Inscription Records Krishnadevaraya Gift of Villages to Velligonda Temple

MARKAPUR: A Telugu stone inscription at the historic Venkateswara temple in Veligonda has preserved a detailed record of land and village grants made during the reign of Vijayanagara emperor Sri Krishnadevaraya, offering a window into how temples in 16th-century Andhra were supported through agricultural endowments.

The inscription, engraved on a stone slab fixed inside the Veligonda Venkateswara temple, dates to 1521 CE. According to the Archaeological Survey of India's epigraphical reading, it records the gift of the villages Garlladinna and Kattirallagumpa, along with gardens situated in Podili-sima of Udayagiri Rajya, to the deity Tiruvenggalanadha of Veligonda.

The grant was made by Rayasam Kondamarusayya, described in the inscription with the title Rajyabharadhurandharudu. The donation was made for the religious merit of Emperor Krishnadevaraya and the donor himself. Its purpose was practical as well as devotional: income from the endowed property was intended to support temple festivities and food offerings to the deity.

The inscription belongs to the reign of Sri Krishnadevaraya and explicitly says the donation was made for the king's merit. But the donor named in the record is Rayasam Kondamarusayya. The story should therefore not say that Krishnadevaraya personally donated the two villages, as the inscription instead demonstrates patronage within the Vijayanagara administrative world during his reign.

The geographical language of the inscription also preserves valuable administrative history. It locates the endowed properties within Podili-sima of Udayagiri Rajya, situating a local temple donation within the much larger administrative geography of the empire.

The record was composed in Telugu language and script more than five centuries ago. Its terminology preserves the administrative and religious vocabulary of the Vijayanagara period, from territorial divisions such as sima and rajya to expressions associated with temple ritual and patronage.