Timmapuram plates of Vishnuvardhana I

When found, these three plates were one of only three known grants of Kubja-Vishnuvardhana, founder of the Eastern Chalukyas.¹² They are the only one of the three that names his residence.¹² They were issued from Pishtapura, the modern Pithapuram.¹²

Discovery

In October 1907 one Sukuru Ramasvami found the plates in the ground while digging a hole in his vacant house site.¹³ The site was in the village of Timmapuram, in the Sarvasiddhi taluk of Visakhapatnam (then Vizagapatam) district.¹³ The Collector sent the plates to V. Venkayya.¹³ E. Hultzsch edited them from Venkayya’s ink impressions in Epigraphia Indica IX.¹³ They were registered as copper-plate No. 2 of 1907–08.⁴

Description, script and language

Venkayya described the plates as measuring 2⅛ by 7⅞ inches.¹ They are strung on an oval ring whose ends are fixed in a nearly circular seal.¹ The seal bears the legend Vishamasiddhi, in the same alphabet as the grant.¹ The third plate is blank, and the grant ends in the second line of the second side of the second plate.¹

Hultzsch thought the alphabet and spelling called for no special remark.¹ The language is Sanskrit prose.¹ The opening eulogy, lines 1 to 11, is fairly correct, probably because it was copied from a form kept at the royal secretariat.¹

But the grant itself “must have been drafted by a person who knew very little Sanskrit”.¹ It uses the Prakrit word chattalisa, “forty”, and has several grammatical blunders.¹ Hultzsch noted that the surname Vishamasiddhi also appears on some copper coins found in Visakhapatnam district.¹

Content

The grant is issued “from (his) residence in the prosperous Pishtapura”.⁵ It traces the king’s descent from his great-grandfather Ranaraga of the Chalukya family.⁵ The line runs through his grandfather Ranavikrama (Pulakesin I) and his father Kirtivarman.⁵ The grant calls him “the dear younger brother of Satyashraya-Vallabha-Maharaja, who had subdued the circle of the whole earth”.⁵

The king, Sri-Vishnuvardhana-Maharaja, is a devout worshipper of Bhagavat (Vishnu).⁵ He is described as one “who by the edge of his own sword humbled the circle of all the vassals”.⁵ He was called Vishamasiddhi “because he had obtained success in impassable straits on land, on sea, etc.”.⁵

He grants four thousand nivartanas (land measures) to forty Brahmins of the Chhandoga (Samaveda) school, of various gotras (clans).⁵ The land lay in the fields on the eastern side of the village of Kumilura, in the Palaki district.⁵ Hultzsch reckoned this at a hundred nivartanas for each of the forty.⁵ The usual imprecations (curses) and other closing particulars are missing.¹

Hultzsch found the mention of the great-grandfather Ranaraga of some interest.¹ The name was otherwise known only from a few records of the western Chalukyas.¹

A dependant of Pulakesin II?

Both brothers are called Maharaja. But Hultzsch pointed out that the elder is said to have subdued “the circle of the whole earth”.¹ Vishnuvardhana claims only to have humbled “the circle of all the vassals”.¹ Hultzsch concluded that at the time of the grant Vishnuvardhana “was still a dependant of his elder brother, the Western Chalukya king Pulakesin II”.¹

The epigraphical report for 1907–08 drew a different inference from the same title.² Vishnuvardhana is called Yuvaraja (crown prince) in the Satara grant.² He is called Maharaja here and in the Chipurupalle grant.² So the report supposed that the Timmapuram grant was later than the Satara grant’s eighth year, which it equated “apparently” with 622–23.² The plates themselves carry no date.¹

Pishtapura

Hultzsch identified Pishtapura with Pithapuram in Godavari district.¹ The Aihole inscription credits the capture of this fortress to Vishnuvardhana’s elder brother and sovereign, Pulakesin II.¹

J. F. Fleet wrote before the plates were found.⁶ He placed the conquest of Pishtapura in the campaign of the years around 615, when Vishnuvardhana was made yuvaraja.⁶ After that, in Fleet’s view, Pulakesin II would have left Vishnuvardhana to govern the new territory.⁶

The 1907–08 report noted that Pishtapura had been an important stronghold since the 4th century.² At that time Mahendra of Pishtapura was among the southern kings defeated by Samudragupta.² The report thought it likely that Vishnuvardhana was put in charge of the fortress and the country round it soon after Pulakesin II’s eastern campaign.²

The Eastern Ganga kings of Kalinga named their capital at the head of their grants.² The report suggested that Vishnuvardhana, ruling country taken from them, followed their practice.² V. Rangacharya, summarising the plates in 1919, wrote that Pulakesin II made his brother viceroy at Pishtapura “about A.D. 634”.⁴

A second Timmapuram set

The same report described another set of three plates from Visakhapatnam district, registered as No. 1 of 1907–08.²⁴ Rangacharya listed it under Timmapuram as well.²⁴

It is an unfinished grant, apparently of Mangi-yuvaraja.² It was cut over an older inscription that the engraver had tried to erase.² Its seal reads Sri-Vijayasiddhi, a surname of Mangi-yuvaraja.² Its text breaks off after naming Vishnuvardhana, son of Indra-Bhattaraka.²

The report noted that the name of the village to be granted would have settled a question, had the record been finished.⁷ It would have shown whether the king’s territory really reached Visakhapatnam district, or whether the plates had only been taken there later.⁷

Edition

E. Hultzsch, “Timmapuram Plates of Vishnuvardhana I Vishamasiddhi”, Epigraphia Indica IX (1907–08), No. 50, pp. 317–319, with text, translation and plate.¹

Footnotes

1. E. Hultzsch, “Timmapuram Plates of Vishnuvardhana I Vishamasiddhi”, Epigraphia Indica IX (1907–08), p. 317 (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 ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷

2. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1907–08 (G.O. No. 574, Public, 17 July 1908), Part II, paras. 11–13, p. 49 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸

3. Hultzsch, “Timmapuram Plates” (1908), p. 318, text and note 3 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. III (1919), p. 1671, Vizagapatam district, Timmapuram Nos. 35-A and 35-B (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. Hultzsch, “Timmapuram Plates” (1908), p. 319, translation and notes (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

6. J. F. Fleet, “The Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings”, Indian Antiquary XX (1891), p. 94 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1907–08 (1908), Part II, para. 14, p. 50 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²