Kanteru plates of the Salankayanas

Two grants of the Salankayana kings were found together at Kanteru. They were edited by K. V. Lakshmana Rao, first in Telugu and then in English in the Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society. The English edition appeared in 1930, after his death.¹² When he wrote, only two Salankayana grants had been published.¹

Discovery and description

Lakshmana Rao wrote that the plates “were found, buried under ground, in a village called Kanteru, six miles from Guntur”.¹ He received them from a friend.¹ Each set has four plates without raised rims.¹

Grant A, of Skandavarman, is worn in many places, and part of its thin second plate is broken. Its ring carries a round bronze seal whose figure has almost disappeared, though the hump of what looks like a bull can be seen.¹
Grant B, of Nandivarman, had a seal covered in rust. After cleaning it for several days Lakshmana Rao exposed “a beautiful figure, in relief, of a bull (Nandi) in crouching position”, with worn letters below it. He thought it the only Salankayana seal then known that clearly showed the family’s crest. He also took a small round bump on the edge of the seal to stand for the sun.¹³⁴

The letters are an old form of the Telugu-Kannada script. The language of both grants is Sanskrit prose, apart from the usual verses at the end.³⁴ The plates of grant A are numbered on both sides, like the pages of a book.⁴

The grant of Skandavarman (A)

The order comes “from the victorious Vengi” from the Maharaja Vijaya-Skandavarman.⁵ He calls himself a devotee of the god Chitrarathasvamin and of “the venerable Bappa (father)”, and a member of the Salankayana family.⁵ It tells the villagers of Chinnapura in the district of Kudrahara that their village has been given, free of all taxes, to Sivarya.⁵ Sivarya was of the Maudgalya gotra (clan) and lived at Lekumari.⁵ “All the respectable officers, ministers, agents and heads of the vishayas” are to leave the village alone.⁵ The charter was given on the full-moon day of Vaisakha in the first year of the reign.⁴⁵

Lakshmana Rao identified Chinnapura with the village of Chinnapuram in the Bandar taluk, and could not identify Lekumari.⁶ Sircar’s summary gives the donee’s village as Lekmnuri.⁷

The grant of Nandivarman (B)

The order comes “from the victorious Vengipura” from the Salankayana Maharaja Nandivarman, with the same titles.⁸ It tells the villagers of Kuruvada in Kudrahara that a piece of land of twelve nivartanas (land measures) in their village has been given.⁸ The donee is “the famous Brahmin Svamichandra of the Maudgalya gotra”.⁸ It is dated on a new-moon day.⁴⁸ Sircar’s summary gives the donee’s name as Svamidatta.⁹ Lakshmana Rao thought that a passage naming the officers had been left out by mistake.⁸

Sircar identified this king with Nandivarman II. The grant gives him the titles used in the Kolleru and Peddavegi plates.¹⁰¹¹ Among them is parama-bhagavata (devout worshipper of Vishnu), which no other Salankayana king is known to have used.¹⁰¹¹ R. Subba Rao also took him to be Nandivarman II.¹²

K. R. Subramanian reported that the government epigraphist saw a slight difficulty, on grounds of script, in identifying him with the king of the Kolleru plates. He thought the grant might instead belong to Nandivarman I.¹³ Lakshmana Rao himself thought the Nandivarman of this grant and of the Kolleru plates were probably the same person.¹⁴

Kudrahara

Lakshmana Rao thought the district of Kudrahara included the later taluks of Divi (Avanigadda), Bandar, Kaikalur and Gudivada in Krishna district. In his view its chief place was Gudur near Machilipatnam (then Masulipatam). He accepted these identifications only tentatively.⁶ See Salankayanas: territory.

The two kings

Lakshmana Rao placed Nandivarman about 475 and Skandavarman, the last of the line, about 500.¹⁴ Lakshmana Rao and Subba Rao thought the two kings were brothers, sons of Chandavarman. Subba Rao gave three reasons:¹²¹⁵¹⁶

the grants were found together¹²¹⁵¹⁶
their language and letters are alike¹²¹⁵¹⁶
both were made to Brahmins of the Maudgalya gotra¹²¹⁵¹⁶

Sircar thought the relationship could not then be settled.¹¹ In 1960 the Kanukollu plates showed that Skandavarman was a son of Hastivarman II, and so a cousin of Nandivarman II. Their editor, B. V. Krishna Rao, found the letters of the Kanukollu grant of Skandavarman close to those of the Kanteru grant. He thought the two might be grants of the same king.¹⁷¹⁸

K. V. Lakshmana Rao, “Two Copper-plate Grants of the Salankayanas of Vengi”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society V, pt. 1 (1930), p. 21 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
D. C. Sircar, The Successors of the Satavahanas in Lower Deccan (1939), p. 65, note 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
Lakshmana Rao, “Two Copper-plate Grants of the Salankayanas” (1930), p. 22 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Lakshmana Rao, “Two Copper-plate Grants of the Salankayanas” (1930), p. 23 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Lakshmana Rao, “Two Copper-plate Grants of the Salankayanas” (1930), p. 31, translation of grant A (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Lakshmana Rao, “Two Copper-plate Grants of the Salankayanas” (1930), p. 25 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 96 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
Lakshmana Rao, “Two Copper-plate Grants of the Salankayanas” (1930), p. 32, translation of grant B and notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 92 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 68 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 69 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
R. Subba Rao, “Pedavegi Copper-plates of Nandivarman II”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society I, pt. 2 (1926), p. 93 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
K. R. Subramanian, Buddhist Remains in Andhra and the History of Andhra between 225 and 610 A.D. (1932), p. 90 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
Lakshmana Rao, “Two Copper-plate Grants of the Salankayanas” (1930), pp. 26–27 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Subba Rao, “Pedavegi Copper-plates” (1926), p. 94 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 70, note 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
B. V. Krishna Rao, “Two Salankayana Charters from Kanukollu”, Epigraphia Indica XXXI (1955–56, publ. 1960), p. 7 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
Krishna Rao, “Two Salankayana Charters from Kanukollu” (1960), p. 8 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩