Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Kurkyala inscription

is inInscriptions Of Andhrapradhesh Kareemnagar District by P.V. Parabrahma Satry, 1974. The introduction says that the field studies were conducted byvarious assistants and the inscriptions copied by P.V. Parabrahma Satry. It is discussed on page 15 and a copy is on pages 41 and 42 (not the original pages of the book but page numbers on the digitized version).
Recently, I acquired a copy ofDr. P.V. Parabrahma Sastry Felicitation Vol.. The discussion about Kurkyala inscription is in the article "Dr. P.V.P.: An Embodiment of Scholarship" by Professor A.V. Narasimha Murthy and "Jaina Centres in Andhra" by Dr. G. Jawaharlal.
P.V.P was born in Pedakonduru village (1921) in Tenali Taluk, studied Telugu and Sanskrit. In the forties, he went to Benares for an advanced study in Sastras but came back with B.Sc. degree specializing in mathematics. By that time Hyderabad was amalgamated in to India, and he became a Headmaster of a Telugu medium School in Jalagaon in Warangal District. After 3 years he moved to Hyderabad as a mathematics teacher. He was recruited to Archeological Survey of India in 1959 by one Dr. P. Srinivachary who spotted P.V.P's talents. This is how his work in epigraphy, numismatics, history etc. started. He is also well known for his history of Kakatiyas for which he was awarded a Ph. D. in 1976 and his discovery of early Satavahana coins in Kotilingala (1978). He seems to have retired from Govt. service in 1981 but as far as I know continued his work and probably still working. I will find out on the next trip to Hyderabad.
P.S.1. There are more details in a Telugu book Bharatiya Sampradaya Bhumika Bhinnatvam lo Ekatvam by M.Prabhakara Rao, published by Janana Prasunamalika Prachuranalu, Tirupati, 2000.
P.S.2.From
JAIN CULTURE IN TELUGU LITERATURE
:
"When we say that there is no Jain literature in Telugu, we only mean that there are no Telugu works composed for the propagation of Jainism. In fact, there are three important Telugu books of the ancient time which are associated with Jainism. They are: (1) Pavuluri Mallana's Ganitam, (2) Malliya Rechana's Kavijanasrayam (a book on Telugu prosody) and (3) Adharvanacharya's Adharvana Kaarikaavali which is a commentary on Aandhrasabdachintamani, a Sanskrit book of verses on Telugu grammar. 'Ganitam' is the Telugu rendering of an original Jain Prakrit work on Mathematics. But the author of the Telugu version, Pavuluri Mallana, is a Veerashaivite. But still a few examples related with Jain culture may be found in this book. , Kavijanasrayam' 's authorship is controversial. Some of the verses are found addressed to one Malliya Recha. This Malliya Recha is identified as the author of the book by some scholars and he is identified as a Jain. But even this work is not directly related with Jainism as such, though a few examples in this book refer to Jain culture. "
The observations in the first post script indicates that Jain works were destroyed but the above survived because they were refrence works but some verses were changed to distort authorships and dates to bring them more in line with the prevailing ideologies.

1 comment:

Ramachandran.P.V said...

Sir,

The Kurikyala inscription is under threat from the granite mafia. People must be made aware of the importance of this inscription and of Kurikyala. In by blog name Bommalamma Gutta I have given the gist of the inscription for the benefit of interested public.

PVR