Epigraphists think this the oldest evidence of the use of Telugu for literature, pushing back the history of poetic use of the language by a century. In Karimnagar district, near Kurikyala village, on a hillock known as Bommalagutta, is the 11-line rock inscription spread across 25 feet.
The sing-song Telugu rhyme is the work of Jinavallabha, the younger brother of Pampa who was the court poet of Chalukya Arikesari III.
The king ruled between A.D. 946 and A.D. 968 from Vemulawada, the rump kingdom of Chalukyas before it was mopped up by the Chalukyas of Kalyani.
“The inscription was discovered by D. Venkata Ramanacharyulu and A. Virabhadra Rao and was notified by the then Archaeology Department director Ghulam Yazdani. But beyond that, there has been no move to protect it. The hillocks around the inscription have been destroyed by the granite mafia. If nothing is done to protect this legacy, the inscription will disappear and be confined to history books,” says K. Jitendra Babu, who has documented Telangana history and its struggle.
Telugu poetry
During the announcement on hosting the World Telugu Conference in Hyderabad in the Legislative Assembly, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao pointedly referred to the Bommalagutta inscription. Currently, Adi Kavi Nannayya and his translation of The Mahabharata is considered the oldest evidence of Telugu poetry.
According to historians, the image is that of an eight-armed goddess Chakreshwari with reliefs of Jain monks on either side.
Ironically, the hillock is known as Bomallamagutta as many villagers worship the goddess as Durga. The inscription is etched below the group of carved images.
At another level, the inscription is a Rosetta stone for Telugu as it is written in three languages: Sanskrit, Kannada and Telugu. It is a eulogy to the kingdom where poets flourished and granaries were full. Not surprisingly, Jinavallabha, the author of the poem, was granted an agraharam for his efforts by the king.
The rock inscription is a throwback to the time when Adilabad was referred to as Bellalam, Sircilla as Sidhasila, Vangapalle was referred to as Vangaparru and Nedikonda as Nidumgonna.
