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No. 35.]
TEKI PLATES OF RAJARAJA-CHODAGANGA.
345
(V. 17.) “The kingdom (is) no pleasure at all compared) with the pleasure of worshipping the holy feet of the elders ;" having considered thus, he returned to (his) parents after having ruled the country of Vengi for one year.
(V. 18.) Then his younger brother, the brave prince Vira-Chôda, was ordered by (his) father to protect the country of Vengi (and) proceeded (there).
(V. 19.) Desirous of prostrating himself at the lotus-feet of the elder one among (his) brothers, thirsting to embrace the younger one whose head was bent in devotion to him), longing to do obeisance to (his) father and meditating on (his) lotus-feet, this poor boy spent six years in fear of transgressing the command of his father.
(V. 20.) The politic king of kings, who had subdued (all) rulers of the earth, recalled to himself that son whose only wish was thus to be united with (his) father and brothers.
(Vy. 21-27.) Then the emperor, who knew (his) duty (and) who had conquered the circle of the earth by valour, spake as follows to (his) first-born dear son' Chodaganga, having affectionately addressed (him) by the name Rajaraja (i.e. king of kings'), which was full of meaning because he thought that) this lotus-eyed one would become a king of kings, (and) having embraced (him) who had prostrated himself (and) had folded his hands :
(V. 28.) “There is a country famed by the name of Vengi, (which is) the birth-place of the noble Chalukyas, as the ocean (is) of precious pearls.
(V. 29.) « Having reached high eminence there, the members of my family overcome even mighty kings, as the planete, having risen in the east, surmount even lofty mountains.
(V. 30.) “While thou, Rajaraja, art seated on the lion-throne in the Vêngi country in order to protect the whole earth anopposed, may the lustre of (thy) feet be enhanced by clusters of gems in the diadems of many kings, as the beauty of the lotus by swarms of bees!
(V. 31.) “As long as the king of serpents (Sesha), (who is) the only lord of the snake-tribe, as thou (art) the only lord of a troop of elephants, is ruling the lower world, and as long as the lord of heaven (Indra), being worshipped by hundreds of gods and demi-gods, (is ruling) beaven, so long protect thou the earth, purifying the horizon as the impurity in the shape of enemies is washed away by the water of the edge of the sharp, large sword in thy hand!”
(V. 32.) When the prince, having thus obtained the blessing of the king (and) afterwards the true blessings of (his) mother, (and) having bowed to both, was about to start for his country, the sound of the conches (announcing his departure and of shrill auspicious bugles reached the ends of the quarters.
(V. 33.) When the glorious B&jaraja had ascended (the throne of) the Vêngi country, (as) the sun the eastern mountain, the night of enmity was dispelled; darkness in the disguise of foes was driven away; the stars in the semblance of necklaces disappeared from the firmamentthe wives of the enemios; (and) fire in the shape of sorrow sprang up in the sun-crystals the hearts of the wives of foes.
(V. 34.) In the sake year reckoned by the tastes (6), the sky (0), the atmosphere (0), and the moon (1),- (ie. 1006) in the month Jysishtha, in the bright fortnight, on the fullmoon tithi, on a Thursday, when the moon had joined Jyêshtha, in the excellent lagna Simha, the sinless lord, the glorious RAjaraja, having been anointed to the kingdom of the whole earth, pat on the tiara to the joy of the world.
1 The word agrajam occurs in l. 46 and priydtmajam in 1. 50. I omit the intervening epithets of Chádaganga, from which we learn little more than that he was a worshipper of Siva and "an ornament of the Chålukys family" (v. 22).
• The words tuigd wapi mambhritah may also contain an allusion to the Rashtraktas, who had the surname Tunga ;' see above, Vol. IV. No. 40, verse 6, and Vol. V. No. 20, verse 6.
The word dhard has to be taken also in the sense of a stream.'