Niduparu grant of Jayasimha I

This is a grant of Jayasimha I, the son and successor of Kubja Vishnuvardhana and the second king of the Eastern Chalukyas.¹ It is undated except for the day of the gift, the full moon of Karttika.¹ J. F. Fleet put Jayasimha’s reign at thirty years, from 633 to 663.²

Discovery and description

M. Ramakrishnakavi of the Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras, sent the plates for examination in 1916–17.³⁴ They were registered as No. 7 of Appendix A in that year’s epigraphical report.³⁴ The report does not say where they were found.³⁴ E. Hultzsch edited them in 1926 from ink impressions sent to him by H. Krishna Sastri.⁴

There are three oblong plates, and the second is inscribed on both sides.⁴ Their margins are “only very slightly raised into rims”.⁴ They are 2 inches high, and the first two are 7 inches broad.⁴ The third, cut on its right side, is a little less broad.⁴

The ends of the ring are fixed in a round seal bearing the legend Sri-Sarvvasiddhi, with a crescent above and a nine-petalled lotus below.⁴ The plates, ring and seal weigh 70 tolas.⁴ The writing is fairly well preserved, but two or three letters are lost at the ends of the first five lines of the third plate.⁴

Script and language

Hultzsch found the alphabet like that of other early Eastern Chalukya grants.⁴ He noted the syllable ru, written with the Telugu letter, in the Telugu place names Ganderu, Vanneru and Niduparu.⁴ The text is in Sanskrit prose up to line 19, followed by four Sanskrit verses on the last plate.⁴ The rules of sandhi (joining sounds between words) are often neglected.⁴

Content

The order is issued from Asanapura.⁴¹ It names the king as Jayasimha-Vallabha-Maharaja, of the family of the Chalukyas.⁴¹ He is the dear son of Vishnuvardhana-Maharaja, whose other name was Makaradhvaja, and the dear grandson of Kirtivarman.⁴¹

Hultzsch explained the surname Makaradhvaja, that is Cupid, from the text’s claim that Vishnuvardhana I surpassed Cupid in beauty.⁴¹ The epigraphical report of 1917 pointed out that the same surname was later borne by Vishnuvardhana IV.³

The king addresses the ryots (cultivators) of the village of Nidubaru in the Ganderuvati district.¹ The village was “north of the Vyaghra river and on the bank of the Vanneru river”.¹ It lay “at (a distance of) two gavyutis on the eastern side of the royal residence (rajadhani) of Ganderu”.¹

He gives them notice that he has given the village to Katisarman of the Harita gotra (clan) and the Taittiriya school.¹ He made the gift on the full-moon day of Karttika.¹ Katisarman was the son of Sivarudrasarman and grandson of Mandasarman.¹ Hultzsch suggested that the donee’s name should perhaps be read Kotisarman.⁴

The grandfather lived in the town of Asanapura and was a member of its college (ghatika).¹ He is said to have studied two Vedas with their pada, krama and anukrama recitations.¹ The father performed Agnishtoma sacrifices.¹ The donee himself had studied two Vedas, sacrificial lore, the Upanishads, the meaning of the mantras, the Itihasa, the Puranas and the Dharmasastra.¹

The executor (ajnapti) was a man who “knew royal politics, the Vedangas, and all arts”.¹⁵ His name is lost in a break.¹⁵ Hultzsch thought it may have been Sarvajanasraya, and that he was perhaps a Brahmin minister.¹⁵ The record ends with three verses “sung by Vyasa”.¹⁵

The places

The epigraphist of 1917 took Ganderuvati to be the Kanderuvadi district of later grants, named after the modern village of Kanteru in the Guntur taluk.³ He identified the village granted with Nidamarru in the same taluk, “which is actually about 2 gavyutis” east of Kanteru.³

Hultzsch accepted both identifications, and made Ganderu the residence of Jayasimha I.⁶ Robert Sewell told him that Kanteru lies a few miles north-east of Guntur, on the road to Vijayawada (then Bezwada).⁶ He also told him that Nidamarru lies a few miles north-north-east of it.⁶ Neither could trace the Vyaghra and Vanneru rivers or the town of Asanapura.⁶

There is a second pair of villages named Kanteru and Nidamarru, in the Tanuku and Bhimavaram taluks of the Godavari district.⁶ Sewell agreed with the Guntur identification because Kanteru in Guntur was “a far more important place”.⁶ He also noted that the Godavari pair were “not very close together”.⁶

Notable points

The report of 1917 read the river’s name as Manneru, where Hultzsch read Vanneru.³⁶ It also judged the grant important for its date.²³ Fleet had known only one grant of Jayasimha I, from Pedda-Maddali in the Krishna (then Kistna) district.²³ He was “not quite satisfied as to its authenticity”.²³

The 1917 report called the Niduparu grant “above suspicion”, and the second record of the king to be found.²³ It noted that the surname Sarvasiddhi on its seal is also on the seal of the Pedda-Maddali plates.²³ Fleet’s list explains the surname, from the Pedda-Maddali grant, as “he who acquired all (kinds of) success by the strength of his arm”.² See also the Pulibumra plates and the Pedda-Vegi plates of the same king.

Asanapura appears in several early grants. Hultzsch noted that the grandfather of the donee of a grant of Vishnuvardhana II also lived there.⁴

M. Somasekhara Sarma edited three more grants of Jayasimha I in 1960.⁷ He observed that two of them were issued from Asanapura, and that the donee of the Pulibumra grant had also moved there.⁷ The Niduparu donee’s grandfather belonged to its ghatika.⁷ So Somasekhara Sarma concluded that Asanapura was a centre of learning and culture in early Eastern Chalukya times, although he could not identify it.⁷ See the Gudivada plates.

Footnotes

1. Hultzsch, “Niduparu Grant of Jayasimha I” (1926), p. 57, text and abstract of contents (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

2. J. F. Fleet, “The Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings”, Indian Antiquary XX (1891), p. 97 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1916–17 (G.O. No. 1035, Home (Education), 10 August 1917), Part II, para. 19, p. 115 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

4. E. Hultzsch, “Niduparu Grant of Jayasimha I”, Epigraphia Indica XVIII (1925–26), p. 55 (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

5. Hultzsch, “Niduparu Grant of Jayasimha I” (1926), p. 58 and note 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. Hultzsch, “Niduparu Grant of Jayasimha I” (1926), p. 56 and note 2 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

7. M. Somasekhara Sarma, “Three Grants of Chalukya Jayasimha I”, Epigraphia Indica XXXI (1955–56, publ. 1960), p. 134 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴