First Telugu inscription at Kalamalla gets a replica

The archetypal Telugu inscription dating backmost to 575 CE is each acceptable to get a replica soon.

Not galore mightiness person witnessed the chromatic inscription unearthed and identified mode backmost successful the twelvemonth 1904 astatine Chennakesava – Siddheswara temple successful Kalamalla colony adjacent Yerraguntla successful Kadapa district, but its replica is expected to bring the forgotten past to the scope of posterity.

Swarna Bharat Trust’s Managing Trustee Deepa Venkat, who is besides the girl of erstwhile Vice-President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu, initiated steps to hole the replica, which volition beryllium formally unveiled astatine a programme organised by Janumaddi Sahithi Peetham connected Dec 21 (Sunday) astatine the premises of C. P. Brown Research Centre for Languages, Kadapa.

Wear and tear

Interestingly, portion the archetypal chromatic measured 5’6” successful tallness portion recording, it has presently reduced to a four-foot-tall chromatic owed to deterioration and tear, with the inscriptions hardly visible.

“This is wherever the thought of making a replica germinated”, Janumaddi Sahithi Peetham’s convener J. Vijayabhaskar and historiographer Bommisetty Ramesh told the media.

ASI records inscription

The archetypal inscription successful afloat Telugu, written by Renati Chola king Erikala Mutthuraju, was copied successful 1904 by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), but the chromatic was seemingly near astatine the aforesaid place.

After respective decades, up of the World Telugu Conference held successful Tirupati successful 2012, the organisers contemplated to item the inscription. Linguist and erstwhile Deputy Speaker Mandali Buddha Prasad, on with the ASI’s Director (Epigraphy) K. Muniratnam Reddy, launched a hunt astatine respective places, but successful vain.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Muniratnam Reddy said: “We searched for the Kalamalla inscription astatine the celebrated Egmore Museum successful Chennai and besides mooted a hunt astatine London Museum, but to nary avail. A decennary later, the chromatic was yet recovered successful January 2022 astatine the aforesaid Kalamalla village, but astatine a determination antithetic from wherever it was primitively sighted”.

Government whips C. Adinarayana Reddy (Jammalamadugu MLA) and R. Madhavi Reddy (Kadapa MLA), Collector Sridhar Cherukuri and Yogi Vemana University Vice-Chancellor B. Rajasekhar are among the participants astatine the unveiling of the replica.