The Grammar of Imperial Transition: Epigraphic Bilinguality in the Penukonda Fort Inscriptions

Casual visitors ascending the granite northern approaches of Penukonda Fort often struggle to distinguish between medieval Telugu and Kannada inscriptions on the stone walls. The confusion is understandable. In the fourteenth century, the scripts shared near-identical letterforms, making visually identical graphemes perform double duty across Dravidian tongues. But historical and epigraphic records demonstrate that Vijayanagara rulers deliberately deployed both scripts, alongside formal Sanskrit verse, across their southern defense capitals to manage a delicate political handoff.

Examining the epigraphs carved during the reign of Bukka Raya I (who ruled from 1356 to 1377 CE) (Organiser) reveals how the transition from Hoysala to early Vijayanagara administrative control was formally recorded on stone. When Vijayanagara forces secured the Penukonda Seema (the administrative region surrounding the hill fort) (The Hans India) from the declining Hoysala dynasty following the death of Veera Ballala III, the central court moved quickly to reinforce its authority. Bukka Raya I established Penukonda as a primary sthala-durga (land-fortress) (The Hans India) and second capital (The Hindu), placing his eldest son, Vira Virupanna Udaiyar (The Hans India), on the regional throne.

The epigraphic record left by this court reveals a deliberate linguistic strategy rather than administrative negligence.

The Northern Gate Record: Sanskrit Verse and Vernacular Register

Inside the northern entrance of Penukonda Fort, an eight-sentence stone inscription (The Hans India) documents the fort’s physical construction, initiated in March 1354 CE (The Hans India). Deciphered by historian MyNaa Swamy (The Hans India), the text opens with a high-Sanskrit invocation (mangala-śloka, or auspicious verse) dedicated to Shiva:

नमस्तुङ्गशिरश्चुम्बिचन्द्रचामरचारवे।
namas tuṅga-śiraś-cumbi-candra-cāmara-cārave
("Praise to the Lord whose lofty head is kissed by the moon, beautiful like a fly-whisk.")

This opening line is not a local innovation. It is the standardized imperial opening used by scribes across early Vijayanagara territories to establish cosmic legitimacy. But as the text transitions from religious blessing to administrative detail, the register shifts. The body of the inscription is recorded in medieval Kannada (The Hans India), naming Prime Minister Anantarasu Odayar (The Hans India) as the administrator overseeing the fortress build and recording Vira Virupanna's regional titles (The Hans India).

The choice of language here is significant. By employing Kannada for military and administrative mandates in a territory formerly governed by the Hoysalas, Bukka Raya’s chancery maintained bureaucratic continuity for local scribes and tax collectors accustomed to Hoysala administrative vocabulary (kannaḍa-rājya).

The Hilltop Mandir: Transitional Orthography on Boulder Slabs

A second major epigraph, documented at the Sri Naga Lingeshwara Swamy Mandir atop Penukonda hill (Organiser), provides another glimpse into this transitional grammar. Carved into a boulder within the temple precinct (The Hindu), the inscription records that Prime Minister Anantharasu Chikka Odeyar (Organiser) consecrated a Shiva Linga and constructed a sacred tank (Nagula Bavi, or "Well of Serpents") (The Hindu) on Sunday, July 16, 1363 CE (Organiser) (Śaka 1285, Śrāvaṇa Śuddha Pañcamī) (The Hindu).

The epigraph opens with standard administrative dating protocols:

स्वस्ति श्री शक वरुष १२८५... मङ्गल महा श्री
svasti śrī śaka varuṣa 1285 ... maṅgala mahā śrī
("Hail! In the prosperous Saka year 1285 ... May there be great fortune.")

Philologically, the slab highlights why modern observers confuse the language of these monuments. The script is an intermediate late-southern Brahmi variant often classified by epigraphists as ancient Kannada-Telugu (Organiser). During the mid-fourteenth century, regional scribes shared a common paleographic kit. The graphic forms of characters like ka (ಕ/క) or ra (ರ/ర) had not yet split into the distinct modern alphabets of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

To determine whether a stone is Telugu or Kannada, epigraphists must look past letter shapes to morphological endings. Where a Kannada administrative record uses the plural suffix -gaḷu or locative -alli, Telugu records deployed nominal forms such as -lu or -aṃdu.

In the border region of Penukonda, fourteenth-century scribes frequently interwove both, producing hybrid Sanskrit-vernacular registers designed to be legible to Kannada-speaking military governors (nāyakas) and Telugu-speaking regional landholders alike.

Script as Imperial Technology

The bilinguality of Penukonda Fort was not an accident of geography. It was an intentional imperial strategy. By retaining Sanskrit for pan-regional ideological legitimacy, Kannada for imperial administrative commands, and Telugu for local revenue and religious grants, Bukka Raya I’s court stabilized a disputed border zone.

Rather than imposing a single language on a newly acquired frontier, the early Vijayanagara state recorded its expansion in stone using the flexible, shared grammar of its subjects.