History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c30.43

v1.c30.43

Pratāparudra is known from a number of inscriptions discovered at Puri and other places. The earliest of them are to be found on the left hand side of the Jaya-Vijaya gate of the *Jagamohana* of the temple of Jagannātha. In the 4th *Aṅka* Wednesday the 17th July 1499 orders were issued for the performance of dancing at the time of *Bhoga* of Jagannatha and Balarāma from the end of the evening *dhūpa* to the time of the *Baṛasiṅgār* or bed time. The dancing girls of Balarāma and of Kapilesvāra, the old batch and the Telinga batch, all of them were to learn the singing of the *Gītagovinda* only. Besides dancing, four other Vaishṇava singers were also to sing from the same work of Jayadeva. It is stated at the end of the record that the Superintendent who allows any other song except those in the *Gītagovinda* will cause a violation of the orders of the god Jagannātha. The second inscription inscription was found at the same place. It is fragmentary and contains nothing beyond the name and the titles of the king and the date, 5th Aṅka.¹ Details of the plates of Pratāparudra of the Śaka year 1432 Pramoda 1510-11 A. D., are not available. They were discovered by the district Munsif of Kavali in the Nellore district. The charter records the grant of the village of Velicherla in the Jaladanki-Sthala of the Paṅkanaṭi Sīmā to the east Udayachala or Udayagiri fort who was ruling at Uṇḍrakoṇḍā to a brāhmaṇa of the Bhāradvāja gotra and Yajurveda named Koṇḍaya who was a resident of the village of Pulugulla.² The importance of these plates lie in the fact that they bear the only known charter of Pratāparudra and were issued shortly before the conquest of Koṇḍaviḍu by Kṛṣṇadevarāya of Vijayanagara. They prove that even in 1511 the Nellore district and the former Vijayanagara capital of Udayagiri was included in the empire of Orissa, thus emphasising the need of the last request of Narasa Nāyaka to his son, according to Nunez, enjoining the immediate conquest of Udayagiri in the east and Raichur-Mudkal in the west.