Malepadu stone inscription of Satyaditya

Publication

The stone was one of the records from Malepadu brought to notice in 1904 by J. Ramayya Pantulu.¹² He reported it together with the Malepadu plates of Punyakumara.¹² It is No. 393 of the Madras epigraphical collection for that year.¹²

H. Krishna Sastri printed it in 1912, in a postscript to his edition of the plates, “as a specimen”.¹ He did so because the family’s stone records were “the earliest Telugu records from the Cuddapah district”.¹

Script

Krishna Sastri found its letters “quite similar” to those of the Alupa inscriptions of Udiyavara.² E. Hultzsch had assigned those inscriptions to about 800.² Krishna Sastri also noted that the record “is written from the bottom upwards”.² The Amaravati pillar inscription of the Pallava Simhavarman is written the same way, and so is one side of the Bezwada pillar of the Eastern Chalukya Yuddhamalla.²

K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and M. Venkataramayya placed the record in the second quarter of the 8th century, alongside the Veludurti record of Uttamaditya.³

Contents

Krishna Sastri gave “only a tentative translation”.⁴ He noted that its spelling, grammar and idiom needed separate study.⁴ In his translation, the record names Satyaditya, “of the Kāśyapa-gōtra, son of Śaktikomara Vikramāditya (and grandson of) the great lord, the glorious Chōḷa-Mahārājādhirāja Vikramāditya”.⁴

Satyaditya made the gift “while ruling the Śiddhi one thousand and the Rēnāṇḍu seven thousand (districts)”.⁴ He “gave to Rēvaśarmma of the Kāśyapa-gōtra, (a resident) of Komaripāṛa, five marutru (of land) at Chirumbūru”.⁴ The boundaries follow.⁴

Then comes a blessing on those who keep up the gift, who will win “the merit of establishing a thousand temples, a thousand tanks (and) a thousand villages”.⁴ A curse falls on those who block it.⁴ Krishna Sastri identified Chirumburu with Chilamakuru, near the Kalamalla railway station.⁴ He explained marutru as a measure of land.⁴

Three generations or four?

Krishna Sastri’s “(and grandson of)” is his own addition.⁴ It makes three generations: Vikramaditya, Saktikomara Vikramaditya and Satyaditya.⁴

Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya (1956) pointed out that the text states only one relationship, that of son.⁵ They read the names as four generations: Vikramaditya I, Saktikumara, Vikramaditya II and Satyaditya.⁵ In their reading, the supreme titles belong to Vikramaditya II, the reigning king.⁵ Satyaditya’s name lacks the honorific ending of a king, so he may have been only a prince.⁵

They added that the stone describes Satyaditya as ruling the Siddhi thousand and Renandu seven thousand.⁶ But it gives him no royal title, and it is not known whether he ever reigned.⁶ See Vikramaditya II.

Significance

The record is one of the few that name the Siddhi thousand, one of the three territories of Dhananjaya’s line.⁷ It was the basis of the later part of the editors’ family tree.⁷

Krishna Sastri suggested that the Siddhi thousand was perhaps the same as the Sidhout country.⁸ He noted that a 12th-century inscription from Peddamudiyam mentions a Renandu seventy, which must have been a subdivision of the Renandu seven thousand.⁸

Footnotes

1. H. Krishna Sastri, “Malepadu Plates of Punyakumara; the Fifth Year”, Epigraphia Indica XI (1912), p. 337 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

2. Krishna Sastri, “Malepadu Plates” (1912), p. 345 and note 4 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), p. 240 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

4. Krishna Sastri, “Malepadu Plates” (1912), p. 346 and notes (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

5. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and M. Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records from Anantapur and Cuddapah”, Epigraphia Indica XXVII (1956), p. 237, note 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), p. 241 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

7. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), p. 249 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

8. Krishna Sastri, “Malepadu Plates” (1912), p. 343 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²