Kanukollu

Kanukollu is a village in what was the Gudivada taluk of Krishna district.¹ It is known to history for two copper-plate grants of the Salankayana kings, found there together.¹ They are the Prakrit grant of Nandivarman I and the Sanskrit grant of Skandavarman.¹

The old village

B. V. Krishna Rao obtained the plates in 1946.¹ He described the old village site as lying outside the ramparts of a mud fort, by then almost in ruins.¹ He thought the ramparts and the position of the old village showed that Kanukollu had been an important walled town.¹

In his view the town had stood on a road to Vengipura, the Salankayana capital.¹ This road came from a large port near the northern mouth of the Krishna and from the town of Gudivada.¹ He noted that in his day Kanukollu still lay on the trunk road from Gudivada to Bhimavaram.¹

Villagers told him that gold and lead coins and other objects had been picked up on the site.¹ These had been kept secret or destroyed, and coins were still found there.¹

The plates

The plates were found about fifteen years before Krishna Rao wrote, while villagers were digging old earth on the village site.¹ The villagers thought them precious metal and divided them.¹ The ring and seal of the second set were melted down to test the metal.¹ The village accountant (karanam), Vinnakota Durga Varaprasada Rao, stepped in and saved them, and secured them for Krishna Rao.¹

Neither grant names Kanukollu.²³⁴ Nandivarman I’s grant gives the village of Pidiha, which Krishna Rao could not identify.²³⁴ Skandavarman’s gives Kompara, in the district of Kudrahara.²³⁴ Krishna Rao thought Kompara might be Komarru, about ten miles east of Kanukollu.²³⁴ He took Kudrahara to be an early form of the name of Gudivada.²³⁴

Footnotes

1. B. V. Krishna Rao, “Two Salankayana Charters from Kanukollu”, Epigraphia Indica XXXI (1955–56, publ. 1960), p. 1 and note 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

2. Krishna Rao, “Two Salankayana Charters from Kanukollu” (1960), p. 4 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. Krishna Rao, “Two Salankayana Charters from Kanukollu” (1960), p. 8 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. Krishna Rao, “Two Salankayana Charters from Kanukollu” (1960), p. 9 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵