Kopparam plates of Pulakesin II

The Kopparam plates are a grant of Pulakesin II found on the Telugu coast. They show the Chalukyas of Badami granting land in Karmarashtra, in the Guntur country, about 631.¹²³ Their executor may have been his brother Vishnuvardhana, the founder of the Eastern Chalukya line.¹²³

Discovery and editions

The plates were found near Kopparam in the Narasaraopet taluk of the Guntur district.¹ K. V. Lakshmana Rao of the Telugu Encyclopaedia Office, Madras, first described and edited them in the Annals of the Bhandarkar Institute.¹ E. Hultzsch re-edited them in Epigraphia Indica XVIII (1926) from ink impressions sent to him by H. Krishna Sastri.¹ He did so because he believed he could improve a few of the readings.¹ Hultzsch’s text runs over three plates: the first, both sides of the second, and the third.²⁴

Hultzsch thought that “the composer of the text knew so little Sanskrit that in some places it is difficult to divine what he really wanted to express”.¹ He gave one example.¹ The text calls Pulakesin the “dear grandson” of Kirtivarman I.¹ As Lakshmana Rao had said, this “must be a stupid error” for “dear son”.¹

The grant

The king is “the glorious Pulakesi-Prithivivallabha-Maharaja”, like his father a hero and the “abode of truth” (Satyasraya).¹⁵ He informs the officials of the district of the grant.¹⁵ A field of eight hundred nivartanas in the village of Irbuli in Karmarashtra was given to the Brahmana Vedasarman.¹⁵ He was of the Sandilyayana gotra (clan), a follower of the Apastamba sutra, and lived at Mugamur.¹⁵

The field had these boundaries:¹⁵

• east of the Balaka pond¹⁵
• west of the Karmakara tank¹⁵
• south of the road to Kondaverupur¹⁵
• north of the road to Virparu¹⁵

Lakshmana Rao identified Kondaverupur with Kondavidu and Virparu with Vipparla, both in the Narasaraopet taluk.² He identified Mugamur with Mungamur in the Kandukur taluk of the Nellore district.²

Prithividuvaraja

The grant was made with “Vallabha” (Pulakesin) “being present in person”.⁵ Its execution was entrusted to “Prithividuvaraja”.⁵ This warrior had defeated the circle of enemies by his arm and “secured the kingdom to the lineage of his son”.⁵ Lakshmana Rao identified him with Satyasraya-Dhruvaraja-Indravarman of the Goa plates.²

Hultzsch proposed instead that duvaraja is a Dravidian form of yuvaraja, “heir-apparent”.² In his view “Prithiviyuvaraja” was Vishnuvardhana, the younger brother of Pulakesin II and founder of the Eastern Chalukya dynasty.² If so, Hultzsch concluded, Vishnuvardhana “continued to be dependent on Pulakesin II” in the 21st year of his reign.²

This sits uneasily with other evidence. A grant of Vishnuvardhana’s own 18th year, which Fleet dated to 632, already gives him the title Maharaja.²⁶ Fleet held that he had become an independent king before 632.²⁶

Date

The grant is dated in the 21st year of the reign, in the month of Karttika, on “the great ninth” (mahanavami), a Thursday.² In a postscript Robert Sewell checked the years 628 to 631.⁵³ He found that only 631 fits: the ninth of the bright half of Karttika fell on Thursday, 10 October 631.⁵³ That would put Pulakesin’s accession on or after 11 October 610.⁵³ Sewell noted that Fleet had dated the accession to 610–11, R. G. Bhandarkar to 610 or 611, and Jouveau-Dubreuil to 609.⁵³

Footnotes

1. E. Hultzsch, “Kopparam Plates of Pulakesin II”, Epigraphia Indica XVIII (1926), p. 257 (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

2. Hultzsch, “Kopparam Plates” (1926), p. 258 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

3. R. Sewell, postscript to Hultzsch, “Kopparam Plates”, Epigraphia Indica XVIII (1926), p. 261 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. Hultzsch, “Kopparam Plates” (1926), p. 259 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

5. Hultzsch, “Kopparam Plates” (1926), p. 260, translation and R. Sewell’s postscript (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶

6. J. F. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts”, Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency I, pt. II (1896), p. 352 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²