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Malepadu

Village on the south bank of the Penner near Proddatur in Kadapa district. The copper plates of the Telugu Chola king Punyakumara and a stone inscription of Satyaditya came to light here in 1904. The 1956 editors of the Telugu Chola records thought it was perhaps Biriparu, one of the family's capitals.

Discoveries of 1904

In 1904 J. Ramayya Pantulu, Deputy Collector of the Jammalamadugu division, brought some finds to the Madras epigraphy department.1 They were a set of copper plates and several stone inscriptions of an unknown family of kings.1 The plates had been found “while digging foundations for a mutt at Mālēpāḍu”.1 They are the Malepadu plates of the Telugu Chola king Punyakumara, later given to the Madras Museum.1

H. Krishna Sastri published one of the stones, the inscription of Satyaditya, in 1912.2 The Cuddapah gazetteer of 1915 cited “the recent discovery of some copper plates at Malēpād” as proof that early Chola kings had ruled the district.3

Biriparu

K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and M. Venkataramayya (1956) wrote about a village called Biriparu or Viriparu.45 It is named in the Malepadu plates, in Punyakumara’s Ramesvaram pillar and in stone records at Malepadu itself.45 The editors noted that it lay on the south bank of the Penner, like Malepadu.45

They suggested that Malepadu was perhaps Biriparu, since both names refer to jasmine.45 They counted it, with Chippili, as a capital of Dhananjaya’s line.45 The coordinates given here are those of the Wikidata item for Malepadu in the Yerraguntla mandal near Proddatur.4 This fits the editors’ placing of Malepadu near Ramesvaram on the Penner.4

Footnotes

  1. H. Krishna Sastri, “Malepadu Plates of Punyakumara; the Fifth Year”, Epigraphia Indica XI (1912), p. 337 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Krishna Sastri, “Malepadu Plates” (1912), p. 345 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  3. C. F. Brackenbury, Madras District Gazetteers: Cuddapah (1915), p. 27 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  4. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and M. Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records from Anantapur and Cuddapah”, Epigraphia Indica XXVII (1956), p. 235 and notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  5. Nilakanta Sastri and Venkataramayya, “Telugu Chola Records” (1956), p. 249 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

Photos

Dynasties

Telugu Cholas of Renadu

c. 550–800 CE

Kings of Renandu, the country around Kadapa, from about the later 6th to the 8th century. They claimed descent from the Chola king Karikala, took the names of their Pallava and then Chalukya overlords, and ruled from Chippili and Malepadu. Their stone inscriptions at Kalamalla and Erragudipadu are among the earliest records written wholly in Telugu. None of their records is dated in an era. Three editors have placed the same king, Punyakumara, about 625, about 740 and about 800.

People

Punyakumara

c. 625 CE

Telugu Chola king of Renandu and Hiranyarashtra, the best-documented ruler of the family. He is known from two sets of Sanskrit copper plates (Malepadu, fifth year; Dommara-Nandyala, tenth year) and from Telugu stone records at Tippaluru, Ramesvaram and Veludurti. His titles imitate those of the Pallava Mahendravarman I. Editors have dated him about 625, about 740 and near the end of the 8th century.

Vikramaditya II (Telugu Chola)

c. 700 CE

Telugu Chola king of Renandu, placed about 700 by his editors. He is known from stone records at Chilamakuru and Nallacheruvupalle, and from the Malepadu stone of his son Satyaditya. His queen Cholamahadevi ruled at Chilamakuru with their son Uttamaditya, who succeeded him. Whether 'Saktikumara' was his father or part of his own name is disputed.

Inscriptions

Malepadu plates of Punyakumara

c. 625 CE

Three Sanskrit copper plates with a lion seal, found at Malepadu in the Cuddapah district and given to the Madras Museum. They record a grant of land by the Telugu Chola king Punyakumara in the fifth year of his reign. Published in 1912, they gave the first family tree of the Telugu Cholas, from Nandivarman through Dhananjaya and Mahendravikrama. Their date has been put near 800, about 625 and about 750.

Malepadu stone inscription of Satyaditya

c. 725 CE

A short Telugu stone record from Malepadu in the Cuddapah district. It records a gift of land at Chirumburu (Chilamakuru) by the Telugu Chola prince Satyaditya, ruler of the Siddhi thousand and the Renandu seven thousand. It was published in 1912 as a sample of the earliest Telugu records of the district, and it is written from the bottom upwards. Its two editors read the family tree in it differently.

References

Sources (3)
  1. Sten Konow (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XI (1911–12) (opens in a new tab), Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta (scan of the ASI 1981 facsimile reprint), 1912, pp. 337, 345. H. Krishna Sastri, Malepadu Plates of Punyakumara (No. 35). [Public domain]
  2. B. Ch. Chhabra and N. Lakshminarayan Rao (eds.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXVII (1947–48) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1956, pp. 235, 249. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and M. Venkataramayya (No. 42). Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  3. C. F. Brackenbury, Madras District Gazetteers: Cuddapah, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1915, pp. 27. [Public domain]

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