Omgodu grant of Simhavarman (No. 2)

The second Omgodu grant is one of four surviving grants of the Pallava king Simhavarman, son of the crown prince Vishnugopa.¹² It came to light with the first Omgodu grant of his grandfather Skandavarman II, which gives the same village.¹²

Discovery and description

Like the first grant, it was said to have been found in the Narasaraopet taluk.¹ It was owned by the village munsiff (headman) of Santaravuru, who gave both grants to the Madras Museum.¹ There are five thin plates without rims on a plain ring with no seal.² They are not numbered, and the first and last plates are blank outside.²

The letters are much more developed than those of the first grant, “at least a hundred years later”.² They resemble those of a grant of a Vijaya-Vishnugopavarman assigned to the beginning of the 7th century.²

Krishna Sastri concluded that the record “must have been a copy of a grant of the 5th–6th century A.D., put into writing in the 7th century”.² He thought the engraver’s many mistakes supported this.² D. C. Sircar argued from this that the Chura grant of Vijaya-Vishnugopavarman might be such a copy too.³

Content

The grant was issued from “the victorious royal camp”, not from a named place.²⁴ The donor was the dharma-maharaja (righteous great king) Simhavarman, of the Bharadvaja gotra.²⁴ He was the son of the crown prince Vishnugopa, grandson of the Maharaja Skandavarman and great-grandson of the Maharaja Viravarman.²⁴

He gave the village of Omgodu in Karmarashtra to Devasarman of Kundur, of the Kasyapa gotra and the Chhandoga sutra.²⁴ Its boundaries were Kodikim to the east, Narachadu to the south, Kadakuduru to the west and Penukaparru to the north.²⁴ Earlier holdings within it were excluded.²⁴

The gift was made “on the occasion of an eclipse (?)”.⁴ It is dated on the fifth day of the bright fortnight of Vaisakha in the fourth year of the reign.⁴ It was engraved at the king’s own command.⁴

Krishna Sastri placed Omgodu in the north of the Nellore district, perhaps at Ongole itself.⁵ He identified Kodikim with Kodiki, near Ongole.⁵ He could not find Narachadu, Kadakuduru or Penukaparru.⁵ Sircar noted that Kundur, the donee’s home, was also the home of the donees of the Chura grant and of a Vishnukundin grant from Polamuru.⁶

The eclipse and the date

The grant names an eclipse as its occasion, but its date falls in the month of Vaisakha.⁴ Krishna Sastri joined the two in this way.⁴ He supposed that the gift was made on the new-moon day of Chaitra, a possible day for a solar eclipse.⁴ The plates were then engraved five days later, on the fifth day of the bright half of Vaisakha.⁴

The Jain work Lokavibhaga implies that Simhavarman came to the throne in 436.⁴ If so, his fourth year was 440, and a solar eclipse should have fallen in Chaitra that year.⁴ Krishna Sastri found that none did.⁴ He saw in this a difficulty for the Lokavibhaga date.⁴

R. Gopalan replied that the word Krishna Sastri read as “on account of the eclipse” probably meant “for the sake of acceptance”.⁷⁸ In his view, the grant was not made on an eclipse at all.⁷⁸

C. R. Krishnamacharlu found a solar eclipse on 17 May 440 in R. Schram’s tables.⁹ He argued that in some years Chaitra overlaps May.⁹ He concluded that 436 could stand.⁹

Footnotes

1. H. Krishna Sastri, “Two Pallava Copper-plate Grants”, Epigraphia Indica XV (1919–20), p. 246 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Krishna Sastri, “Two Pallava Copper-plate Grants” (1920), p. 252 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

3. D. C. Sircar, The Successors of the Satavahanas in Lower Deccan (1939), p. 173 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

4. Krishna Sastri, “Two Pallava Copper-plate Grants” (1920), p. 253 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

5. Krishna Sastri, “Two Pallava Copper-plate Grants” (1920), p. 254 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 209 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

7. R. Gopalan, History of the Pallavas of Kanchi (1928), p. 67 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

8. Gopalan, History of the Pallavas of Kanchi (1928), p. 68 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

9. C. R. Krishnamacharlu, “Vilavatti Grant of Pallava Simhavarman”, Epigraphia Indica XXIV (1937–38), p. 301 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³