Mogalcheruvula grant of Kusumayudha IV

The Mogalcheruvula grant is the earliest known record of the Chalukyas of Mudigonda.¹² Until the Kukkunur plates came to light in the 1970s, it was the family’s only known copper-plate grant.¹² It introduced the family to historians.¹²

Discovery and description

Cecil Bendall, Professor of Sanskrit at Cambridge, came across the plates in March 1899.² They had been lent to him from the treasury of the Nizam at Hyderabad for publication.² He edited them, “for the first time”, in the Indian Antiquary of July 1903.²

There are five plates with slightly raised rims, and the first and last are inscribed on one side only.² The ring is about five inches across, and its oval seal was obliterated (worn away).² The language is Sanskrit, but a few lines of Telugu were added later in a different hand.²

Bendall gave no plate (illustration), thinking one hardly called for.² He described the letters as those of Chalukya inscriptions of about the eleventh century or later.² By 1974 the whereabouts of the plates were not known.¹

Contents

The grant opens with a formal praise of the Chalukyas.³ It says that they belong to the Manavya gotra (clan) and are sons of Hariti.³ It adds that they owe their kingdom to the favour of Kausiki and are protected by the Mothers.³ They conquer, it says, at the sight of the boar banner.³

It names the family “the Madugonda-Chalukyas”.²³ It gives the pedigree from Kokiraja to the donor, Kusumayudha IV, son of Nijjiyaraja and Achidevi.²³ Along the way it mentions a younger brother of Kokiraja, living at Mudugonduru.²³ It says that this brother recovered the Garuda and Vetala banners from a king named Chiyyaraja.²³ It also mentions one Ranamarda, who came to the Mamchikonda region and to Kondapalli.²³

Kusumayudha IV, “the great lord of high brahman lineage”, addresses the householders of the Mamchikonda district.³ He announces that he has given the village of Mogaluchuruvulu to the Brahmana Doneya of the Kutsita gotra.³ The gift was free of all taxes and was made on the occasion of the winter solstice.³

The boundaries run as follows:

• Munnashaka on the east³
• Krovveru on the south-east³
• Koravi on the south³
• Otailu on the south-west³
• Luvvu on the west³
• Palurnru on the north-west³
• the hill Tividi on the north³
• Navulametta on the north-east³

Bendall could identify only Kondapalli, near Vijayawada (then Bezwada).² Koravi is the modern Kuravi, in the Mahbubabad taluk of the Warangal district.⁴⁵ In later records it is the seat of the family.⁴⁵

Interpretation

N. Venkataramanayya used the grant’s pedigree to date the family.⁶⁷ He placed the donor about 1050 and the founder Kokiraja about 865–890.⁶⁷ In his list of the eight generations in the grant, the third is Bijayita (Vijayaditya), son of Kusumayudha I.⁷ He placed Bijayita about 915–940.⁷ He identified Bijayita with Bijja, the Chalukya prince whom Arikesari II of Vemulavada sheltered from the Rashtrakuta Govinda IV.⁸

P. V. Parabrahma Sastry called the record the “Mogalicheruvula grant”.⁵ He doubted Bendall’s palaeographic date (the date drawn from the letters) and read the genealogy as beginning with Ranamarda.⁵ He also stressed that its line cannot be joined with certainty to that of the later Kukkunur plates.⁹

Footnotes

1. Gajjala Vasanta Lakshmi (ed.), Epigraphia Telanganica I: Pre-Kakatiya Telangana (2023), p. 353, reprinting Bh. Lakshminarayana, “Kukkunuru Plates of Kusumadya”, Epigraphia Andhrica II (1974). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. C. Bendall, “Grant of Kusumayudha IV”, Indian Antiquary XXXII (1903), p. 281 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

3. Bendall, “Grant of Kusumayudha IV” (1903), p. 284, translation (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

4. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 39. ↩ ↩²

5. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 52. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. N. Venkataramanayya, The Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 35, note 55 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

7. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 36, note 55 continued (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

8. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 37, note 55 continued (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

9. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 53. ↩