Gollavalli Plates of Prithivi-Maharaja
(Regnal) year 49.
Consequent to defeating Maharaja
Vikramendra Varma, prithvi maharaja extended his empire from Jajpur to the river Godavari in the south, upto river vaitarani, in his 27th Regnal year. (555-569 A.D.) The main purpose of this grant is to record registeration of a grant of the agrahara village of Gollavalli, in the district of Kudravali
by Prithivi-Maharaja of the Kasyapa-gotra.
Provenance: Not known. The last owner, Shri Balaram Patra,
living in Parlakimedi was a resident of Tekkali, 45 years earlier. The plates were purchased some time before 1963 A D. by the Permanent Regional
survey committee, Orissa.
Script: Brahmi.
Language: Sanskrit.
References: S.N. Rajaguru, Inscriptions of Orissa, volume.1, Part ii,
pp.54-56 and Plates; S.C. De, Ep.Ind, XXXV, pp.221-24.
Footnote 1.
Another grant of this king issued from Pishtapura in his 46th Regnal year, as edited by R S Panchamukhi, who assigned it to the beginning of the 7th century A. D. ( See Tandivada grant, Ep.Ind, XXIII, pp.95-96),
and suggested that Prithivi-Maha-raja was ousted from Pishtapura by Pulakesin 2, (610 – 612 A D. ) D. C. Sircar, (Ibid XV, pp.221, n-3) supports this view. But S.C. De, assigns this as well as the Tandivada grant to
the last quarter of the 6th century A. D. on palaeographical grounds, because the characters of these two inscriptions
bear close resemblance to those of the srungavarapukota plates of king Anantavarman of Pishtapura (Ibid XXIII,
pp.56 ff.; Infra, IV 52.
Footnote 2.
1. From the facsimile in Ep.Ind, XXXV, between pp. 222 and 223.
2. Virajonagara, also mentioned as viranja in the soro plate of Bhanudatta (7th century. A.D.) (Ep.Ind., XXIII, pp. 203) has been identifed with viraja in Orissa, i.e. modern Jajpur in the cuttack district. It is mentioned as
Virajas in the Dhauli Cave Inscription of the time of santikara of the Bhauma dynasty (ibid, XIX, pp.264)
and also in the Ganjam Plates of the time of Unmattakesarin. (I.HQ XI, pp-492). It was presumably the capital of the Bhauma kings of Orissa.
Footnote 3.
1. De:
2. D.C. sircar in his editorial note corrects the reading to sriramalenrurajah.
3. The right half of the third plate is broken and missing. The missing parts of the verses are supplied.
English Translation of the inscription.
From the victorious Virajonagar camp, the beloved son of Vikramendra, who excelled Indra in wealth and was the son of Maharaja Rana-durjaya, who had illumined the quarters, with the pleasant moonlight in the form of his fame arising from, protecting the entire world, the extremely pious Sri Prithivi Maharaja of the illustrious Sri- Rama-Kasyapa lineage,
devoted to the feet of his mother and father, ornamented with superior fame acquired from victories arising from his own arms and with the with the circle of all the subordinate rulers bent with his growing power, commands the assembly of all the householders residing in the village of Gollavalli, in the district of Kudravali, that for the increase of our religious merit, longevity, good health, victory and fame, we have granted this village, making it an agrahara, with a immunity
from all taxes to Padmasarman of Bhriga gotra and a student of the Taittiriya sakha (of the Yajurveda), the grandson of Matrisarman the son of Damodarasarman who (Padmasarman) is a past master in the Vedas and the Vedangas, ever engaged in
the six activities (i.e. duties of Brahmanas), busy in the
observance of the Yamas and the niyamas, who is well-Versed
in many branches of knowledge, such as the Puranas, the Ramayana, the dharmasastras and others. Nobody should create any obstruction.
The executor of the order for this religious gift on the eighth of the bright fortnight of the month of
Jyeshtha in forty ninth year of (his) increasingly victorious reign was Sri-Rama-Lenthu-raja. In this context there are verses sung by Vyasa –
(Here follow three of the usual imprecatory and benedictory verses)
The, second of these is translated
below:-
“The manes tremble, the grandfathers restlessly jump (out of joy) that a land-giver is born in our family.
He will effect our rescue”