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Devavarman (Salankayana)

Salankayana king of Vengi. He is known from a Prakrit grant of his 13th year addressed to the villagers of Ellore, in which he calls himself a performer of the horse sacrifice and a devotee of Shiva. His place in the family is unknown. Scholars have made him a son of Hastivarman, an earlier king (perhaps Hastivarman's father), and a successor of Nandivarman I.

The king of the Ellore plates

Devavarman is known from one set of copper plates, in Prakrit with two Sanskrit verses, which E. Hultzsch edited in 1908.123 The plates had lain for a long time in the office of the Head Assistant Collector at Narsapur, and where they were found is not recorded.123

They were issued from Vengipura and addressed to the villagers of Elura, which Hultzsch identified with the town of Eluru (then Ellore), seven miles from Pedda-Vegi.123 In them the king is “the performer of horse-sacrifices, the Salankayana, the fervent Mahesvara, who is devoted to the feet of the lord (his) father, (and) who meditates at the feet of the holy Chitrarathasvamin”.4 The grant is dated in his 13th year.2 See the Ellore plates of Devavarman.

Hultzsch’s edition gave the family its name in modern writing. He observed that the Kolleru plates of Nandivarman used nearly the same epithets and were also issued from Vengipura.3 He proposed calling the family “the Salankayana Maharajas of Vengipura”.3

Devavarman’s grant is in Prakrit and Nandivarman’s in Sanskrit, so Hultzsch concluded that Devavarman “was presumably an ancestor” of Nandivarman.3 Sewell’s chronology of 1932 likewise calls Devavarman an earlier ruler than Chandavarman and his son.5

Where he fits in the family

No grant names Devavarman’s father or son. R. Subba Rao, D. C. Sircar, K. R. Subramanian and B. V. Krishna Rao each placed him differently.6789

  • Subba Rao suggested in 1926 that Devavarman was a younger son of Hastivarman, who did not rule as sovereign.6 He drew up a family tree on that basis.6 Sircar reports that M. Somasekhara Sarma, who first published the Peddavegi plates, also made Devavarman a son of Hastivarman.10
  • Sircar thought Devavarman ruled before Hastivarman, because the script of the Peddavegi plates looks slightly later than that of the Ellore plates. He suggested that Devavarman may have been Hastivarman’s immediate predecessor, perhaps his father, and so not his son.710
  • K. R. Subramanian took Devavarman to be the founder of the Salankayana power in Vengi, two generations before Hastivarman.118
  • Krishna Rao, editing the Kanukollu plates in 1960, concluded that Nandivarman I seems to have reigned before Devavarman.9 He thought that the dating of Nandivarman I’s grant, by season and fortnight, was older than Devavarman’s dating by the month of Pausha.9

The horse sacrifice

Devavarman is the only Salankayana king known to claim the horse sacrifice (ashvamedha).12 Sircar thought it showed that he was a prince of some importance.13 In Sircar’s view it probably marked a success against the Pallavas, who had held the Andhra country with their headquarters at Dhanyakataka.13

K. V. Lakshmana Rao thought the claim copied the Gupta emperors, and was made soon after Samudragupta’s southern campaign. In his words: “He must have seen some of the Imperial grants with similar titles and coolly imitated them.”1415 He thought later kings dropped the claim as “too big a boast for the owners of a petty principality”.1415 Sircar argued the opposite. In his view Devavarman ruled before that campaign, and the Guptas may have borrowed the idea from the south.1316

Subramanian compared Devavarman’s sacrifice with the horse sacrifice of the Ikshvaku king Chamtamula about half a century earlier.17

Religion

In his grant Devavarman calls himself a fervent devotee of Mahesvara (Shiva). Like all the kings of the family, he also calls himself a devotee of Chitrarathasvamin.418

The seal of his plates is almost worn away.2 V. Venkayya, quoted by Hultzsch, saw on it “a faint trace of some quadruped—perhaps a tiger”.2 Sircar thought the figure was probably the bull found on the seals of the other Salankayana kings.19

Date

Sircar’s chronology of 1939 placed Devavarman about 320–345. On grounds of language he argued that the king could not be earlier than A.D. 300 and reigned a little after the accession of the Pallava Sivaskandavarman.1016 As editor of the Kanukollu plates in 1960, Sircar dated the Ellore grant to about the middle of the 4th century.9

Subramanian put Devavarman’s accession in the last quarter of the 3rd century.8 K. V. Lakshmana Rao, who made him a successor of Hastivarman, placed him about 375.20 Dubreuil, in 1920, placed all the Salankayana kings he knew, Devavarman among them, between about 350 and 450.21

Footnotes

  1. E. Hultzsch, “Plates of Vijaya-Devavarman”, Epigraphia Indica IX (1907–08), p. 56 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. Hultzsch, “Plates of Vijaya-Devavarman” (1908), p. 57 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  3. Hultzsch, “Plates of Vijaya-Devavarman” (1908), p. 58 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  4. Hultzsch, “Plates of Vijaya-Devavarman” (1908), p. 59, translation (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

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

  6. R. Subba Rao, “Pedavegi Copper-plates of Nandivarman II”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society I, pt. 2 (1926), p. 94 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. D. C. Sircar, The Successors of the Satavahanas in Lower Deccan (1939), p. 69 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  8. Subramanian, Buddhist Remains in Andhra (1932), p. 91 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  9. B. V. Krishna Rao, “Two Salankayana Charters from Kanukollu”, Epigraphia Indica XXXI (1955–56, publ. 1960), p. 3, with D. C. Sircar’s editorial notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  10. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 73, chronological chart and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  11. K. R. Subramanian, Buddhist Remains in Andhra and the History of Andhra between 225 and 610 A.D. (1932), p. 89 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  12. Subba Rao, “Pedavegi Copper-plates” (1926), p. 97 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  13. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 86 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  14. K. V. Lakshmana Rao, “Two Copper-plate Grants of the Salankayanas of Vengi”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society V, pt. 1 (1930), p. 24 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  15. K. V. Lakshmana Rao, “Two Copper-plate Grants of the Salankayanas of Vengi”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society V, pt. 1 (1930), p. 25 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  16. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 87 and note 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  17. Subramanian, Buddhist Remains in Andhra (1932), p. 90 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  18. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 83 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  19. Sircar, Successors of the Satavahanas (1939), p. 90 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  20. K. V. Lakshmana Rao, “Two Copper-plate Grants of the Salankayanas of Vengi”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society V, pt. 1 (1930), pp. 26–27 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  21. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (1920), p. 89 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Photos

Dynasties

Salankayanas of Vengi

c. 300–470 CE

Dynasty of the country between the Krishna and the Godavari in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, ruling from Vengipura, the modern Pedavegi near Eluru. Seven copper-plate grants name seven kings in two lines descended from Hastivarman. Most scholars identify him with the 'Hastivarman of Vengi' of Samudragupta's Allahabad inscription. Their earlier grants are in Prakrit and their later ones in Sanskrit. Their seals bear a bull, and their family god was Chitrarathasvamin.

References

Sources (9)
  1. E. Hultzsch and Sten Konow (eds.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IX (1907–08) (opens in a new tab), Government of India, Calcutta, 1908, pp. 56–59. E. Hultzsch, Plates of Vijaya-Devavarman (No. 7). [Public domain]
  2. N. Lakshminarayan Rao and D. C. Sircar (eds.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXXI (1955–56) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1960, pp. 2–3. B. V. Krishna Rao, Two Salankayana Charters from Kanukollu, with notes by D. C. Sircar; paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  3. Not Available, The Andhra Historical Research Society, Rajahmundry, Vol.1,pt.2 (opens in a new tab), 1926, pp. 94, 97. R. Subba Rao, Pedavegi Copper-plates of Nandivarman II. [Public domain]
  4. D. C. Sircar, The Successors of the Satavahanas in Lower Deccan (opens in a new tab), University of Calcutta, 1939, pp. 69, 73, 83, 86–87, 90. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  5. K. R. Subramanian, Buddhist Remains in Andhra and the History of Andhra between 225 and 610 A.D. (opens in a new tab), Madras (with a foreword by G. Jouveau-Dubreuil), 1932, pp. 89–92. K. R. Subramanian. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  6. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (opens in a new tab), The author, Pondicherry (translated by V. S. Swaminadha Dikshitar), 1920, pp. 89. [Public domain]
  7. Robert Sewell (ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar), The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (Collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1932, pp. 18. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  8. K. V. Lakshmana Rao (article); Andhra Historical Research Society, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society, Vol. V, pt. 1 (July 1930), incl. K. V. Lakshmana Rao, 'Two Copper-plate Grants of the Salankayanas of Vengi' (opens in a new tab), Andhra Historical Research Society, Rajahmundry, 1930, pp. 24–25. K. V. Lakshmana Rao, Two Copper-plate Grants of the Salankayanas of Vengi, JAHRS V, pt. 1 (1930). [Public domain]
  9. K. V. Lakshmana Rao (article); Andhra Historical Research Society, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society, Vol. V, pt. 1 (July 1930), incl. K. V. Lakshmana Rao, 'Two Copper-plate Grants of the Salankayanas of Vengi' (opens in a new tab), Andhra Historical Research Society, Rajahmundry, 1930, pp. 27. K. V. Lakshmana Rao, Two Copper-plate Grants of the Salankayanas of Vengi, JAHRS V, pt. 1 (1930). [Public domain]

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