216 



INSCRIPTIONS. 



Jaya year of the sixty years' cycle of Brhaspati. This date 

 corresponds with Sunday the 28th of November, 1294 A.D. 

 (Old Style). 1 



At that time Sultan Jalaluddin Firoz Shah Khilji was 

 reigning in Delhi. He had ascended the throne in 688 

 Hijri or 1289 A.D., and was murdered by his nephew and 

 son-in-law Sultan 'Alauddin on the 17th of Ramazan 695, 

 i.e., in July 1296 A.D. 'Alauddin, when Governor of Karra, 

 undertook his first expedition against the Raja of Devagiri 

 with the permission of his Sultan between the 19th of Rabiu- 

 lakhir and the 28th of Rajab 695, i.e., between February 

 and April 1296 A.D. 



The two persons mentioned in the inscription are Grore 

 Grangaya Raddivaru and Vithalanatha. No printed infor- 

 mation about these two men can be found anywhere. Neither 

 of them is even mentioned in Professor Horace Hayman 

 "Wilson's learned introduction to his Descriptive Catalogue of 

 the Oriental Manuscripts of the Mackenzie Collection, or in 

 Sir Walter Elliot's well known Monograph on Hindu Inscrip- 

 tions, or in the late Mr. James Prinsep's Essays on Indian 

 Antiquities. Yet both these men were persons of consider- 

 able importance and wielded great power in the territories 

 now belonging to the Nizam and in the Ceded Provinces. 



The grand deeds which are attributed to Grore Grangaya 

 Raddivaru mark him as a successful general who had gained 

 many victories, and as a prince of distinction. In the follow- 

 ing discourse he will be identified with Grore Raya Granga- 

 devayagaru, who is mentioned as commander-in-chief and 

 prime minister of the Kakatiya king in the Local Records 

 of the Oriental MSS. Library in Madras. In the inscrip- 

 tion his residence is named Poddamdnapura, which is perhaps 

 identical with Pottapinadu, mentioned in the Local Records. 



1 1 am indebted for the rectification of this and other dates to Mr. W. S. 

 Rrishnasvami Naidu, Head-Translator of the Madras High Court, who has 



made Indian Chronology his special study. 



