Lepakshi temple inscriptions of Achyuta Raya's reign (1533–1538)

The records

The Government Epigraphist’s office copied the inscriptions of the Virabhadra temple at Lepakshi in 1912.¹² V. Rangacharya summarised them in 1919, and most are in Sanskrit and Kannada on the east wall of the second enclosure.¹² One of them is a preface to the rest.¹² It says that the inscriptions on the east wall, “which record gifts made to the shrines of Virabhadra, Papanasesvara and Rama at Lepakshi”, were engraved by two men.¹²

They were “engraved by Basavana Somayajin of Chatakuru and Timmapa of Gorantla”.¹² Timmapa “was the senabova (clerk or shroff) of Virapannayya”, and the work was done “under orders from Virapanna”.¹² The dates of the records run from Saka 1455 (1533; Saka is an Indian way of counting years) to Saka 1460 (1538).³² All are in the reign of “the Vijayanagara king Virapratapa Achyutadeva-Maharaya”.³² See Achyuta Raya and the Lepakshi temple.

Virupanna and Virana Nayaka

In Saka 1460, Vilambi (1538–39), “Virappannayya of Penugonde” made a gift to the temple of “Viresvara on the Kurmasaila hill at Lepakshipura”.³¹ He gave two villages near Depparu, with their copper-plate deeds.³¹ He had bought them from Brahmans to whom king Praudhadeva-Maharaya had given them.³¹ He also gave lands at Nagaragere, also called Krishnarayasamudra, in Rodda-nadu, “a subdivision of Penugonde-rajya”.³¹

A record of Saka 1456 (1534) grants the tolls of the Sunday market at the hamlet of Viresvaradevarapura, which belonged to Lepakshi.¹ It also grants other income for offerings in the three shrines.¹ The grant was made “at the instance of Virana Nayaka, brother of Virapannaya of Penugonde”.¹

Another record, of February 1538, names “Virabhupa, the brother of Penugonde Virappanna, who was the son of Nandi-Lakiseti of Lepakshi”.¹ The Epigraphist’s report of 1912 describes the brothers’ gifts to a Lakshmi temple near Hindupur.⁴ It calls them “Virappannayya of Penugonda and his younger brother Virana-Nayaka, sons of Nandi-Lakkisetti and Muddamamba of Lepakshi”.⁴

The king’s gifts

Several of the records are grants of the king.¹²⁵ In Saka 1455 (1533), three villages were given to the shrine of Virabhadra.¹²⁵ All three were renamed Venkatadri-samudra “after prince Kumara-Venkatadri, the son of Achyuta Raya”.¹²⁵

A record of October 1537 refers to a grant of two villages.¹²⁵ The grant was made “by the king in the presence of Vithalesvara on the banks of the Tungabhadra river”.¹²⁵

One record on the north wall is a copy of a copper-plate document of the god Viresvara.¹²⁵ It has the same long praise of the king as the Unamanjeri plates of Achyuta.¹²⁵ It records that the king “weighed himself against pearls at Kanchi in the Saka year 1455”.¹²⁵ He made the gift called Kanchanameru in Saka 1456.¹²⁵

Other records place Lepakshi in “Sadali-vente which belonged to Rodda-nadu, a subdivision of Penugonde-rajya”.¹² They trace a village given to the temple back to grants of Deva Raya II and his son Virupaksha in the fifteenth century.¹² See Deva Raya II and Penukonda.

The builder and the tradition

The Anantapur gazetteer of 1905 names the builder of the temple.⁶ It says that “an inscription on the inside of the outer wall to the left of the main entrance records that it was constructed in A. D. 1538 by a ‘shroff’ named Virupanna”.⁶

The gazetteer then gives the local story.⁶ In this story, Virupanna “was treasurer at Penukonda to king Krishna Deva Raya of Vijayanagar”.⁶ He built the temple out of the public money while the king was away.⁶ The king ordered his eyes to be put out, and Virupanna carried out the sentence himself.⁶ This left two dark stains on the wall near the unfinished kalyana-mantapam (marriage hall).⁶

The dated records do not name Krishnadeva Raya as the reigning king.³² They belong to the reign of his brother and successor Achyuta.³² See Krishnadeva Raya.

Later records in the village include Telugu grants of 1680–81 to a temple at old Lepakshi.⁵ One of them was made “for the merit of” the Golconda king Abul Hasan.⁵ There is also an unfinished Kannada record of Sadasiva of 1549, for the merit of Rama Raja Vitthala.⁵ See Lepakshi.

Footnotes

1. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. I (1919), p. 13, Anantapur Nos. 75–79 (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 ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵

2. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. I (1919), p. 14, Anantapur Nos. 80–86 (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. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. I (1919), p. 12, Anantapur Nos. 73–75 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

4. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras (G.O. No. 919, Public, 29 July 1912), Part II, para. 56, p. 81 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

5. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. I (1919), p. 15, Anantapur Nos. 86–90 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

6. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Anantapur (1905), p. 172 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷