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Polamuru plates of Madhavavarman Janashraya

A Sanskrit copper-plate grant of the Vishnukundin king Madhavavarman Janashraya, son of Govindavarman and grandson of Vikramahendra. He made it while crossing the Godavari to conquer the east. It gave the village of Polamuru to a Brahmin whose son received the same village again from the Eastern Chalukya king Jayasimha I. Noticed in 1914 and edited in Telugu-country journals, it is the key to the Vishnukundin chronology. But its regnal year, its date and even its king are disputed.

The Polamuru plates are a grant of the Vishnukundin king Madhavavarman, surnamed Janashraya-Maharaja. They are the only record that names his grandfather, Vikramahendra.1 The Eastern Chalukya king Jayasimha I granted the same village again.23 For that reason the plates have been used more than any other Vishnukundin record to date the dynasty.23 The library holds no edition of the text. This page rests on the epigraphical reports and on the scholars who quote the grant.

Discovery and publication

D. V. Prakasa Rao of Kakinada (then Cocanada) discovered the plates in Godavari district.1 J. Ramayya Pantulu secured them and lent them to the epigraphy office.1 They were registered as No. 7 of Appendix A in the epigraphical report for 1913–14.1 The report for that year called the donor “a new and a later member of the family” of Vishnukundins.4

D. C. Sircar cites an edition in the Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society, Vol. VI.5 He also cites an earlier one by K. V. Lakshman Rao in the Journal of the Department of Letters of Calcutta University.5 M. Somasekhara Sarma, writing in the same journal, called them the Telugu Academy plates.6

Description

The report for 1913–14 found the alphabet “much later” than that of the Chikkulla and Ramatirtham plates, and the letters carelessly cut.1 Sircar also called the language and spelling bad and the characters rough and late. He thought it not quite certain that the grant was genuine, though it might be a copy of an older record.7 He quoted the first editor’s belief that the seal shows a lion, the Vishnukundin crest, and probably the donor’s name.8

Content

According to the report for 1913–14, the family line runs from Vikramahendra to his son Govindavarman.1 Then comes Govindavarman’s “dear son”, the Maharaja Madhavavarman, also called Janashraya-Maharaja.1 The king crossed the Godavari “with a desire to conquer the eastern region”.1 He then gave the village of Pulimburu in the Guddavati district to a Brahmin who had come from Kunduru in Kammarashtra.1

Sircar gives more detail: the Brahmin was Shivasharman of the Gautama gotra (clan), a scholar of the Taittiriya school, son of Damasharman and grandson of Rudrasharman. The gift was the village of Puloburu on the river Daliyavavi.37 It came with four nivartanas (land measures) of land at the southern end of Mayindavataki, made into an agrahara (Brahmin village).37

The order was addressed to the mahattaras (village heads) and the royal officials.78 Its executors were the officers called Hastikosha and Virakosha.78 The occasion was a lunar eclipse on the full-moon day of Phalguna.9

In the grant Madhavavarman bears the titles of the first Ipur plates.10 Among them are the eleven horse sacrifices, the thousand agnishtomas and the delight of the young women of Trivaranagara.10 Sircar saw in one phrase, avasita-vividha-divya, a reference to trial by ordeal.11

The regnal year

The year is written with a number sign. Lakshman Rao read it as 48, and Robert Sewell and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar followed him.126 Sircar argued that no single sign for 48 was known, and read it as 40, perhaps 70. He allowed that an 8 might have been written under the 40 for lack of space.13 R. S. Panchamukhi defended 48 as a joined form of the signs for 40 and 8.2

Places

Sircar identified Puloburu with Polamuru near Anaparti railway station in Godavari district.147 This, he says, was the findspot of both Polamuru grants.147 He took Mayindavataki to be the nearby Mahendravada and Daliyavavi the stream Tulyabhaga.147 He placed the Guddavadi district in the later Ramachandrapuram taluk.147 He thought Kunlura might be Konduru in Sattenapalle taluk or Peda-Konduru.7

V. Rangacharya, editing the grant of Jayasimha I, located the village instead at Polamuru in Bhimavaram taluk. Following Hultzsch, he identified Guddavadi with Gudivada in Krishna (then Kistna) district.15 See Polamuru.

The second Polamuru grant

The Eastern Chalukya king Jayasimha I later gave the same village to Rudrasharman of Asanapura.15 Rudrasharman was of the Gautama gotra, son of Shivasharman and grandson of Damasharman.15 The executors of this grant, too, were Hastikosha and Virakosha.15 Sircar and Panchamukhi saw that this Rudrasharman was the son of the Vishnukundin king’s donee. They noted that he is called purvagraharika, the former holder of the agrahara.1416

Sircar thought Rudrasharman had fled to Asanapura while the Chalukyas and Vishnukundins fought over the district.17 In his view Jayasimha later confirmed the village to him.17 Panchamukhi thought Rudrasharman had lost the village, or had his title disputed, when power passed from the Vishnukundins to the Chalukyas.16

The regnal year of Jayasimha’s grant has itself been read in three ways:18

  • 15 in the report for 1913–1418
  • 4 by R. Subba Rao18
  • 5 by Somasekhara Sarma, who also read the village’s name as Pulomburu18

Dates proposed

The eclipse and the second grant have produced very different dates:

SourceDate of the grant
K. V. Lakshman Rao (quoted by Somasekhara Sarma), followed by Sewell and Aiyangar (1932)61910 February 594, the 48th year
Panchamukhi (1936)212 February 621
Mirashi (1938, 1942)2021The Phalguna eclipse of 565, in the 40th year; reign about 525–568
Sircar (1939)229About 587 by his estimate of the interval; by the eclipse, one of 556, 565, 574 or 575 (reading year 40)

Lakshman Rao rejected some eclipse years:6

  • 593 and 612, because those eclipses were not visible in India6
  • 575 as too early6
  • 621 as too late6

Panchamukhi rejected 594 as too early for the 48th year of a king defeated about 631, and chose 621.2 Sircar reached his estimate by allowing about half a century between the two Polamuru grants, with Jayasimha’s grant about 637.22

Mirashi allowed about seventy years.20 He counted the known reigns of Indravarman, Vikramendravarman II, Kubja Vishnuvardhana and Jayasimha.20 From Jayasimha’s grant of about 638 he reached about 568, and chose the eclipse of 565.20

Whose grant?

Sircar argued that the king of this grant and of the first Ipur plates was the great Madhavavarman I.10 The epigraphical reports, Lakshman Rao, Panchamukhi and K. R. Subramanian made him a later king, the last of the line, called Madhavavarman III or IV.23122425 Jouveau-Dubreuil identified the grandfather Vikramahendra with Vikramendravarman II of the Chikkulla plates.26 See Madhavavarman.

Footnotes

  1. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1913–14 (1914), Part II, para. 35, p. 102 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  2. R. S. Panchamukhi, “Tandivada Grant of Prithivi-Maharaja: 46th Year”, Epigraphia Indica XXIII (1936), p. 90 and note 2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 107 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1913–14 (1914), Part I, p. 6 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  5. D. C. Sircar, The Successors of the Satavahanas in Lower Deccan (1939), p. 100 and note 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  6. Somasekhara Sarma, “Indrabhattaraka and the Ganga Era” (1930–31), p. 184 and note 15 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  7. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 131 and note 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  8. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 132 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  9. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), pp. 111–112 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  10. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 101 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  11. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 127 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  12. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 404 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  13. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 104, note 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  14. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 108 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  15. V. Rangacharya, “The Pulibumra Plates of the Eastern Chalukya King Jayasimha I”, Epigraphia Indica XIX (1928), p. 255 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  16. Panchamukhi, “Tandivada Grant” (1936), p. 94 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  17. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 109 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  18. M. Somasekhara Sarma, “Indrabhattaraka and the Ganga Era”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society V, pt. 3 (1930–31), p. 183, notes 13–14 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  19. Robert Sewell and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 21 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  20. V. V. Mirashi, “Thakurdiya Plates of Maha-Pravararaja”, Epigraphia Indica XXII (1938), pp. 20–21 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  21. V. V. Mirashi, “A Note on the Date of the Somavamsi Kings of Southern Kosala”, Epigraphia Indica XXVI (1942), p. 229 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  22. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 110 and note 2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  23. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1919–20 (1920), Part II, paras. 9–10, pp. 98–99 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  24. Panchamukhi, “Tandivada Grant” (1936), p. 93 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  25. K. R. Subramanian, Buddhist Remains in Andhra and the History of Andhra between 225 and 610 A.D. (1932), pp. 117–118 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  26. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (1920), p. 90 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

References

Sources (11)
  1. Madras Government (Assistant Archaeological Superintendent for Epigraphy), Annual Reports on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1910-11 to 1914-15 (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1915, pp. 6, 102. Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1913–14, Part I, p. 6, and Part II, para. 35. [Public domain]
  2. Madras Government (Superintendent for Epigraphy, Southern Circle), Annual Reports on Epigraphy for 1920-21 to 1924-25 (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1925, pp. 98–99. Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1919–20, Part II, paras. 9–10. [Public domain]
  3. Hirananda Sastri (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XIX (1927–28) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1928, pp. 254–255. V. Rangacharya, Pulibumra plates of Jayasimha I (No. 42). [Public domain]
  4. Robert Sewell (ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar), The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (Collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1932, pp. 21, 404. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  5. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (opens in a new tab), The author, Pondicherry (translated by V. S. Swaminadha Dikshitar), 1920, pp. 90, 92. [Public domain]
  6. K. V. Lakshmana Rao (article); Andhra Historical Research Society, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society, Vol. V, pt. 1 (July 1930), incl. K. V. Lakshmana Rao, 'Two Copper-plate Grants of the Salankayanas of Vengi' (opens in a new tab), Andhra Historical Research Society, Rajahmundry, 1930, pp. 183–184. M. Somasekhara Sarma, Indrabhattaraka and the Ganga Era (JAHRS V, pt. 3); paraphrased. [Public domain]
  7. Hirananda Sastri and N. P. Chakravarti (eds.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXIII (1935–36) (opens in a new tab), Manager of Publications, Delhi, 1936, pp. 90, 93–95. R. S. Panchamukhi, Tandivada grant of Prithivi-Maharaja; paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  8. N. P. Chakravarti (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXII (1933–34) (opens in a new tab), Manager of Publications, Delhi, 1938, pp. 19–21. V. V. Mirashi, Thakurdiya plates of Maha-Pravararaja; paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  9. N. P. Chakravarti (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXVI (1941–42) (opens in a new tab), Manager of Publications, Delhi, 1942, pp. 229. V. V. Mirashi, A Note on the Date of the Somavamsi Kings of Southern Kosala; paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  10. D. C. Sircar, The Successors of the Satavahanas in Lower Deccan (opens in a new tab), University of Calcutta, 1939, pp. 100–101, 104, 107–111, 126–127, 131–132. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  11. K. R. Subramanian, Buddhist Remains in Andhra and the History of Andhra between 225 and 610 A.D. (opens in a new tab), Madras (with a foreword by G. Jouveau-Dubreuil), 1932, pp. 113, 117–118. K. R. Subramanian. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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