Penukonda fort inscription (1354)

This Kannada inscription records the building of the Penukonda fort.¹ E. Hultzsch dated it to 25 March 1354, when Bukka I ruled and his son Virupanna governed the province of Penugonde.¹ The Anantapur gazetteer took it as proof that a prince of the first Vijayanagara dynasty lived at Penukonda.²

The record

The inscription is No. 339 of the Government Epigraphist’s collection for 1901.³⁴ V. Rangacharya lists it as “a record of S. 1276, Jaya, in the reign of Vira Bukkana Udaiyar (I)”.³⁴ It is engraved “on the wall of a bastion at the north gate of the fort”.³⁴ He begins his entry on the town with these words: “The fort of this historic place was built by Bukka I in 1354.”³⁴

Robert Sewell had listed it in 1882, before it was copied for the department.⁵ He called it a Canarese inscription “on a stone of the fort wall near the eastern gate”.⁵ In his words, it “commemorates the construction of the fort by the minister of ‘Virupanna Udayar,’ son of ‘Janema Devi,’”.⁵ Pennakonda had been handed over to this prince by “Sri Vira Bukkanna Udayar.”⁵ He added: “This is, I presume, Bukka I of the Vijayanagar dynasty.”⁵

Hultzsch’s reading

E. Hultzsch used the inscription in 1901, in a note on the sons of the early Vijayanagara kings.¹ The note was part of his edition of an inscription at Srirangam.¹ He called the record “a Kanarese inscription at Penakonda (No. 339 of 1901), which was first noticed by Mr. Sewell”.¹ From it, he learnt that Vira-Bukkanna-Odeyaru (Bukka I) had another son, Vira-Virupanna-Odeyaru (I), by his queen Jommadevi.¹

In Hultzsch’s reading, Bukka I was then ruling the territory of the Hoysala kings at Hosapattana.¹ His son Virupanna I was governing the province (rajya) of Penugonde, which his father had given him.¹ At that time the minister (mahapradhana) Ananta[ra]sa-Odeyaru built the fort of Penugonde.¹

The date is Saka-Samvat 1276, the Jaya year.¹ The day is Tuesday, the 1st tithi (lunar day) of the bright fortnight of Chaitra.¹ Hultzsch equated this with “the 25th March A.D. 1354”.¹

Where the sources disagree

The readings differ on two points.⁵¹² First, Sewell’s list gives the prince’s mother as “Janema Devi”, but Hultzsch gives her name as Jommadevi.⁵¹ Second, the Anantapur gazetteer of 1905 cites Hultzsch but does not name the minister.² It says only that the record states “that king Bukka I of Vijayanagar entrusted the province of Penukonda to his son Vira Virupanna Udaiyar”.² In this son’s time, it adds, “the Penukonda fort was built”.²

The gazetteer places the stone “on the eastern side of the northern gate of the fort”.²

Penukonda and the first dynasty

From this the gazetteer concluded that “at the very beginning of the rule of the Vijayanagar dynasty Penukonda was the residence of one of its princes”.² It adds that the same Virupanna “is mentioned in two other grants dated respectively 1344 and 1364”.² It also cites an inscription at Kallodi in Mysore, dated 1389.² This says that Bukka Raya, “apparently meaning Bukka II when heir-apparent”, had a channel cut to bring water from the Penner into the town.² No trace of the channel remained.²

Sewell’s list has a second Canarese inscription close to the first, partly legible and dated 1364.⁵ It also mentions Virupanna Udayar.⁵ See Penukonda, the Penukonda fort and Bukka I.

This prince is not the Virupanna of Penukonda who built the Lepakshi temple.⁶ That Virupanna lived in the reign of Achyuta Raya, almost two centuries later.⁶ The Lepakshi records call him the son of Nandi-Lakiseti of Lepakshi.⁶

Footnotes

1. E. Hultzsch, “Ranganatha Inscription of Goppana; Saka-Samvat 1293”, Epigraphia Indica VI (1900–01), p. 327 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

2. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Anantapur (1905), p. 190 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

3. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. I (1919), p. 24, Anantapur district, Penukonda (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. I (1919), p. 25, Anantapur No. 161 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. Robert Sewell, Lists of the Antiquarian Remains in the Presidency of Madras, Vol. I (1882), p. 119 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

6. Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. I (1919), p. 13, Anantapur No. 76 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³