44 



Account of Mamallaijpur, 



[No. 30. 



tioned by Dr. Babington ;) and one which is of larger import, 

 has only the name of Deva-rayer (e) as a clue to the date. 

 Now this might be Achyuta-deva-rayer, who was very liberal 

 to Conjeveram: or some one later, even a local chieftain; but 

 not, I conceive, any one of the Vijayanagaram dynasty higher 

 up than Ackyuta-rayer. 



The v aper by Dr. Babington appears to me to contain some 

 minor inaccuracies, (f) on which it might be trifling, or invidi- 

 ous, to dwell ; but the supposition that the place was merely 

 an Agrahdram, and that Brahmans procured the sculptures 

 to be made at their own cost, — with the more astounding de- 

 nial, that the Sea has encroached on the coast of Coromandel, 

 are not of trifling import. As to the first, it contradicts all 

 known experience, in so far only as relates to Brahman^ lay- 

 ing out- funds at their own entire control, on such sort of works. 

 The second is a point of greater magnitude. I regard the 



r 



(e) Connecting this note with note (6), I think the same Deva-rayer may be meant, but 

 am not certain. There was only one (1 believe) of the oXdjsxVijayanagaram dynasty that 

 bore that name without any prefix.. He ruled about Sal : Sac : 1334, or A. D. 1412. In 

 these dates I follow one M. S. authority, without deciding that it is the best. A list 

 with different dates may be seen in Mr. Campbell's Telugu grammar ; in which also in- 

 stead of simply Deva-raya we read' x Ganda-Deva-raya. But after Crishna-deva-rayer all 

 of the second dynasty bore it, with a distinctive prefix. Probability inclines to the iat- 

 ter period, between S. S. 1451 and 1508, or A.D. 1529 and 1586. Nevertheless it must not 

 be forgotten tnat about A. D. 1400 the power of the rayer has been traced at Trichin* 

 opoly and Madura, in the person of a general named Campanra-udiydr , who annihilated 

 the remains of the first Mahomedan incursion to the Southward. The state of the mod- 

 em Carnatic. was however too unsettled to permit the supposition of the first Deva-rayer 

 making grants or donations within its boundaries. 



(/) It is not my wish to be very particular: however the statement by Dr. Babington 



that " the copper and stone inscriptions found in many parts of the country, 



are all in the Sanscrit language," does not agree with the mention made by himself of a 

 Tamil inscription in or near theVardha-mandapa ; nor with the recent discovery of some, 

 as is stated, Pdli inscriptions in the north. But keeping within the limits of the peninsu- 

 la, the interests of truth require me to state with entire respect, while touching on the 

 subject, that the Mackenzie papers contain many hundred copies of inscriptions in 

 Canarese, Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil; many of which I have examined, and can attest 

 that, though copies, they are not translations. It is not an unfrequent case to find inscrip- 

 tions with florid Sanscrit Slocas at the beginning or end, with the real matter of fact in 

 plainer prose of the vernacular language. The undeciphered part of the inscription 

 given by Dr. Babington requires further attention, for its present obscurity may involve 

 Rome such humbler termination 



