Uruvupalli grant of Vishnugopavarman

J. F. Fleet edited the Uruvupalli grant in 1876 from a facsimile (exact copy) in Sir Walter Elliot’s collection.¹ He had “no information as yet as to where the original was found or in whose possession it is”.¹ It is the only grant of the crown prince Vishnugopa.¹

Description

There are four plates, numbered with numerals.¹ The writing begins on the outside of the first plate and covers the outside of the fourth as well, against the usual custom.¹ The seal shows what seemed to Fleet “to be a dog, but is, in native opinion, a lion”.¹

C. R. Krishnamacharlu looked at Fleet’s facsimile and thought the animal more like a dog or a wolf about to pounce.² To him its short tail ruled out a lion.²

Fleet called the letters “the Cave-alphabet”.¹ Judging from their forms, he would “allot the inscription to the fifth century A.D.”¹ E. Hultzsch later found its alphabet very close to that of the Pikira and Mangalur grants.³

Content

The grant opens “Victory has been achieved by the holy one!” and was issued “from the glorious and victorious locality of Palakkada”.⁴ The donor is the yuvamaharaja (crown prince) Vishnugopavarman.⁴ He names his father Skandavarman, his grandfather Viravarman and his great-grandfather Skandavarman.⁴ He calls himself the disciple of the feet of the venerable great king Bappa.⁴

He told the villagers of Uruvupalli, in the country of Munda, about a gift of land in their village.⁴⁵ Two hundred nivartanas (a land measure) there had been made a possession of the gods at Kandukura.⁴⁵ The land was for the temple of Vishnuhara, founded by a general.⁴⁵

The boundaries named include:⁴

• the village of Kendukura on the west⁴
• the river Suprayoga on the south and east⁴
• the road to Kurupura and Kandukura⁴
• the village of Kandamuruvudu⁴

The grant was given “in the eleventh of the victorious years of the Great King Simhavarma”.⁴ It was given “in the month Paushya, in the dark fortnight, and on the tenth lunar day”.⁴

The places

Fleet thought that Palakkada had been the Pallava capital at the time.¹ In a later article he wondered whether it might be Palghat.⁶ Hultzsch and V. Venkayya looked for it in the Nellore district.⁷

Krishnamacharlu identified Mundarashtra with the later Munda-nadu of the Nellore inscriptions, round the Kovur taluk.⁸⁵ He took the temple of Vishnuhara to be one of the early temples of Kandukur.⁸⁵ Sircar thought that Uruvupalli itself had not been satisfactorily identified.⁹

Whose eleventh year?

The grant is dated in the reign of a Simhavarman, but it does not state how he was related to the donor.⁴ Three scholars answered this in different ways:¹³⁷¹⁰

• Fleet supposed him to be Vishnugopa’s elder brother.¹
• Hultzsch took him to be Vishnugopa’s own son, the Simhavarman of the Pikira and Mangalur grants.³⁷
• Krishnamacharlu concluded that the son formally issued a grant that his father had made.¹⁰

Sewell’s chronology took Simhavarman’s reign to begin in 436.¹¹ It dated the grant to 446.¹¹ Hultzsch noted that the wording of the Chendalur plates of Kumaravishnu II is almost identical with that of this grant.¹²

Footnotes

1. J. F. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old-Canarese Inscriptions, No. XII”, Indian Antiquary V (1876), p. 50 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

2. C. R. Krishnamacharlu, “Vilavatti Grant of Pallava Simhavarman”, Epigraphia Indica XXIV (1937–38), p. 297 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

3. E. Hultzsch, “Pikira Grant of Simhavarman”, Epigraphia Indica VIII (1905–06), p. 160 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old-Canarese Inscriptions, No. XII” (1876), pp. 52–53, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

5. Krishnamacharlu, “Vilavatti Grant” (1938), p. 302, notes (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

6. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old-Canarese Inscriptions, No. XV”, Indian Antiquary V (1876), p. 154 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

7. Hultzsch, “Pikira Grant of Simhavarman” (1906), p. 161 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. Krishnamacharlu, “Vilavatti Grant” (1938), p. 301 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

9. D. C. Sircar, The Successors of the Satavahanas in Lower Deccan (1939), p. 208 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

10. Krishnamacharlu, “Vilavatti Grant” (1938), pp. 299–300 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

11. Robert Sewell and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 18 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

12. E. Hultzsch, “Chendalur Plates of Kumaravishnu II”, Epigraphia Indica VIII (1905–06), p. 234 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩