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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Malkapuram

Village in the old Guntur taluk, beside Mandadam, near the Krishna. It has the ruined Visvesvara temple and the great pillar inscription of 1261, which records Rudramadevi's gift to the royal preceptor (guru) Visvesvara Sambhu.

The pillar and the temple

At Malkapuram, in the Guntur taluk, a huge pillar crowned by a Nandi lies near a ruined temple.1 In 1917 the Madras epigraphy office reported that the temple was known locally as Pichchigullu.2 It added that the inscription on the pillar showed it had once been a large and flourishing temple of Visvesvara (Shiva), with a monastery and a feeding-house.2

The long inscription, of the reign of Rudramadevi and dated 1261, records the queen’s gift of the village of Mandara.23 It also records the foundations of her father’s preceptor (guru), Visvesvara Sambhu: a temple, a Sanskrit college, a feeding-house, a hospital and a maternity home.23 See the Malkapuram pillar inscription.

Mandadam

The village given in 1261 was Mandaram, renamed Visvesvara-Golaki.3 The report identified it with the present Mandadam.3 Five more inscriptions on the same pillar record gifts to the Visvanatha temple at Malkapuram and name the builders of the temple.4

Footnotes

  1. J. Ramayya Pantulu (ed.), South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. X (1948), p. 205, No. 395 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  2. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1916-17 (1917), Part II, p. 122, para. 32 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1916-17 (1917), Part II, p. 124, para. 34 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. Annual Report on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1916-17 (1917), Part II, p. 127, para. 38 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Inscriptions

Malkapuram pillar inscription of Rudramadevi

1261 CE

A long Sanskrit inscription of 25 March 1261, cut on a huge pillar at Malkapuram near Amaravati. It records Rudramadevi's gift of Mandara to the royal teacher Visvesvara Sambhu of the Golaki matha. It also lists the temple, college, feeding-house, hospital and maternity home that he founded there.

References

Sources (2)
  1. Madras Government (Assistant Archaeological Superintendent for Epigraphy), Annual Reports on Epigraphy, Southern Circle, for 1915-16 to 1919-20 (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1920, pp. 122–124, 127. Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1916-17. [Public domain]
  2. J. Ramayya Pantulu (ed.), South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. X: Telugu Inscriptions from the Madras Presidency (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India (Manager of Publications, Delhi), 1948, pp. 205. SII X, No. 395. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]

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