Pillalamarri inscription of the reign of Kapaya Nayaka

The record

P. Sreenivasachar published the inscription in 1940, in the second part of the Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts.¹ He gave a transliterated Telugu text and an English translation.¹ On the same surface, before it, is a short record of three lines in small characters.¹ It assigns land under the Eraka-samudram tank for a feeding house for fifteen people, for students’ food and clothing, and for those who serve water at a water-shed.¹

The village of Pillalamarri has several other inscriptions in the same volume.¹² Among them are records of the Recherla chief Nami-Reddi of 1195 and 1202.¹² See Kapaya Nayaka.

Contents

The record opens with the titles of Kapaya-nayaka.¹² He is called “the Lord of the Andhra country” and the lord of the excellent city of Anumanamgallu.¹² He is also called the master who established the Coda king and the protector of the security of Kanci, among other titles.¹²

His favoured servant Era-Potu-lemka was then governing Pillalamarri.² The god Erakesvara had been damaged by “Sultan Alavadin” during the disturbances of that time and place.² Era-Potu-lemka set up the god again, for the merit of his ruler Kapaya-nayaka and of his own parents, Anumakonda Maci-nayaka and Rudrasani.² For a daily light meal offered to the god, he gave half a dry field behind the temple tank, the Devara-kunta of Pillalamarri.²

Date

The date is Saka 1279 (Saka is an Indian way of counting years), the cyclic year Hemalambi, the thirteenth day of the bright half of Jyeshtha, a Thursday, which falls in 1357.² The editors of the Vilasa grant cite the record as the latest dated inscription of Kapaya’s reign.³ They list it beside his Ganapesvaram inscription of Saka 1268.³

Evidence and disagreements

• Reading. Before the Corpus edition, the inscription had been published in the Hyderabad journal Sujata.⁴⁵ There the chief’s name was read as Kachaya.⁴⁵ As Somasekhara Sarma reported in 1931, the year was read there as Saka 1275.⁴⁵ Sarma took Kachaya for a misreading of Kapaya.⁴⁵ The Corpus reads Kapaya-nayaka and Saka 1279.¹²
• Sultan Alavadin. The record does not say when the damage was done, or which sultan of that name is meant.²

Footnotes

1. P. Sreenivasachar (ed.), A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts, Part II (1940), p. 113, Nos. 39–40 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

2. Sreenivasachar, Corpus, Part II (1940), p. 114, No. 40, text and translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

3. N. Venkataramanayya and M. Somasekhara Sarma, “Vilasa Grant of Prolaya-nayaka”, Epigraphia Indica XXXII (1957–58), p. 256 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

4. M. Somasekhara Sarma, “Kapaya Nayaka”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society V (1931), p. 218 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. Somasekhara Sarma, “Kapaya Nayaka” (1931), p. 219, note 8 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴