EIAD174 Tummalagudem Charter of Govindavarman I, year 37

Success! Hail!

I.

Victory is achieved by the Bhagavant, the complete Buddha, the Compassionate One, by whom the path towards the obtention of nirvāṇa is shown to good people.

(2–13) The great king Śrī-Govindavarman, who is an ornament to the entire great and spotless family of the Viṣṇukuṇḍin kings, who by their possession of many qualities such as goodness (sattva), truthfulness, relinquishment (tyāga), noble descent, restraint, discipline, and perseverance, had themselves obtained kingship, and whose spotless great fame spread far and wide because of their perfect governing of their subjects; [Govindavarman,] who is the good grand son of the illustrious great king Indravarman and the son of the great king Śrī Mādhavavarman; who has gained his kingship because of his restraint, the strength of his arms, his perseverance, might, and affection; who has overcome the proximate kingdoms of neighboring rulers (anyasāmanta) by the force of his heroism, courage, and majesty; to whom [men of all] classes and stages, kinsmen and servants are attached due to his gifts, courtesies, etc.; who is the giver of thousands of villages, fields, pieces of gold, elephants, horses, cows, bulls, beddings and seats, vehicles, drink and food, dishes, dwellings, garments, ornaments, brides, male and female slaves; who has adorned all directions by repairing and building anew many temples, monasteries, halls, cisterns, tanks, wells, and pleasure-groves (ārāma); whose array of wealth and riches, which he has lawfully acquired, is being enjoyed by monks, brahmins, those without a protector, beggars, the sick, the poor and the wretched people; who has relinquished, time and again, everything that he owns; who has an unequalled eye on this and the other world on account of his learning and understanding (śravaṇaparijñāna) of the meaning of all treatises; who is a refuge for the learned, the brave, and those of noble birth; who has conceived the great thought of Awakening in order to save the whole realm of sentient beings (sattvadhātu);
(13–23) who, on the full moon day of (the month of) Vaiśākha, in the thirty-seventh year of his own prosperous, victorious reign, having assigned (uddiśya) [his gift] to the Noble Community of the four quarters mounting the three vehicles [leading to the states of arhant, pratyekabuddha and samyaksaṁbuddha] — (a community) that, because of its masses of qualities such as aversion from worldly matters (nirvid), absence of passion, virtue, proper conduct, qualities of ascetics (dhutaguṇa), study and learning, reflection, and mental cultivation [consisting, gradually in] meditative absorptions (dhyāna), concentration (samādhi) and attainments (samāpatti), is a supreme field of merit; [and] that has stridden onto the path of the Buddha, the Bhagavant, who is strong with the ten forces (bala) and fearless with the four fearlessnesses (vaiśāradya); whose embodiment (mūrti) is fully adorned by the eighteen exclusive attributes (āveṇika) of Buddhas; who is marked [externally] by the thirty-two attributes of a great man; who has accumulated, in multiple asaṁkhyeyas of kalpas a load of the [twofold] equipment [consisting in] merit and knowledge, in order to rescue all beings sunk in the many sufferings of saṁsāra, characterized by such pains as those caused by birth, old age, and death; who is free from the suffering of birth and death [rooted in] desire, aversion, and delusion; who is a perfect Buddha because of his unimpeded and unobstructed knowledge of everything that is to be known (sakalajñeyajñāna) — intending to bring about the ground of meritorious action (puṇyakriyāvastu) – which results from relinquishment (tyāga) and from the enjoyment (paribhoga) [of what has been relinquished] and is of a material kind (aupadhika) — aiming at the endurance (anupaccheda, lit. the not cutting off) of favorable roots [planted by the provision for] lamps, incense, perfumes, flowers, banners, drinks and food, beddings and seats, medicaments for the sick, the restoration of what is broken, split, and in disrepair and the like, in the monastery of his chief queen, for the sake of extinguishing all the miseries and sufferings of his parents as well as all beings,
(23–28) [he, Govindavarman], having first given water, handed over the two villages of Embudala and Peṇṇapaṟa together with their treasures on and under the ground, together with the right to collect punitive tax (daṇḍakara ), corvée (viṣṭi), and with the share of the produce (bhāga) and the periodical levies (bhoga) left [by himself]; [the two villages] should not be entered by spies (cāra), mercenaries, envoys, courtiers (vallabha), or king’s men, and are freed from all taxes, and they should be maintained and augmented by kings belonging to the lineage of the Viṣṇukuṇḍin family. This rule has been established. In the event of transgression of this rule, this is equivalent to the five great sins; [similarly], in case of discontinuation of the meritorious deed that was set in motion, one will experience the fruit and result of evil karma in the [lower] realms of hells, the animals, and the pretas, afflicted by numerous and endless sufferings. And on this [issue] are the verses sung by Manu:

II.

The giver of land revels in heaven for sixty thousand years; the one who seizes [land] as well as the one who approves (of the seizing) will reside as many [years] in hell.

III.

He who would seize land given by himself or by someone else becomes a worm in excrement and is cooked together with his ancestors.

IV.

By numerous [kings], land has been given; and by many it has been protected. Whoever holds land at a given moment, to him does the fruit then belong.

V.

May the rule of the Viṣṇukuṇḍins govern the world as long as Meru and sea are on earth, and [as long as] sun and wind are in heaven!