temple on the local hill”.² There it stands among a group of damaged Kanarese records, one of them dated 1507.²

Hultzsch translated the verse.¹ It begins: “Prosperity! Victorious is the king of forts, the best of mountains, Gutti-durga by name!”¹ It calls the hill “the nave of the wheel of the sovereignty over the whole earth of the illustrious king Bukka”.¹ (The nave is the centre of a wheel.) The verse says that Bukka is “another form (assumed by) Vishnu for protecting the world”.¹

The hill is also Bukka’s “ancient auspicious conch-shell with convolutions from left to right (dakshinavarta-sankha)”.¹ So, the verse says, it is like “the centre of the discus of (Vishnu) the lord of Lakshmi, and his conch-shell Panchajanya.”¹

The Anantapur gazetteer of 1905 quoted the translation.³ It added Hultzsch’s explanation of the comparison with the conch.³ A conch with right-handed whorls is “a very rare article and one which always brings prosperity to its fortunate owner”.³ The comparison “was suggested by the shape of the Gooty rock and the windings round it of the path which leads to its summit.”³

Which Bukka?

Hultzsch wrote that the fort “belonged to king Bukka”.¹ He went on: “By this, the well-known king of the first dynasty of Vijayanagara, whose inscriptions range between Saka-1276 [current] and 1290 [expired], seems to be meant”.¹ These dates are about 1353 to 1368.¹ The gazetteer accepted that this was Bukka I of Vijayanagar, “who ruled from 1343 to 1379”.³ See Bukka I.

Robert Sewell’s lists of 1882 had read the verse differently.⁴ They describe “a Sanskrit sloka in praise of ‘Bukka Nripati’, probably Bukka Raja, one of Krishnadeva Raya’s officers, who built the fort”.⁴ They also record the local belief that the fort was “said to have been constructed by Krishnadeva Raya”.⁴

The gazetteer of 1905 gave an answer to this.³ It agreed that Krishnadeva Raya “is popularly credited with having built” the fortifications.³ But it pointed out that “it has been stated above that they had been begun many years before his time”.³ See the Gooty fort and Krishnadeva Raya.

Gooty under Vijayanagara

The gazetteer found little else on record for the Vijayanagara period.³ In its words, “The fort doubtless continued a possession of the Vijayanagar kings until the overthrow of their dynasty at the battle of Talikota in 1565”.³ Inscriptions at Tadpatri show that Gooty was the capital of a rajya (or province), and they give the names of one or two of its governors.³ Apart from this, “nothing is on record regarding its history during that time.”³

A copper-plate grant of Sadasiva of 1548 places the village of Kanuma in “Gutti valita”.⁵ A stone record of Venkatapati of 1603 gives a village to the god Raghunayaka “on the hill-fort of Gutti”.⁵ See the Kanuma grant and Gooty.

Footnotes

1. E. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), p. 167, No. 154, “A rock-inscription at the fort of Gutti” (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

2. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. I (1919), p. 4, Anantapur Nos. 20–27 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Anantapur (1905), p. 156 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

4. Robert Sewell, Lists of the Antiquarian Remains in the Presidency of Madras, Vol. I (1882), p. 115 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. I (1919), p. 5, Anantapur Nos. 28 and 33 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²