Jume, 1873.] NAGAMANGALA COPPER PLATE INSCRIPTION. 155 NAG AM AN GALA COPPER PLATE INSCRIPTION. BY LEWIS RICE, BANGALORE. THE inscription of which a translation is given below was found in a temple at Nagamangala, the chief town of a taluq of the same name, and 80 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 Prithivi Koiigani Maharaja ofYi- jaya S kanda vara in the 50th year of his reign, tho year of SalivAhana 699 (A.D. 777), on the application of Prithivi Nirg- gunda Raja, for the support of a Jain temple erected in the north of S r i p u r a by his wife Kundavvi, a grand-daughter of tho Pallava dhiraj a . The inscription begins with an account of the K o h g u or C h e r 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 called Kodgani Yarmma DharmmaMahadhiraja, while the sixth king is called Kogani Mahadhiraja. The form K o h g a n i 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 bySatya Vakya Kodgini Yarmma Dharmma Maha raj adhiraj a, whom I take to be the third in succession after the donor in the present instance, and ruling about A.D. 840. If from the similarity in tho names K o n g u and K o h g a n i we may infer that they were liable to the same changes, and that the former was sometimes written Kodgu, we liave a very near approach to Kodagu, the existing name of the country which Europeans have corrupted into Coorg. I am aware that Professors Wilsonf and DowsonJ give the name as Ko ii ga, but the Rev. W. Taylor § replying
- Ind. Ant. vol. I. p. 3(U.
+ Mack. Coll. I. 198, and Ind. Ant. ut sup. p. 3G0. 1 Jour. R.A.Soc.vol. VIII. p.2.or!nd. Ant. uts. p. 361. § Caf. Rais. Or. MSS. to them, in his literal translation of the Kohgu Vesa Rdjdkal, expressly says, “ Throughout the document the word used is Congu-desa.||” To return to the grant. It confirms the statement in the Merkara plates of an alliance between the second Madhava and the Ka- damba king KrishnaYarmma, the former having married the latter’s sister. There is not a word about the adoption of a son by Y i s h n u G o p a, nor of the reign of a king named D i n- dikaraRaya, 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 Bhu Yikrama, whose reign began in A. D. 539. His successor appears from the grant to have been Y i 1 a n d a, having the title of Raja Sri V all a b hakh ya, which in the chronicle is given as the title of the brother under whose advice he acted in the government of tho country, {younger brother and named Y a 1- lavagi Raya according to Prof. Dowson, elder brother and named YalaYacyaRaya 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 Nava Kama. If this be the next king, he must be the same as Raja Govinda Raya of the chronicle. We then have mention of a Ko¬ gani Maharaja whose other name was S i m e s h w a r a (?.). This evidently points to the Sivaga Maharaya of Dowson and SivaRamaRayaof Taylor. His grandson, according to the chronicle, was aPrithivi Kongani Mahadhiraja ruling in A. D. 746. This is the name of the present donor, and by taking the intervening names of B h i m a K o p a and RajaKesari as mere epithets of this king, which is permissible, the grant and the chronicle are brought into agreement. Prithivi Koiigani must have begun 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— II Mad. Jour. Lit. and Sc. vol. xiv. pt. i. p. 8; & conf. p. 45. 1 Ab Dindikara RtLya does not fall in the line of descent, it was scarcely to be expected that his name should bo mentioned.—Ed.
