Cintapallipadu Inscription of Ganadeva

Summary

In 'Cintapallipadu Inscription of Ganadeva', R. Subrahmaniya publishes and interprets a rare Telugu inscription discovered at Cintapallipadu in the Kistna district. The stone slab inscription, dated Saka 1376 (A.D. 1454), records the grant of a village and several tax exemptions by Ganadeva (also called Ganapati), a provincial governor under Kapilesvara, the Gajapati king of Orissa. Subrahmaniya provides a transliteration of the Telugu text into Roman script and a translation into English. The inscription begins by tracing the genealogy of Ganadeva’s family: his grandfather Somaya‑Nayaka, father Narasimha, and mother Hara‑Devi. It states that Ganadeva served as upara-pati (viceroy) of the Andhra region and that he granted land to Brahmins for the maintenance of a temple dedicated to Siva. The grant exempts the donees from taxes such as bhoga, kara and sulka, and provides rights to collect certain produce. Subrahmaniya analyses the administrative terms used in the inscription, noting that some—like bhoga (assessment) and kara (tax)—reflect continuity from earlier Chalukya and Kakatiya practices. He also points out that the inscription is one of the earliest Telugu records from the Gajapati era, preceding the more famous Srikakulam and Simhachalam plates. By comparing the language and orthography with contemporary inscriptions, he suggests that Ganadeva may have belonged to the Velama or Nayaka families who served the Gajapati rulers. The article comments on the political conditions in mid‑fifteenth‑century Andhra: the Gajapati empire had extended over coastal Andhra after the decline of the Reddy and Vijayanagara powers, and Ganadeva’s appointment illustrates how local chiefs were integrated into the new administration. Subrahmaniya concludes that the Cintapallipadu inscription is invaluable for understanding regional governance, land tenure and linguistic developments in the fifteenth century, and he includes a facsimile of the inscription for scholars’ reference.