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Rajula-Mandagiri

Hamlet of Juthru near Pattikonda, Kurnool district, where a damaged copy of Asoka's Minor Rock Edicts is carved on the rock of the Ramalingesvara temple.

A close view of a smooth grey rock face in dappled shade, covered with faint rows of small carved letters.
A close view of a smooth grey rock face in dappled shade, covered with faint rows of small carved letters. · Bharathkumarvaishnava (opens in a new tab) · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab)

Rajula-Mandagiri is a hamlet attached to the village of Juthru in Pattikonda taluk of Kurnool district. According to D. C. Sircar it lies about 3 miles north-west of Pattikonda town and about 20 miles from Erragudi, where Asoka’s edicts had been found in 1928–29. When Sircar wrote, in the 1950s, there was no road from Pattikonda and the hamlet could be reached only by bullock cart.1

The Ramalingesvara rock

The hamlet’s temple of Ramalingesvara stands on a sheet of rock. About ten yards from the temple entrance, the rock carries a 15-line copy of Asoka’s Minor Rock Edicts I and II, in Prakrit and Brahmi script. It is badly weathered. Four other early and medieval inscriptions were found in the same locality.1 For the text, see Rajula-Mandagiri inscription of Asoka.

In the Mackenzie records

The place was first recorded around 1800 by the survey of Colin Mackenzie. A volume of his “Local Records” contains a partial hand-copy of the inscription. It locates the inscription opposite the west gateway of the Pedda Ramalinga temple at Rajula-Mandagiri in a “Panchapalayam” district.2 Neither name could be found in the official village list of the Madras Presidency. For a time the inscription was sought at Mandigiri in Adoni taluk, Bellary district. M. Venkataramayya of the epigraphy department finally found the hamlet near Pattikonda and located the inscription on 26 December 1953.21 Pattikonda taluk itself had belonged to Bellary district until 1858, when it was transferred to Kurnool.3

Footnotes

  1. D. C. Sircar, “Rajula-Mandagiri Inscription of Asoka”, Epigraphia Indica XXXI (1960), p. 212 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. D. C. Sircar, “Rajula-Mandagiri Inscription of Asoka”, Epigraphia Indica XXXI (1960), p. 211 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  3. Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 407 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Photos

People

Asoka

c. 268 BCE – 226 BCE

Third Maurya emperor (3rd century BCE). His edicts at Erragudi and Rajula-Mandagiri in Kurnool district are among the oldest written records found in Andhra Pradesh. His Kalinga war reached the coast north of the Godavari, and his Rock Edict XIII names the Andhras.

Inscriptions

Rajula-Mandagiri inscription of Asoka

c. 250 BCE

A badly weathered 15-line copy of Asoka's Minor Rock Edicts I–II on a rock beside the Ramalingesvara temple at Rajula-Mandagiri near Pattikonda, Kurnool district. A Mackenzie surveyor copied part of it around 1800, and the stone was found again in 1953.

References

Sources (2)
  1. N. Lakshminarayan Rao and D. C. Sircar (eds.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXXI (1955–56) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1960, pp. 211-212. [Public domain in India]
  2. Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1908, pp. 407. [Public domain]

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