Ramatirtham plates of Indravarman

The Ramatirtham plates are the only known grant of the Vishnukundin king Indravarman.¹² They were the second Vishnukundin record to be published, after the Chikkulla plates of his son.¹² They confirmed the family line given in those plates.¹²

Discovery

The plates belonged to a learned family of pandits at Ramatirtham, near Vizianagaram.³² They came to the epigraphy office through the collection of Mr. Appa Rao Pantulu.³² H. Krishna Sastri described them in the epigraphical report for 1908–09.³² E. Hultzsch edited them in Epigraphia Indica XII from Krishna Sastri’s ink impressions.²⁴

Description

There are three copper plates, each about 8¼ inches long and 2 inches wide.²³ The first and third are inscribed on the inner side only.²³ They hang on an oval copper ring, which had not been cut when the plates reached the office.²³ Its ends are fixed in a mass of copper bearing an oval seal.²³

Krishna Sastri described the seal as showing “an advancing lion or tiger with its left fore-paw raised”.³ Its “neck erect, mouth wide open and the tail swung over the back so as to end in a loop”.³ He compared it with the lion of the Chikkulla seal.³ With ring and seal the plates weigh 75 tolas.²

Script and language

The alphabet resembles that of the Chikkulla plates.² But neither t nor n has the loop that marks them there.² The grant writes the name of the Plaki district with the Dravidian letter ḷ.² The language is Sanskrit prose, with four of the usual verses said to be by Vyasa and Manu.²

Hultzsch found the wording of the praise of the kings wrong in places.² He thought the clerk who drafted it had copied or adapted an old office record “in a very careless manner”.²

Content

The grant opens “from (his) residence (or camp) at Puranisangama”.⁵⁶ It praises the Maharaja Madhavavarman, who meditated on the feet of the lord of Sriparvata.⁵⁶ He “had washed off the impurity of the world by bathing at the end of eleven horse-sacrifices”.⁵⁶ His son, the king Vikramendra, “became an ornament of both families”.⁵⁶

The donor is Vikramendra’s son, the king Indravarman.⁵⁶ He is “victorious by encountering in hundred-thousands of battles numerous four-tusked (elephants)”.⁵⁶ He is also “a fervent worshipper of Maheśvara (Śiva)”.⁵⁶

He addresses the ryots (farmers) gathered at the village of Peruvadaka in the Plaki district (rashtra).⁶ He tells them that the village has been made a tax-free agrahara (Brahmin village) for Nagnasarman, a Taittiriya Brahmin of the Mandira gotra (clan).⁶ They are to give the Brahmin “the customary produce of it” and perform their duties, such as carrying messages.⁶ The king himself issued the command.⁶ The grant is dated on the seventh day of the bright fortnight of Jyaishtha in the 27th year of the reign.⁶

What the plates showed

Krishna Sastri and Hultzsch both saw from the family line that Indravarman was the Indrabhattarakavarman of the Chikkulla plates.³² He was the father of Vikramendravarman II.³² Hultzsch read the phrase “an ornament of both families” together with the Chikkulla plates.⁴ To him it showed that Vikramendravarman I’s mother must have belonged to the Vakataka family.⁴

Krishna Sastri argued in 1909 that the Vishnukundins were “distinctly a northern family”.³ In his view their early home lay in Visakhapatnam (then Vizagapatam) district, where he thought Sriparvata should be sought.³ Only later did they move south to Lendulura (Denduluru).³

The Plaki district

The Plaki district is also named in grants of the Eastern Chalukya king Vishnuvardhana I.² Jouveau-Dubreuil wrongly gave the regnal year as 37.⁷ He took the grant as proof that Indravarman had won his war against a king of Kalinga and become master of Visakhapatnam district.⁷

D. C. Sircar doubted any lasting Vishnukundin hold on the Vizianagaram region, which had several local dynasties of its own.⁸⁹¹⁰ He thought the grant was more probably made during a raid into the Plaki district.⁸⁹¹⁰

Edition

E. Hultzsch, “Ramatirtham Plates of Indravarman”, Epigraphia Indica XII (1913–14), No. 17, pp. 133–136, with a plate.²

Annual Report on Epigraphy, Madras, for 1913–14 (1914), Part II, para. 35, p. 102 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
E. Hultzsch, “Ramatirtham Plates of Indravarman”, Epigraphia Indica XII (1914), p. 133 and notes (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 ↩²¹ ↩²²
H. Krishna Sastri, Annual Report on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1908–09 (1909), Part II, para. 62, p. 109 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵
Hultzsch, “Ramatirtham Plates” (1914), p. 134 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
Hultzsch, “Ramatirtham Plates” (1914), p. 135, translation (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
Hultzsch, “Ramatirtham Plates” (1914), p. 136, translation (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²
G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (1920), p. 91 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
D. C. Sircar, The Successors of the Satavahanas in Lower Deccan (1939), p. 120 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 121 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 138 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²