Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Vijayanagara Series: 3 Which language has the majority of the inscriptions in and around Tirupati out of Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada?

 The language of the inscription depends on which political power ruled at a particular time.

Vijayanagara Empire ruled Tirupati from 14th Century with Hampi, Penukonda, Chandragiri and Vellore as their capital in different points in time.

All the inscriptions, documents were continue to be in Tamil till the end of the empire, that is till 1665.

The last empire to rule Vellore as the capital is Araiva iti Varu Sri Ranga III Devaraya. The accounts were maintained by Kanakkappillais.

Last inscription to be found in Tamil is1638. After that there were no inscriptions due to chaos in carnatic region. Maraththa invasion took place in 1677.

After a gap of about 50 years, a solitary inscription in Telugu by a Maratta officer, was found on the south wall of the second prakaram of the Tirumalai Temple in 1684.

Land endowment documents of the temple by the earlier kings were destroyed in 1695 and those lands become part of Jagir and taxes were collected by Kanungos replacing Kanakkappillais.

One can safely assume the end of Sri Ranga III of Vijayanagara Empire, (till 1665, no one dared to invade the temple) and last inscription in 1638 as the end of Tamil Inscriptions in Tirupati. It was replaced with Telugu scripts of Gramya Style.

Source: History of Tirupati, a TTD publication.

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