Indian Antiquary Vol 21

SR No.: 032513
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 430
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 106

98
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1892.
and 7, and the sixth verse is only a slightly altered version of verse 10, of the Bhagalpur plate of Narayanapâla, ante, Vol. XV. p. 305. And the genealogy, furnished by these six verses, undoubtedly is as Dr. Hultzsch, ib. p. 304, has put it :
1. Gopala.
2. Dharmapala.
Våkpåla. I
3.. Dêvapala.
Jayapala. I
4. Vigrahapala.
1
5. Narayanapala.
The verses 7-11 it would have been impossible to make out fully from this Amgâchhi plate alone. But fortunately the very same verses also occur in a copper-plate grant of Mahipaladêva, which a few years ago was discovered at Dinajpur, and of which rubbings have been supplied to me by Dr. Hoernle. And although in the Dinajpur plate they are in general even less legible than in the Amgâchhi plate, a continued study and comparison of both plates has enabled me to restore the text in a manner which I believe to be substantially correct. The Dinajpur plate also contains verse 14 of the Amgâchhi plate, but places it immediately before the verse referring to Mahipaladêva, between verses 10 and 11 of the Amgâchhi plate. For the decipherment of verses 12 and 13 (lines 16-19) of the present grant I have had no help beyond the ink-impression.
Now, having (in verse 6) brought the genealogy down to Narayana, our inscription, according to my text, proceeds as follows:
(Line 11). And his son was the protector of the middle world, the illustrious Rajyapala, whose fame is proclaimed by tanks as deep as the sea, and by temples the walls of which equal the noblest mountains.
As the store of light proceeds from the eastern mountain, so sprang from that king of the east a son, born from Bhagyadevi, a daughter of the high-crowned Tunga,5 the moon of the Rashtrakuta family, the illustrious Gopaladeva, who was long the sole lord of the earth, gaily clad by the four oceans, lustrous with many precious stones.
Him, richly endowed with the qualities of a king, the Fortune of regal power energy, good counsel, and majesty, worshipped as her lord, dear and attached to him, though he served the earth like a fellow-wife.
From him sprang in the course of time, augmenting the innumerable blessings of his parent, Vigrahapaladeva, who, dear to all, stainless and versed in every art, when he arose, alleviated like the moon' the distress of the world.
From him sprang the protector of the earth, the illustrious Mahipaladeva. Having in the pride of his arm slain in battle all opponents, and having obtained his father's kingdom which had been snatched away by people who had no claim to it, he put down his lotus-foot on the heads of princes.
My reading of the text of this inscription will be published in the Journal Beng. As. Soc.
The words bhagyadset and tunga of the original text need not, perhaps, necessarily be taken as proper names: but there can be no doubt that the author, by the words tungasy-ottunga-maule, wishes to suggest the name of the Rashtrakuta king of whom he is speaking.
The reading of the Dinajpur plate is here slightly different.
7 The epithets, applied to the king, would also be applicable to the moon.