NAGAMANGALA COPPER PLATE INSCRIPTION.

JUNE, 1873.]

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NAGAMANGALA COPPER PLATE INSCRIPTION. BY LEWIS RICE, BANGALORE.

HE inscription of which a translation is given below was found in a temple at N fig a ma ng a la, the chief town of a taluq of the same name, and 30 miles north of

Seringapatam. It is well engraved on six plates of copper, about 10 inches by 5, held together by a thick metal ring bearing on the seal the figure of an elephant. The grant which it records was made by

Prith i v i Koi gani Mahār ājã of Wi jaya Skand āvārā in the 50th year of his

reign, the year of Šālivahana 699 (A.D. 777), on the application of Prith ivi Nirg gun da Rajã, for the support of a Jain

temple erected in the north of Sripura by his wife Ku n da v. vi., a grand-daughter of the Pallavă dhirājā . The inscription begins with an account of the Koi gu or C her a kings, almost identical with that given in the Merkara plates” as far as these date, namely, to A. D. 466. The varia tion is principally in the name of the first king, who is here ealled Kod g an i Varm m a Dharm m a Mahā dhirājā, while the sixth king is called Koga ni Mah ad hir à ja. The form Koi gani occurs but once, in the name of the king who made the grant. The different ways of spelling this name may be of little importance, but are interesting in connec tion with yet another form which struck me at the time I saw it as suggestive. This was on a stone inscription in Coorg, containing a grant by Satya V a kya Ko dig in i Varm m a Dharm ma Mahār ājā dhirājā, whom I -

to them, in his literal translation of the Kojigit Deša Rājākal, expressly says, “Throughout the document the word used is Congu - des a.ſ.” To return to the grant. It confirms the statement in the Merkar a plates of an alliance between the second Mā dhava and the Ka

damba king Krish n a V arm ma, the former having married the latter's sister. There is not a word about the adoption of a son by Vishnu Gopa, nor of the reign of a king named D in dikara R a y a, both of which are mentioned in the chronicle." From this period of the Mer kara plates to the date of the present grant the list of kings agrees with that generally received, as far as B h (, Vikram a, whose reign began in A. D. 539. His successor appears from the grant to have been Vil and a, having the title

of Rájã Sri Vallābhākh ya, which in the chronicle is given as the title of the brother under whose advice he acted in the government of the country, (younger brother and named V a 1 la vagi Rä ya according to Prof. Dowson, elder brother and named V a la V a cya Rāy a according to Mr. Taylor). In reality he was

king de jure as well as de facto. The younger brother, on the other hand, is here called N a v a

Kå m a. If this be the next king, he must be the same as Raja Go v in da R a ya of the chronicle.

We then have mention of a Ko

g a ni Mahā rājā whose other name was Sim e s h war a (?). This evidently points to the Sivaga Mahārā y á of Dowson and

Siva R a ma Rāyā of Taylor. His grandson,

take to be the third in succession after the

according to the chronicle, was a Prith iv i Ko fig a ni Mahā dhir à jã ruling in A. D.

donor in the present instance, and ruling about A.D. 840. If from the similarity in the names

and by taking the intervening names of B him a

746. This is the name of the present donor,

Kofi gu and Koi ga ni we may infer that

Kopa and Rājā Kesari as mere epithets

they were liable to the same changes, and that the former was sometimes written Ko d g u, we have a very near approach to Kodagu, the existing name of the country which Europeans have corrupted into Co org. I am aware that Professors Wilsont and Dowson't give the name as Kofi ga, but the Rev. W. Taylors replying

of this king, which is permissible, the grant and the chronicle are brought into agreement. Prith i v i Koi g a ni must have begun

• Ind. Ant. vol. I. p. 364.

f Mack. Coll. I. 198, and Ind. Ant, ut sup. p. 360.

to reign in A. S. 649 (A. D. 727). It is no small matter to obtain a fixed date for the com

mencement of a reign, and also to learn that it was prolonged to the unusual term of 50 years—

º

Jºur. R. A. Soc. Vol. VIII. p.2. or Ind. Ant. uts. p. 361.

Jour. Lit. and Sc. vol. xiv. pt. i. p. 3; & conf. p. 45. As Dindikara Rāya does not fall in the line of descent, it was scarcely to be expected that his name should be

§

mentioned.—ED.

Cat. Rais. Or. MSS.