Kanukollu plates of Nandivarman I

This is the only grant of the Salankayana king Nandivarman I.¹ In the view of its editor it is also the earliest of the dynasty’s grants.¹ It was found with the Kanukollu plates of Skandavarman.²

Discovery and description

Villagers were digging old earth on the former village site at Kanukollu, in the Gudivada taluk of Krishna district.² There they found the two sets of plates together.² The spot lay outside the ramparts of the village’s ruined mud fort.² The villagers first took the plates for precious metal and divided them.² The ring and seal of the second set were melted down to test the metal, but none of the plates was lost.²

The village accountant (karanam), Vinnakota Durga Varaprasada Rao, saved them.² He obtained them for B. V. Krishna Rao in 1946.² Krishna Rao sent them to the Government Epigraphist, who had impressions made.² Krishna Rao published them in Epigraphia Indica in 1960.²

There are eight plates on a ring whose ends had been fixed under an oval seal.²³ The ring had already been cut before the plates reached Krishna Rao, and the seal was too corroded to read.²³ The plates are numbered with old numerals.²³

Script and language

The writing belongs to the early southern alphabet.³ Krishna Rao compared it with the Hirahadagalli and Mayidavolu plates of the Pallava Sivaskandavarman.³ He also compared it with the Kondamudi plates of the Brihatphalayana Jayavarman.³ He noted that some of its vowel signs differ from those of the Ellore plates of Devavarman.³ The language is Prakrit prose, except for two Sanskrit curse verses in lines 30–37.³

Content

The order is issued from Vijaya-Vengipura by the Maharaja Nandivarman, favoured by the feet of his royal father.⁴⁵ It is addressed to the officials and to the villagers of Pidiha, headed by their mutyadas (village heads).⁴⁵ Sircar preferred the reading muluda.⁴⁵

The king gives the village of Pidiha as an agrahara (village granted to Brahmins) to a Brahmin learned in the four Vedas (chatuvejja) of the Rathakara community.³⁵ He does so to increase his own merit, long life and strength.³⁵ He also does it for the fame and fortune of the young prince (balaka-maharajakumara) Khandapotta.³⁵ The gift is made according to the rites proper to an agrahara of the Rathakaras.³⁵

The village is freed from the entry of royal officers, from salt-digging and from the district police.⁵ It is also freed from duties to supply these goods:⁵

• water-pots, cooked rice, cots and grass⁵
• vegetables, flowers and fruit⁵
• curds, milk, ghee and buttermilk⁵

The grant is dated in year 14, in the second fortnight of the rainy season, on the first day.¹⁶⁵ The executor was Hatthisami (Hastisvamin).¹⁶⁵ The last line seems to name a local officer, Hadappa, son of a Maharaja Punakomgala, as protector of the grant.¹⁶ Sircar, as editor, suggested a different reading of that line, naming a second officer called Vara.¹⁶

The family name Salankayana does not occur in the grant.¹ But Krishna Rao had little doubt that the king belonged to the Salankayanas of Vengi.¹

The chariot-makers (Rathakaras)

Krishna Rao thought the gift to a Vedic scholar of the Rathakara (chariot-maker) community the most interesting feature of the grant.¹⁴ He cited Vedic texts that allowed Rathakaras a part in certain rites.¹⁴ He also compared the Visva-Brahmanas of the Krishna and Godavari districts.¹⁴ These were artisans who called themselves Rathakaras and claimed the right to study the Vedas.¹⁴

Sircar, as editor, disagreed.³⁴⁵ He read chatuvejja as a community of Brahmins of many gotras (clans), not a single person.³⁴⁵ He pointed to the second Kanukollu grant, which shows that Rathakara was the name of a village where its donee lived.³⁴⁵ He found it hard to believe that carpenters had ever held so high a place.³⁴⁵

Date

Krishna Rao thought the dating by year, season-fortnight and day older than the dating by month in Devavarman’s Ellore grant.¹ He placed the grant at about the same time as, or slightly later than, the Prakrit grants of the Pallava Sivaskandavarman.¹ He took Nandivarman I to be a later contemporary of that king.¹ So he dated the grant, as a first guess, to the close of the 3rd century.¹

Sircar wrote that, on grounds of script and language, the grant belonged to the same age as the Ellore grant of Devavarman.¹ He placed it about the middle of the 4th century and found Krishna Rao’s dates too early.¹

Footnotes

1. Krishna Rao, “Two Salankayana Charters from Kanukollu” (1960), p. 3, with D. C. Sircar’s editorial notes (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. B. V. Krishna Rao, “Two Salankayana Charters from Kanukollu”, Epigraphia Indica XXXI (1955–56, publ. 1960), p. 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

3. Krishna Rao, “Two Salankayana Charters from Kanukollu” (1960), p. 2 and note 7 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶

4. Krishna Rao, “Two Salankayana Charters from Kanukollu” (1960), p. 4 and note 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

5. Krishna Rao, “Two Salankayana Charters from Kanukollu” (1960), p. 7, translation and notes (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸

6. Krishna Rao, “Two Salankayana Charters from Kanukollu” (1960), p. 6, text lines 38–40 and note 9 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴