Yelavarru plates of Amma II

This is one of the many copper-plate charters of Amma II, the Eastern Chalukya king who was crowned in 945 and reigned for twenty-five years.¹² It is not dated in an era.¹² J. F. Fleet, who edited it in 1883, placed it after Saka 867 (945–46; Saka is an Indian way of counting years), the year of the king’s accession given in another of his grants.¹²

Discovery

The plates belonged to Mallampati Mangayya of Yelivarru, in the Repalli taluk.¹ James Burgess obtained them for Fleet’s inspection.¹

Fleet was told how they were found.¹ In 1864 the owner was building a new house.¹ While he was bringing earth, his bullock put its foot into a hole in the path.¹ Digging there, he found a large jar with a rusty iron cover.¹ Across the jar lay an iron bar from which the copper plates hung.¹

Fleet identified Yelivarru with Elavarru, the village granted.¹ He identified the neighbouring Inturu and Amartaluru with Inthuri and Amutunuri, two of the villages named in its boundaries.¹ He noted that it was not far from Tsandavole.¹ A hoard of gold had been found there a few years before, some of it melted into a mass and some in coins.¹

Fleet placed the village in the Guntur district in 1883, and in the Krishna (then Kistna) district in his list of 1891.¹² See Yelavarru.

Description

There are five plates, each about 7⅜ inches long and a little over 3 inches broad, with raised rims.¹ The whole inscription was perfectly preserved.¹ The ring had not been cut when Fleet received the plates.¹

The round seal carries across the middle the motto Sri-Tribhuvanankusa.¹ Above it is a standing boar facing left, with the sun above it, the moon on one side and an elephant-goad on the other.¹ Below it is an eight-leaved water-lily.¹ The plates weigh 67½ tolas, and the ring and seal 54¼ tolas.¹

The grant is partly a palimpsest (written over an older text).¹ Three of the plate faces were engraved over a cancelled grant in an older type of letters.¹ Its lines had been beaten in so carefully that only scratches remained.¹ Fleet could read only a few phrases, among them the name of a village Tungavada.¹

Two more faces had been cut down from another grant of about the same period.¹ Its lines ran at right angles to the present text, so that only a few letters of each line survived.¹ The Vandram plates of the same king are also engraved in part over an earlier grant.³

Content

The inscription opens with the usual Chalukya preamble and the list of kings of Vengi with the length of each reign.⁴⁵ The list begins with Kubja-Vishnuvardhana, “the brother of Satyasraya-Vallabhendra”, who ruled Vengi for eighteen years.⁴⁵ It ends with Amma II’s father, Chalukya-Bhima II, who ruled for twelve years.⁴⁵

For the civil war after 925, it gives these reigns:⁵

• Talapa, one month, after he expelled the child Vijayaditya⁵
• Vikramaditya, son of Chalukya-Bhima, eleven months⁵
• Yuddhamalla, son of Talapa, seven years⁵

It then calls Bhima the son of Yuddhamalla, though he was really the son of Kollabhiganda-Vijayaditya.⁵ Fleet explained this as an instance of a custom he had noted elsewhere.⁵ By this custom, a successor is called the son of the king he followed.⁵ F. Kielhorn found the lengths of reign substantially the same as in the Masulipatam plates of the same king.⁶

Amma II bears the titles Samastabhuvanasraya, Maharajadhiraja, Paramesvara and Paramabhattaraka.⁷⁵ He addresses the householders, headed by the rashtrakutas, of the Velanandu district (vishaya).⁷⁵

The donee was Koramiya, of the Kasyapa gotra, son of Viddamiya and his wife Anamavva, and grandson of Viddamayya.⁷⁵⁸ He was the head of the writing office (srikarana) of the treasury of gold.⁷⁵⁸ The grant says he was brought up “through affection” by “Our mother, Sri-Lokamahadevi”, that is Amma II’s mother.⁷⁵⁸ It praises him at length for his wit, eloquence and learning.⁷⁵⁸

On the occasion of the sun’s turning north (the winter solstice), the king gave Koramiya the village of Elavarru as an agrahara (village granted to Brahmins), free of all taxes.⁸ Its boundaries were:⁸

• Gomaduvu on the east⁸
• Daggumbarti on the south-east⁸
• Inthuri on the south⁸
• Prempalti on the south-west and west⁸
• Turimindi on the north-west⁸
• Amutunuri on the north and north-east⁸

The executor (ajnapti) was the Kataka-raja.⁸² Potanabhatta composed the verses, and Jontacharya wrote the plates.⁸²

Later notices

Kielhorn entered the grant as No. 565 of his list of southern inscriptions in 1903, calling the king Ammaraja II Vijayaditya VI.⁶

E. Hultzsch found in 1908 that the first seventeen lines of the Vandram plates were practically identical with the first twenty-three lines of this grant.³ He also found that its order to the district officers was worded in nearly the same way.³ He noted that the same Jontacharya wrote the Vandram plates and the Padamkaluru grant, which gives Amma II’s coronation date.⁹ V. Rangacharya, in 1919, described the Vandram grant by its likeness to this one.¹⁰

The king’s name and number

Fleet called the donor “Amma II, also called Vijayaditya” in 1883, and Kielhorn numbered him Vijayaditya VI.¹⁶ E. Hultzsch’s pedigree of 1890 counted him Vijayaditya V.¹¹² This site calls him Amma II, the name under which Fleet listed this grant in 1891.¹¹²

Footnotes

1. J. F. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old-Canarese Inscriptions, No. CXXVI”, Indian Antiquary XII (1883), p. 91 (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 ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹

2. J. F. Fleet, “The Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings”, Indian Antiquary XX (1891), p. 271 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

3. E. Hultzsch, “Vandram Plates of Ammaraja II”, Epigraphia Indica IX (1907–08), p. 132 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old-Canarese Inscriptions, No. CXXVI” (1883), p. 93, text and translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old-Canarese Inscriptions, No. CXXVI” (1883), p. 94, translation and note 10 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶

6. F. Kielhorn, “A List of the Inscriptions of Southern India”, Appendix to Epigraphia Indica VII (1902–03), p. 96, No. 565 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old-Canarese Inscriptions, No. CXXVI” (1883), p. 92, text (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

8. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old-Canarese Inscriptions, No. CXXVI” (1883), p. 95, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

9. Hultzsch, “Vandram Plates of Ammaraja II” (1908), p. 133 and note 8 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

10. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II (1919), p. 888, Kistna district, No. 127 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

11. E. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), p. 32, pedigree of the Eastern Chalukya dynasty (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²