Tottaramudi plates of Kataya Vema (1411)

By these copper plates of Saka 1333 (1411–12; Saka is an Indian way of counting years), Kataya Vema of Rajahmundry gave the village of Mallavaram to a Brahman.¹ The grant lists the Kondavidu kings down to Kumaragiri.² It also tells how Kataya Vema, Kumaragiri’s minister, received “the eastern country, of which Rajamahendranagari (the modern Rajahmundry) was the capital”.²

Discovery and the plates

The plates “are said to have been discovered more than thirty years ago by one Mokkapatla Rajappa of Tottaramudi”.³ Tottaramudi is “in the Amalapuram taluka of the Godavari district”.³ Rajappa found them “while digging for earth on the site of a ruined house”.³

J. Ramayya obtained the plates in 1892.³ He published the text in the Telugu paper Chintamani at Rajahmundry in August 1893.³ He edited them in Epigraphia Indica in 1897, and they were then in the Madras Museum.³

The three plates were held by a copper ring, now broken.³ On the ring is a lying bull on a stand, with the sun and the crescent moon fixed on either side.³ Each side has thirteen lines, except the last, which has six.³

Contents

The text is in Sanskrit verse.² Only the description of the boundaries and the last line are in Telugu prose.² It opens with prayers like those of the Vanapalli plates.² It then traces the creation of the castes, and names the Panta family, a branch of the fourth caste.²

The kings of this family were these:²

• king Vema, called Jaganobbaganda, who built a flight of steps by the Patalaganga at the foot of Srisailam²
• his son Anavota²
• Anavota’s younger brother Anavema, called Vasantaraya²
• Anavota’s son Kumaragiri, “who ruled the country a long time from his ancestral capital Kondavidu”²

The grant then turns to Kumaragiri’s minister, Kataya Vema.² He “rendered great help to Komaragiri in obtaining possession of and governing his ancestral territory, even as Krishna did to Yudhishthira”.² In return he received “the eastern country, of which Rajamahendranagari (the modern Rajahmundry) was the capital”.²

The grant traces Kataya Vema’s descent from Kata I, through Mara and Kata II.²¹ It calls him the son-in-law of Anavota and a daughter’s son of Vema.²¹ It names his mother Doddambika and his wife Mallambika.²¹ Mallambika covered the Markandeya temple at Rajahmundry with gold and gems.²¹

The gift was made on the full moon of Karttika in the cyclic year Khara, Saka 1333 (1411–12).¹ Kataya Vema gave the village of Mallavaram, named after Mallambika, to Nrisimha of the Kasyapa gotra (clan).¹ The village was on the Vriddha-Gautami, near Muktisvara in the Konadesa.¹ The composer was Srivallabha, and the grant is signed “Vemu”.¹

Place

Ramayya found that Mallavaram had long since become part of Tottaramudi, though its lands were still known.¹ The Kappagantula family, of the same gotra as the donee, held the hereditary rights in it.¹ He explained that the Konasima was the name still used for part of the Amalapuram taluk (sub-district), watered by branches of the Godavari.¹

Rangacharya listed the plates under the Amalapuram taluk.⁴ He called the inscription “of great value in connecting the two Reddi lines”.⁴

Importance

Ramayya valued the grant for “giving a list of the Kondavidu chiefs down to Kumaragiri”.¹ He also valued it “as showing when and under what circumstances the Rajamahendri portion of the Kondavidu territory became detached from the rest of it”.¹ He read it together with the introduction to the Kumaragirirajiyam, Kataya Vema’s commentary on Kalidasa’s Shakuntala.¹⁵ From the two, he got the family tree of both lines.¹⁵ See the Reddis of Rajahmundry and Kumaragiri Reddi.

Footnotes

1. Ramayya, Tottaramudi Plates of Kataya-Vema (1896–97), p. 320 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶

2. Ramayya, Tottaramudi Plates of Kataya-Vema (1896–97), p. 319 (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. J. Ramayya, Tottaramudi Plates of Kataya-Vema, Saka-Samvat 1333, Epigraphia Indica IV (1896–97), p. 318 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

4. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II (1919), pp. 713–714, Godavari No. 17 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

5. Ramayya, Tottaramudi Plates of Kataya-Vema (1896–97), p. 321 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²