Chebrolu

A temple with a tall tower and a front porch on a high platform reached by steps, a tall slender column at the right. · M. Rama Rao, Eastern Calukyan Temples of Andhra Desa (Andhra Pradesh Government Archaeological Series No. 19, ed. Mohd. Abdul Waheed Khan, Director of Archaeology); photographer not credited (opens in a new tab) · Public domain in India

Chebrolu lies on the edge of a sandstone ridge overlooking the Krishna delta, on the road from Guntur to Bapatla. The Kistna district manual of 1883 put it nine miles from Guntur and called it “a place of considerable antiquity”.¹ Robert Sewell’s list of 1882 placed it eight miles south by east of Guntur.² It was then in the Bapatla taluk of Krishna (then Kistna) district, and later of Guntur district.¹³

Names

An inscription of 1213 calls the town Tamrapuri and Tamranagari in its Sanskrit verses.⁴ E. Hultzsch explained these as Sanskrit renderings of the Telugu name Chembrolu, the old form of Chebrolu.⁴ The same record calls it “the city of Shanmukha”, after its temple of Kumarasvamin (Skanda).⁴ Hultzsch said that this temple was by then called the Nagesvara temple.⁴

The Kistna manual adds that the zamindar (landholder) Raja Vasireddi Venkatadri Naidu of Chintapalle restored some of its temples.¹ He gave the place the name Chaturmukhapuram, “the city facing the four points of the compass”.¹ M. Rama Rao suggested that Chebrolu might be the Tambrapasthana of a Pallava copper-plate grant.³ The Nellore district gazetteer of 1942 likewise took the Pallava camp of Tambrapa to be probably Chebrolu.⁵ See Omgodu grant of Skandavarman II.

Early remains

Rama Rao described a big mound at the eastern end of the village, the site of most of its temples.³ Coins of the Satavahana kings Gautamiputra Satakarni and Yajna Sri Satakarni had been found in it, with coloured pottery and terracottas of the same period.³ Two uprights of a Buddhist stupa (relic mound) railing had lain near the Bhimesvara temple until shortly before his survey.³

Both 19th-century accounts mention finds of gold and silver coins.¹² Sewell said that they had been dug up in a stone box with a stone image.²

Temples and inscriptions

Sewell and the Kistna manual both found the inscriptions of Chebrolu at the temple of Nagesvara. Hultzsch identified that temple with the old temple of Kumarasvamin.²¹⁴ Rama Rao believed instead that the temple of Kumara to which most records belonged no longer existed.³

V. Rangacharya’s list of 1919 gives the records copied in 1897.⁶⁷ The earliest dated one, of Saka 928 (1006; Saka is an Indian way of counting years), is a gift to Kumarasvamin under the Western Chalukya king Satyasraya II.⁶ Others record lamps given by the Velanadu chiefs Gonka and Choda and their families from 1077 onwards.⁶⁷ There is also a record of the Chola king Vikrama-Chola dated 1127.⁶⁷

The Eastern Chalukya Yuddhamalla left a Telugu verse inscription on a pillar at Vijayawada (then Bezwada).⁸⁹ It records that the god Kumarasvamin, or, in another reading, the king Malla, came from “the celebrated (town of) Chebrolu” to a festival at Vijayawada.⁸⁹ See Bezwada pillar inscription of Yuddhamalla.

The inscription of Jaya

The longest inscription is on a pillar in front of the Nagesvara temple.¹⁰ It records that the Kakatiya king Ganapati was returning from a conquest of the southern kings.¹⁰ In Saka 1135 (1213–14) he gave Chebrolu to Jaya, commander of his elephant troops, telling him to rule the “city of Shanmukha”.¹⁰

Jaya repaired and whitewashed its temples, and gilded the image of Kumarasvamin.¹⁰ He built an enclosure and a three-storeyed gopura (gateway tower), and he surrounded the town with a wall and towers.¹⁰ A list of the temple’s servants follows, from priests, an astrologer and a doctor to three hundred dancing-girls, carpenters, smiths and washermen.¹¹

A second inscription of Jaya, of 1235, records that he built the temple of Chodesvara, named after his father.⁷ Hultzsch noted that another inscription of Jaya is built into a temple at Chandavolu.¹¹ He called Chandavolu the capital of the Velanadu chiefs.¹¹

M. Rama Rao attributed the Bhimesvara temple on the mound to the Eastern Chalukya king Chalukya-Bhima I.¹²¹³ The older accounts do not mention it.²¹ See Bhimesvara temple, Chebrolu.

Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District (1883), p. 203 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
Robert Sewell, Lists of the Antiquarian Remains in the Presidency of Madras, Vol. I (1882), p. 82, s.v. Chebrolu (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Rama Rao, Eastern Calukyan Temples (1964), p. 45 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
E. Hultzsch, “Chebrolu Inscription of Jaya; after Saka-Samvat 1135”, Epigraphia Indica V (1898–99), p. 143 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Gazetteer of the Nellore District, brought up to 1938, Vol. A (1942), p. 30 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II (1919), p. 754, Bapatla taluk, Chebrolu, Nos. 83–87 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Rangacharya, Topographical List, Vol. II (1919), p. 755, Nos. 88–93 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
J. Ramayya Pantulu, “The Bezwada Pillar Inscription of Yuddhamalla”, Epigraphia Indica XV (1919–20), p. 153, with H. Krishna Sastri’s notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Ramayya Pantulu, “The Bezwada Pillar Inscription” (1920), p. 159, translation (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Hultzsch, “Chebrolu Inscription of Jaya” (1899), p. 149, abstract of contents (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Hultzsch, “Chebrolu Inscription of Jaya” (1899), p. 150 and postscript (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
Rama Rao, Eastern Calukyan Temples (1964), p. 2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
M. Rama Rao, Eastern Calukyan Temples of Andhra Desa (1964), preface (unnumbered) (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩