This set of 8 copper plates were discovered in the village of Kondamudi and were secured together with a ring and seal. The seal is stamped with an image of a trident, a box, a crescent moon and a circular legend which is written in different characters to those found on the copper plates.
The charter records that Mahārāja Jayavarman donated the village of Pāṇṭūra in the district of Kūdūra to 8 Brāhmaṇas. The donated village was split into 24 shares and divided between the Brāhmaṇas as follows:
Śarvaguptārya, a householder of the Gautama gotra – 8 shares
Savigija of the Tānavya gōtra – 3 shares
Goginaja – 3 shares
Bhavannaja of the Kauṇinya gōtra – 2 shares
Rudavennhuja of the Bhāradvāja gōtra – 1 ½ shares
Tśvaradattārya of the Kārshṇāyana gōtra – 1 ½ shares
Rudaghōshārya of the Aupamanyava gōtra – 1 share
Skandarudrārya of the Kauśika gōtra – ½ share
(This division does not total 24 shares however).
The charter was issued from Kūdūra on the 1st day of the 1st fortnight of winter in the 10th year of Jayavarman’s reign. The donated village was made as brahmadēya and Jayavarman is described in the inscription as belonging to the Bṛhatphalāyana gōtra and a worshipper of Mahēśvara, a form of Śiva. The donation was made to increase the donor’s life span and to secure victory in war.
Sircar, Altekar and Majumdar date Jayavarma’s reign to around the end of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th century AD, suggesting he was a contemporary of the early Gupta kings.
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Title | Kondamudi Charter of Jayavarman, year 10 |
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Author | Hultzsch, E. |
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Language | Prakrit |
Reigning monarch | Jayavarman |
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Topic | donation of the village of Pāṇṭūra in the district of Kūdūra to 8 Brāhmaṇas |
Date: | |
Min | 250 |
Max | 350 |
Comment | Intrinsic date: issued from Kūdūra on the 1st day of the 1st fortnight of winter in the 10th year of Jayavarman’s reign. Sircar, Altekar and Majumdar date Jayavarma’s reign to around the end of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th century AD, suggesting he was a contemporary of the early Gupta kings. The language of the charter is Prakrit, with the exception of two Sanskrit words and the Telugu village name. |
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Description | Campus dimensions not available. The main inscription is 45 lines with 3 lines on both sides of each plate starting on the verso of plate 1. There are 3 badly corroded additional lines on the recto of plate 1 but, according to Hultzsch 1900-01: 316, this writing "does not form part of the inscription itself...[and] is a kind of docket which was probably added after the remaining 15 pages had been engraved". |
Decoration | The plates are secured with a ring and a seal. The seal is stamped with an image of a trident, a box, a crescent moon and a circular legend which is written in different characters to those found on the copper plates. |
Bibliography | |
References | Edited in Hultzsch 1900-01. See also Sridhar and Balasubramanian 2011: 55. |
Add to bibliography | For discussion of the dates of Jayavarma's reign, see: Altekar, A. S. and Majumdar, R. C. (1954) The Vākāṭaka-Gupta Age (Delhi: Motilal Banarsi Dass), p. 63, and Sircar, D. C. (1939) The Successors of the Sātavāhanas (Calcutta: University of Calcutta), p. 41. |
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