A Collection Of The Inscriptions On Copper Plates And Stones In The Nellore District

Author : Venugopal Chetty
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 538 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (743 download)

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Download or read book A Collection of the Inscriptions on Copper-Plates and Stones in the Nellore District written by Venugopal Chetty and published by . This book was released on 2009-08-09 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The work was undertaken in the belief that the records of a district situated as Nellore is would contain a lot of new matters of historical importance. This hope has not been realized. The great bulk of the inscriptions consists of grants to tanks and temples which are of no interest whatever and perhaps only one inscription (No. 26 of Kandukúr) can be pointed to as having a real historical motive. The collection supplies a few new historical names, mostly of only local importance, and fixes a few doubtful dates but of the condition of the country and the people in past ages, it tells us nothing. In short, the principal fruit of our labours is that we have saved epigraphists from wasting time on the exploration of a barren area. The information supplied by the inscriptions being so scanty, the history of the district as revealed by them can be compressed into a few lines. To begin with, it will be noted that records, anterior to the twelfth century are rare. The wonder is, indeed, that so many have survived, having in view the indifference of the people to ancient remains. Nor are officials free from blame in this matter as is testified to by the old buildings of the Collector's cutcherry at Nellore in the construction of which inscribed stones have been freely employed. The centuries subsequent to the eleventh are fairly prolific in remains, the thirteenth century being especially well represented. The epigraphical history of the Nellore district begins with Copper-plate No. 24. This is a grant by the Western Chalukyan King Vikramáitya I in the seventh century. It records the gift of a village which has not been identified. Assuming that the grant relates to the Nellore district, we find in it an indication of the dispossession of the Pallavas from this part of the East Coast by the Western Chalukyan dynasty. It is probable that the next glimpse of the past is obtained through No. 54 of Gúdúr which gives a Pallava king reigning over part of the district insubordination, apparently, to the Western Chalukyas. This inscription may be assigned with probability to the eighth century. After this, we seem to hear no more of the Western Chalukyas or of the mainline of the Pallavas and for a long period, we lose sight altogether of the southern part of the district. In the north, however, we have clear indications in the ninth and tenth centuries to show that it then formed a part of the Eastern Chalukyan dominions and towards the close of the latter century the Bána dynasty appears on the scene as is proved by a single inscription from Podili.