No. 28. Inscription of the time of Rudapurisadata, Year 11

This epigraph\13 is engraved on a pillar which is reported to have been discovered at Site No. 13 and is now preserved in the Nаgаrjunikoндa Museum. The pillar bears a sculpture executed in bas-relief above the inscription. The sculpture which is somewhat defaced seems to depict a lady seated on a high stool with an attending lady standing nearby. The seated lady's feet are resting on a small pedestal and there is a small seated female figure by the side of the stool.\14
The inscription consists of 9 lines of writing. The language of the record is Prakrit. The inscription is dated on the eighth day of the first fortnight of the spring season in the 11 th regnal year\15 of Mahаrаja Ruдapurisadata and records the erection of the chhаyа-khaмbha (chhаyа-stambha) of the deceased queen Vaмmabhaта (Varmabhaта), evidently the pillar on which the record under study is engraved.
King Ruдapurisadata (Sanskrit Rudrapuruшadatta) of this record is no doubt the same as Ruжapurisadata in whose fourth regnal year the Gurzala Brаhmи inscription\16 is dated. It may be noted that Gurzala is only a few miles to the east of Nаgаrjunikoндa. The palaeography and provenance of the two epigraphs and the similarity of the two names, appear to establish the identity of Ruдapurisadata of our epigraph and Ruжapurisadata of the Gurzala inscription. The use of дa and жa for the same sound in these records may be the result of an attempt to render the
Sanskrit name Rudrapuruшadatta in Prakrit under Dravidian linguistic influence. In that case, we may think that rudra became rудa through the intermediate form ruддa and rужa through the intermediate form rужжa. But the possibility of ruдa being a modified form of a Dravidian ruжa cannot be regarded as out of question.

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13. A.R. Ep., 1956-57, No. B 26. (DS).
14. Indian Archaeology. - A Review 1955-56, p. 24 and Plate XXIX A. (DS).
15. The date is given both in words and figures. It may really be the date of the queen's death. (DS).
16. Above, Vol. XXVI, p. 123. The correct reading of the king's name is Ruжa- and not Ruжu-. (DS).