Jaggayyapeta inscriptions of Virapurushadatta

These are the inscriptions through which the Ikshvakus of the Krishna valley first became known.¹ They were cut on the pillars of the Jaggayyapeta stupa (relic mound), near the meeting of the Paleru and the Krishna.¹

Discovery and description

James Burgess excavated the stupa in February 1882.² Its base had projections facing the four cardinal points, and large pillars or stelae lay at three of them.² At the east, one inscribed pillar lay where it had fallen.² It was about 17 feet long even with its top broken off, square for the lower 7½ feet and octagonal above.²

The inscription is cut on the lower part of the octagonal shaft.² Burgess found two more copies.² One was on a broken pillar that villagers had carried off, which the local officer recovered.² The other was in the roof of a small ruined temple at the foot of the hill.²

J. Ph. Vogel later observed that only one of the three copies is complete.¹³ The inscribed pillars belonged to the set of five on the east side.¹³ The pillars of the other sides seem to have been uninscribed.¹³

Content

Georg Bühler’s translation, revised for Burgess’s report, begins: “Success!”²⁴ It dates the gift “On the 10th day of the 8th fortnight of the rainy season, in the 20th year of the king Purisadata (Purushadatta)”.²⁴ It calls the king “the glorious hero (srivira) of the Ikhakus (Ikshvakus) and son of the Madhara (mother)”.²⁴

The donor was “the artisan (avesani) Sidatha (Siddhartha) resident in the village of Mahakamdurura”.²⁴ He was “the son of the artisan Nakachamda (Nagachandra) resident in the village of Nadatura in the province (rathe) of Kammaka”.²⁴

He gave the pillars together with his mother Nagilani, his wife Samudani, his son and daughter, and his brother and the brother’s wife and children.²⁴ Also with him was “the multitude of his blood-relations, friends and connexions”.²⁴ The gift, made “in the village of Velagiri, near the eastern gate of the Great Chaitya of divine Buddha”, was of “five (5) Ayaka-pillars”.²⁴ It was made “for the good and the welfare of all living beings”.²⁴

Interpretation

Burgess put the script at “about the third or fourth century A.D., but possibly earlier”.²⁴ He could not identify the king.²⁴ He thought the king’s claim to Ikshvaku descent “most probably an idle boast” by a local dynasty.²⁴ In his view this dynasty had succeeded the Andhras on the lower Krishna.²⁴

Bühler, in his edition, placed King Purisadata in the 3rd century, before the Pallavas reached Vengi.¹ The Nagarjunakonda finds showed that he was Madhariputa Siri-Virapurisadata, son of Chamtamula.³⁵ Vogel accepted Bühler’s date as probably correct.³⁵

Bühler took Purisadata as the name and siri-vira as an epithet (a title of praise).⁴⁶ Sircar argued that such epithets were often part of a proper name.⁴⁶ Vogel later took the inscription to mean that the stupa itself stood at Velagiri, the old name of Jaggayyapeta.⁷ He added it to his list of the dated foundations of Virapurushadatta’s reign.⁷

Sircar identified the donor’s home province, Kammaka-rattha, with the Karmarashtra of later inscriptions.⁸ This Karmarashtra is placed in northern Nellore and southern Guntur.⁸ He later explained the donor’s title avesani as a foreman of artisans.⁹ The term is known also from a Sanchi inscription of the Satavahana Satakarni.⁹

Footnotes

1. J. Ph. Vogel, Prakrit Inscriptions from a Buddhist Site at Nagarjunikonda, Epigraphia Indica XX (1933), p. 2 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. James Burgess, The Buddhist Stupas of Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta (1887), p. 110 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹

3. Vogel, Prakrit Inscriptions from Nagarjunikonda (1933), p. 3 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. Burgess, Buddhist Stupas of Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta (1887), p. 111, translation by G. Bühler (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

5. Vogel, Prakrit Inscriptions from Nagarjunikonda (1933), p. 6 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

6. D. C. Sircar, The Successors of the Satavahanas in Lower Deccan (1939), p. 22, note 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

7. J. Ph. Vogel, “Additional Prakrit Inscriptions from Nagarjunikonda”, Epigraphia Indica XXI (1931–32), p. 65 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

8. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 34 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

9. D. C. Sircar, “More Inscriptions from Nagarjunikonda”, Epigraphia Indica XXXV (1963–64), p. 16 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²