Pachchanitandiparru grant of Anavema (1374)

By these copper plates, the Reddi king Anna-Vema gave the village of Pachchani-Tamdiparru to Peddi-Vidvan, an astronomer.¹ The editors dated the gift to Tuesday, 22 August 1374.¹ The edict was composed by Bala-Sarasvati, the court poet of Anna-Vema.¹

The plates

The grant is registered as copper plate No. 6 of the epigraphy report for 1919–20.² The set was borrowed in 1919 from Devi Hanumacharlu of Koditadiparru, in the Tenali taluk (sub-district) of the Guntur district.²

It is written on five oblong plates with slightly raised rims.² There are holes for a ring, but the ring and seal are lost.² The plates weigh 88 tolas, and four of their second sides are marked with the numerals 2 to 5.²

The script is Telugu and the language Sanskrit.² Only the description of the village boundaries is in Telugu.² The editors noted that its letters look older than those of the Chimakurti plate of Vema, published with it.² Yet that plate claims to be earlier.²

Contents

The donor is Anna-Vema, son of Prolaya-Vema.²¹ The grant opens with prayers to the boar incarnation and to the sun and moon.²¹ It then describes the fourth caste, born from Vishnu’s feet.²¹ In this caste was Prolaya Vema, who built the steps to Srisailam and made all the gifts listed by Hemadri.²¹

His two sons were Anna-Vota and Anna-Vema.¹ Anna-Vota, the elder, is said to have ruled the Andhra country from the eastern side of Srisailam to the eastern sea.¹ His younger brother is said to have ruled after his death.¹

The donee, Peddi-Vidvan, came from a family of the Harita gotra (clan), and was known as an astronomer.¹ The king gave him the village Pachchani-Tamdiparru, and the boundaries of the village follow.¹ A closing verse says that the edict was composed by Bala-Sarasvati, the court poet of Anna-Vema.¹ The inscription ends with the king’s signature, Pallava-Trinetra.¹

Date

The date is given as Saka 1296 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years), on the full moon of Bhadrapada, a Tuesday, at a lunar eclipse.¹ The editors equated it with Tuesday, 22 August 1374.¹

They noted that the same astronomer Peddi received villages from Peda Komati Vema in Saka 1329 and 1333.¹ They also noted that Balasarasvati wrote a Srisailam inscription of Anavema.¹

The two other plates

The same article published a single plate from Chimakurti, in the Ongole taluk.³⁴² It grants the village of Ramatirtham to a Brahman, with shares of the produce of five villages.³⁴² A descendant of this Brahman, the village accountant, still held some of the gifts.³⁴²

Its date reads Saka 1257 (about 1336).³⁴² But the editors thought it a later copy of an original of Prolaya Vema.³⁴² Its list of titles claims the taking of the forts of Gingee and Raichur, and victories over the kings of Kalinga, Orissa and the Pandyas.³⁴² The editors took these claims to refer to wars of the family’s ancestors under the Kakatiyas.³⁴²

The third record is the last plate of a grant of Komati Vema, found at Pinapadu near Tenali.⁵ It names “the poet Srinatha-Bhattaraka” as its composer, and Sivaratri at Srisailam as the occasion of the gift.⁵ It is signed Sri-Viranarayanasya.⁵ See Peda Komati Vema and Srinatha.

Footnotes

1. Rangaswami Saraswati and Lakshminarayan Rao, Three Copper-plate Inscriptions of the Reddis (1931–32), p. 270 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸

2. Rangaswami Saraswati and Lakshminarayan Rao, Three Copper-plate Inscriptions of the Reddis (1931–32), p. 269 (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

3. A. Rangaswami Saraswati and N. Lakshminarayan Rao, Three Copper-plate Inscriptions of the Reddis, Epigraphia Indica XXI (1931–32), p. 267 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

4. Rangaswami Saraswati and Lakshminarayan Rao, Three Copper-plate Inscriptions of the Reddis (1931–32), p. 268 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

5. Rangaswami Saraswati and Lakshminarayan Rao, Three Copper-plate Inscriptions of the Reddis (1931–32), p. 271 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³