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Chellur

Village near Ramachandrapuram in the Godavari delta, the Chelluru agrahara (village granted to Brahmins) of the Eastern Chalukya records. Two copper-plate grants in Sir Walter Elliot's collection were obtained from its karnam (village accountant). One is the plates of the viceroy Vira-Choda, which record a Vishnu temple and a pond built there by his general Medamarya. The other is a grant of Kulottunga-Choda II of Saka 1056.

Chellur is a village in the Godavari delta. J. F. Fleet placed it about two miles west by south of Ramachandrapuram, in Ramachandrapuram taluk, and found it on the Indian Atlas map as “Chelloor”.1 E. Hultzsch, in 1890, described it as a village of Kakinada (then Cocanada) taluk,2 and V. Rangacharya’s list of 1919 also gives it under Kakinada taluk.3 Fleet put the great temple town of Draksharama about four miles south by east of it.4

The Chelluru agrahara

The grant of the viceroy Vira-Choda calls the place the agrahara (Brahmin village) of Chelluru, and Fleet took this to be the modern village itself.14 In the grant’s account, Vira-Choda’s general Medamarya was a Brahmin.56 He built a large pond on the north side of Chelluru and a temple of Vishnu on the west side of the village.56

In his 21st year Vira-Choda gave a village to this temple.56 The same grant says that Medamarya founded feeding houses for Brahmins at Draksharama and Pithapuram.56 See Chellur plates of Vira-Choda.

Two grants from the village accountant

Hultzsch recorded that Vira-Choda’s plates had been in the possession of the karnam (village accountant) of Chellur.2 According to Fleet, Sir Walter Elliot noted that a Mr. G. A. Smith had obtained two grants from the karnam of Chellur.1 They were this grant and a grant of the Chola-Chalukya king Kulottunga-Choda II.1 Fleet therefore preferred to call Vira-Choda’s grant the Chellur grant, not the Draksharama grant, as one of Elliot’s lists had called it.1

Fleet had published the other grant in 1885.78 He then called it the “Chittur plates”, obtained from Rajamahendri through Mr. Smith, “who procured them from the Karnam of Chittur”.78 It records that in Saka 1056 (1134–35; Saka is an Indian way of counting years) Kolani-Katamanayaka granted an agrahara village to a number of learned Brahmins.78 He was the governor of the lake city of Sarasipuri in the Vengi country.78 Rangacharya lists it as the Chellur plates of Kulottunga II, now in the British Museum.3

Footnotes

  1. J. F. Fleet, “Chellur Copper-plate Grant of Vira-Chodadeva”, Indian Antiquary XIX (1890), p. 423 and note 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. E. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), p. 50 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  3. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II (1919), p. 717, Cocanada taluk, Nos. 48-A and 48-B (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. Fleet, “Chellur Grant of Vira-Chodadeva” (1890), p. 424 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  5. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions I (1890), p. 61, translation, verses 33–36 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions I (1890), p. 52 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  7. J. F. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old-Canarese Inscriptions, No. CLIV: Chittur Plates of Kulottunga-Chodadeva II.—Saka 1056”, Indian Antiquary XIV (1885), p. 55 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  8. Fleet, “Chittur Plates of Kulottunga-Chodadeva II” (1885), p. 56 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

People

Kulottunga II (Chola)

c. 1133–1146 CE

Chola king, son and successor of Vikrama-Chola, who reigned from the 1130s to the late 1140s. Coastal Andhra still recognised him: Telugu inscriptions at Bapatla are dated in his regnal years, the Velanandu chief Gonka II ruled at Draksharama as his vassal, and a copper-plate grant of his reign by Kolani-Katamanayaka, governor of Sarasipuri, survives as the Chellur plates (1143). The Godavari gazetteer thought the Cholas had little real power in Vengi by then.

Inscriptions

Chellur plates of Vira-Choda

c. 1090 CE

A Sanskrit copper-plate grant of the 21st year of Vira-Choda, a son of Kulottunga I and viceroy of Vengi. It gives a village to a Vishnu temple that his general Medamarya had built at the agrahara of Chellur near Ramachandrapuram. It was formerly in Sir Walter Elliot's collection, and E. Hultzsch (1890) and J. F. Fleet (1890) edited it. It records Vira-Choda's installation in Saka 1001 (23 August 1078) and the succession of governors of Vengi under the Chola-Chalukya emperor.

Chellur plates of Kulottunga II (1143)

1143 CE

Sanskrit copper-plate grant of the reign of the Chola king Kulottunga-Chodadeva II, obtained from the karnam of Chellur in the Godavari district and presented by Sir Walter Elliot to the British Museum. After the full Eastern Chalukya family tree, which carries the line through Kulottunga I and Vikrama-Choda to Kulottunga II, it records a grant of villages to Brahmins by Kolani-Katamanayaka, governor of Sarasipuri in a lake in the Vengi country. Its date, written as Saka 1056, was corrected by F. Kielhorn to 24 March 1143.

References

Sources (4)
  1. J. F. Fleet and R. C. Temple (eds.), The Indian Antiquary, Vol. XIX (1890) (opens in a new tab), Education Society's Press, Bombay, 1890, pp. 423–424. J. F. Fleet, Chellur grant of Vira-Chodadeva. [Public domain]
  2. E. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I: Tamil and Sanskrit Inscriptions (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1890, pp. 50, 52–53, 61. E. Hultzsch, Chellur grant of Vira-Choda. [Public domain]
  3. J. F. Fleet and R. C. Temple (eds.), The Indian Antiquary, Vol. XIV (1885) (opens in a new tab), Education Society's Press, Bombay (scan of the 1984 Swati Publications facsimile reprint), 1885, pp. 55–56. J. F. Fleet, No. CLIV, grant of Kulottunga-Chodadeva II. [Public domain]
  4. V. Rangacharya, A Topographical List of the Inscriptions of the Madras Presidency (collected till 1915), with Notes and References, Vol. II (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1919, pp. 717. [Public domain]

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