ONGOLE: Two stone inscriptions dated back to the king's era of 1257 CE and 1740 CE were discovered recently in Bodicherla village of Markapur Mandal in the Prakasam district. Among these two, one inscription dated about the 13th century came into light recently in the Prakasam district, which belongs to the period of the great Kakatiya emperor-Kakati Ganapathi Deva regime.
This inscription is engraved on a pillar found in the temple of Sri Chennamalleswara Swamy (Shivalayam) situated on the banks of the Gundlakamma river in Bodicherla village limits.
The inscriptions are carved in Telugu language and characters, dated Saka 1178, Pingala nama samvatsara, Pushaya masa, bahula thadiya (3), Tuesday i.e. equal to the 1257 CE December 25 of the English calendar. Markapur-based historian Veera Reddy Annapureddy observed this stone inscription a few months back and started digging into the facts of its history.
In this connection, he contacted K Muniratnam Reddy, Director of Mysore Archaeology Research Center and discussed the period and text matter of the inscription. The Mysore Archaeology Research Center Director after examining the inscription explained that it belonged to the Kakatiya Ganapathi Deva period and it is an age-old inscription explaining the endowments to a local temple.
This inscription is the register listing the gifts of market tax at the rate of one ‘Niskas’ (gold coin) and one matter of lands in the village Bodducherrla (maybe the older name of Bodicherla village) to the God Ramanadhadeva, as food offerings and burning a perpetual lamp (dhupa- deep- naivedyam) in the temple by Pebbutula Malesetti, an officer of Mahapradhani Nurula Ramadeva on the occasion of Sankranthi festival, when the great Kakatiya emperor Ganapathideva was ruling from the Oruganti (Orugallu) capital.
Another inscription has been found in Bodicherla- Veeranjaneya Swamy temple. The inscription is in Telugu language and the characters are dated Saka 1662, Krodhi nama samvatsara.