Potavaram grant of Purushottama (1489)

By this copper-plate grant, the Gajapati king Purushottama gave the village of Potavaram to the god of Chadaluvada.¹² It is dated in Kartika of Saka 1412 (1489; Saka is an Indian way of counting years).¹² Barnett read it as evidence that Purushottama had won back much of the Telugu territory lost to the Bahmani sultan Muhammad Shah.³

The plates and their publication

The grant is known only from print.⁴⁵ In 1827 the Transactions of the Literary Society of Madras published lithographs of its six faces.⁴⁵ With them came “A Translation, by Ram Raz, Head English Master in the College of Fort St. George, of an Ancient Grant in the Carnataca Language”.⁴⁵

L. D. Barnett found that the record had been left out of Kielhorn’s list of southern inscriptions.⁶ He edited it again from the lithographs in Epigraphia Indica XIII (1916).⁶ He did this “so that the document may not be altogether lost sight of”.⁶ He wrote that “nothing is known of its provenance or of its present whereabouts”.⁶

From the lithographs, Barnett described three copper plates, about 4¾ by 7¾ inches.⁶³ They had angular projections on the left for the ring-hole.⁶³ The first and last plates were written on one side only.⁶³ Two faces carry emblems: the sun on the left, the moon on the right, and the bull Nandi lying below.⁶³ The bull’s haunch is marked by a linga (stone emblem of Siva) on a stand.⁶³

The characters are Telugu, “somewhat irregular in shape”.³ The language is Telugu as far as line 20.³ Three Sanskrit verses follow, cursing anyone who breaks the grant.³

Contents

The grant is dated in Saka 1412, the cyclic year Saumya, on the fifteenth day of the bright half of Kartika, with the moon in Krittika.¹² It names the king as Vira-sri-Gajapati, lord of Gauda, lord of the nine crores of Karnata and of Kalubariga (Gulbarga), Pratapa-Purushottama-deva.¹²

It records that “with pouring water” he gave the village of Potavaram, in the district of Ammanambolu.¹² The gift went to the god Lingodbhava Mahadeva of Chadaluvada, on the bank of the river Brahmagundi.¹² It was “for the purpose of the personal enjoyment, stage-entertainment, and (other) splendours of the god”.¹² The grant ends with the usual blessings and curses.¹²

Ram Raz, in 1827, had taken the king’s name for a word of praise.⁴ He translated it as “equal to Purushottama in glory”.⁴

Barnett pointed out that the year is called the “third” of the reign in the anka count of Orissa.³¹ This count skips certain numbers.³¹ But Purushottama’s other inscriptions put his third anka in 1470–71.³¹ So Kartika of Saka 1412 must have fallen in his twenty-third anka.³¹

J. F. Fleet showed him that the other details fit Saturday, 7 November 1489, if the shortened weekday stands for Manda-vara.³¹ Barnett thought it more likely that it means Tuesday, as Ram Raz had read it.³¹ He also thought that the date is irregular.³¹

Place

Barnett found all three places on the Indian Atlas: Potavaram, Ammanabrolu and Chadaluvada.¹ All are in the Ongole taluk (sub-district) of the Guntur district.¹ He read the grant as evidence that by 1489 Purushottama had won back much of the Telugu territory lost to the Bahmani sultan Muhammad Shah.³

R. D. Banerji drew the same conclusion.⁷ He wrote that the grant shows Purushottama in “undisputed possession” of the Godavari–Krishna doab (the land between the two rivers).⁷ It also shows him holding the country as far as Vijayawada (then Bezwada).⁷ See Purushottama, Ongole and the Gajapatis.

Footnotes

1. Barnett, “Potavaram Grant”, Epigraphia Indica XIII (1915–16), p. 157 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

2. Barnett, “Potavaram Grant”, Epigraphia Indica XIII (1915–16), p. 158 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

3. Barnett, “Potavaram Grant”, Epigraphia Indica XIII (1915–16), p. 156 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

4. Ram Raz, “A Translation … of an Ancient Grant in the Carnataca Language”, Transactions of the Literary Society of Madras, Part I (1827), p. 119 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

5. Transactions of the Literary Society of Madras, Part I (1827), plates of the grant following p. 120 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. L. D. Barnett, “Potavaram Grant of Pratapa-Purushottama-deva: Saka 1412”, Epigraphia Indica XIII (1915–16), p. 155 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

7. R. D. Banerji, History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period, Vol. I (1930), p. 316 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³