Book listing ‘set of 21 copper plate inscriptions’ to be brought out soon

A book describing the “set of 21 copper plate inscriptions” discovered by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) at Ghanta Matham near Sri Bhramaramba Mallikarjuna Swamy temple in Srisailam will be released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 16, 2025.

According to the ASI, these inscriptions belong to Vijayanagara, Reddi, Gajapati, Recharla Chiefs, Reddis of Rajamahendravarma, and Chengalva dynasties and also Nawabs of Kurnool and are in Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu and Odiya languages.

Dr. K. Munirathnam Reddy, Director (Epigraphy), ASI Mysuru, said that the scripts used in these inscriptions are Odiya, Telugu, Nagari, and Nandinagari. The inscriptions recorded the gifts given by the kings to villages, gifting a village for maintenance of ‘anna-satra’ (feeding house), gifting villages to Lord Mallikarjuna of Srisailam for conducting festivities in the temple, and even a village to a Vedic scholar well versed in astronomy to pacify the calamity that was believed to arise due to the appearance of a comet and its meteoric shower and renewal of grants to the priests of Srisailam and Malleswaram temples.

One such inscription of Lingama Nayaka king during the Recharla Chiefs period recorded that Rēcharla Lingama Nayaka after gaining control of the areas occupied earlier by the Turakas had restored the eight agraharas viz., Vodanekalapalli, Makundavaram, Singapuram, Basavapuram (all in Munaluriseema), Pudinadgulu (in Gudipalliseema), Autupalli (in Charikondaseema), Juvunemtulu and Sudapalli (in Devarakondaseema), as well as some vrittis of land in the villages viz., Regadevulapalli, Vuggulapalli and Ganapuram to the god Sri Mahesvaradeva of Mahesvaram. Various services associated with the Srisailam temple were stopped due to the occupation of the Turakas and those were restored by the king after gaining control of the region.

Another copper plate in Nagari script was found to be incomplete, and seemed to have recorded the distribution of 16 vrittis to several Brahamanas, belonging to Bharadvaja, Atreya, Gautama and Kausika gotras, who all are well versed in Vedas and Vedangas. It also recorded the gift of two vrittis to the engraver and one vritti to the composer.