Padamkaluru grant of Amma II

These plates record a grant of Amma II, the Eastern Chalukya king who reigned for twenty-five years from 945.¹ J. F. Fleet called it “the record that gives the date of the coronation of Amma II”.¹² That coronation, in Saka 867 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years), is the first event in the dynasty’s history that the grants date in an era.¹² The reigns before it can only be counted back from it.¹²

Fleet edited the plates in 1878.³ He selected them from several grants of the dynasty in Sir Walter Elliot’s collection of facsimiles (exact copies).³ He noted that, apart from A. C. Burnell’s remarks, no account of the eastern branch of the Chalukyas had yet been published.³

Where the plates came from

Fleet edited the grant from Elliot’s facsimile and from the original plates.³ Burnell had already printed its first eighteen lines as Plate XXV of his South-Indian Palaeography.³ Fleet did not know where the plates had been found.³ Nor did he know in what part of the country the granted village and its district lay.³

In 1891 Fleet still listed the grant as “from an unknown locality”.¹ Kielhorn’s list of 1903 enters it as plates in the British Museum, with a query, formerly Elliot’s.⁴

Kielhorn noted in 1899 that the Pennatavadi district appears again in the Masulipatam plates of Amma I.⁵ Robert Sewell had identified the village granted there, Drujjuru, with Zuzzuru in the Nandigama taluk of the Krishna (then Kistna) district.⁵ Kielhorn thought Sewell might be right, but could not trace the other places named there.⁵

So the site of Padamkaluru itself remained unknown to all of them. Fleet named the grant after this village in 1903.⁶

Description

There are five plates, each about 7¼ inches long by 3¾ inches broad.³ The writing runs from the inside of the first plate to the inside of the fifth.³ The ring is about ⅜ inch thick and 4¾ inches across.³

The round seal, about 2½ inches across, shows a boar facing left.³ The moon is on its right, the sun above it and an elephant-goad on its left.³ Across the centre is the legend Sri-Tribhuvanankusa, “the elephant-goad of Sri-Tribhuvana”, and an ornamental device is at the bottom.³

Fleet found the letters radically the same as those of the Kadamba and early Western Chalukya grants.³ By this period, he noted, the two Chalukya scripts had grown far apart.³ Burnell found no real palaeographic connection between them beyond their common origin.³

The genealogy

The grant lists the reigns from Kubja-Vishnuvardhana, who “ruled over the country of Vengi for eighteen years”, down to Amma II.⁷ It gives Jayasimha I thirty years, and Kielhorn marked this figure as wrong.⁷⁴ Most grants give thirty-three.⁷⁴ Vijayaditya II, “a very lion of a king”, is given forty-eight years.⁷

For the civil war after 925, the grant says that Talapa (Tadapa) expelled Amma I’s son Vijayaditya, “while he was a child”.⁸ Talapa reigned for one month.⁸ Vikramaditya, son of Chalukya-Bhima I, conquered him and reigned for eleven months.⁸ Then “king Yuddhamalla, — the son of king Talapa”, reigned for seven years.⁸

Bhima, the younger brother of king Amma, then drove him out, overcame the other claimants and reigned for twelve years.⁸ Fleet later cited the grant as one that calls Yuddhamalla the son of king Talapa.⁶ He also cited it as specifically mentioning Yuddhamalla’s overthrow and expulsion by Bhima II.⁶ See Chalukya-Bhima II and Yuddhamalla II.

The coronation of Amma II

Amma II was the son of Bhima and Lokamahadevi.⁸ The grant compares his birth to that of Kumara from Shiva and Uma.⁸

It says that he took the crown in the twelfth year from his birth.⁸⁴ The Saka year is expressed by the words for mountains (7), flavours (6) and Vasus (8), that is 867.⁸⁴ The day was Friday, the thirteenth day of the dark fortnight of Margasirsha, under the nakshatra (lunar mansion) Maitra.⁸⁴

Readings of the zodiacal details differ. Fleet’s translation of 1878 has the date “under the zodiacal sign of the bow, while the sun was in the sign of the watering-pot”.⁸ In 1891 he gave the same words as the sun in Dhanus (the bow) and the rising sign Kumbha (the water-pot).¹ He equated the date with Friday, 5 December 945.¹ Kielhorn gave the same day.⁴

The grant

Fleet’s 1878 edition notes that the grant is made by “a certain Vijayaditya”, whom the text does not explain.³ He suggested two possibilities.³ It might have been made by Kollabhiganda-Vijayaditya, Amma II’s grandfather, before his death, and written down at Amma’s accession.³ Or Vijayaditya might be a second name taken by Amma II.³

By 1891 Fleet described the charter as issued by Amma II himself, whose other name was Vijayaditya VI.⁹¹⁴ Kielhorn’s list calls the donor Ammaraja II Vijayaditya VI, son of Chalukya-Bhima II and Lokamahadevi.⁹¹⁴

The king, called Sri-Vijayaditya, “the asylum of the universe”, addresses the householders of the Pennatavadi district, headed by the Rashtrakutas.⁸

The donee was Pandiya, of the Bharadvaja gotra (clan) and the Vajasaneya school, which followed the domestic ritual of Yajnavalkya.⁸¹⁰ He was the son of Gundasarman and grandson of Paliyapeddiya, an inhabitant of Kalvatoru.⁸¹⁰ The grant calls him a religious student and a pilgrim “who has devoted himself to conciliating my feet”.⁸¹⁰

The village of Padamkaluru was given to him on an eclipse of the moon, as an agrahara free of all dues.¹⁰ It was given “in order to free him from (the necessity of continuing) his pilgrimages”.¹⁰

Its boundaries were:

• Marupaduva on the east¹⁰
• Endaluru on the south¹⁰
• Kandruru on the west¹⁰
• Alapuru and Drinthamapundi on the north¹⁰
• Nandigama on the north-east¹⁰

The executor (ajnapti) was Katakaraja.¹⁰¹ Madhavabhatta composed the verses, and Jontacharya wrote them.¹⁰¹

Footnotes

1. Fleet, “The Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 271 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

2. J. F. Fleet, “The Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings”, Indian Antiquary XX (1891), p. 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. J. F. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old Canarese Inscriptions, No. XXXIV”, Indian Antiquary VII (1878), p. 15 (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. F. Kielhorn, “A List of the Inscriptions of Southern India”, Appendix to Epigraphia Indica VII (1902–03), p. 95, No. 563 and notes 7–8 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

5. F. Kielhorn, “Six Eastern Chalukya Copper-plate Inscriptions”, D: Masulipatam plates of Amma I, Epigraphia Indica V (1898–99), p. 132 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. J. F. Fleet, “Kaluchumbarru Grant of Vijayaditya-Amma II”, Epigraphia Indica VII (1902–03), p. 181 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old Canarese Inscriptions, No. XXXIV” (1878), p. 17, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

8. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old Canarese Inscriptions, No. XXXIV” (1878), p. 18, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

9. Fleet, “The Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings” (1891), p. 270 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

10. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old Canarese Inscriptions, No. XXXIV” (1878), p. 19, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²