Epigraphia Indica Vol 09

SR No.: 032563
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: E Hultzsch, Sten Konow
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1907
Total Pages: 498
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 28 MB

Page 15

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[Vol. IX.
KathilyAd) in A.D. 914, and in which he is represented as a feudatory of a Rajadhirdja Mahîp&ladeva whose proper identification, as will be seen below, can no longer offer any difficulty.
The place Nakshisapura, the nine villages mentioned in connection with the two grants, and the river Kanavirika I have not, I regret to say, been able to identify. The main point of general interest connected with these localities is, that the Nakshisapura group of eightyfour, which was held by the two donors, according to the inscription B. belonged to the Saurashtra mandala. The name Surashtra we know to denote the southern part of Kathiavad; and since the two chiefs Balavarman and Avanivarmao II. describe themselves as feudatories of the Maharajadhiraja Mahêndrayudhadeva or Mahendra påladeva (of Kananj), it follows from these inscriptions that towards the end of the 9th century A.D. the kingdom of Kanauj extended as far south as, and included, the province of KathiAvad. Moreover, it becomes quite certain now that the Rijadhiraja Mahipaladeva, who in the Haddala plates of A.D. 914 is mentioned as the overlord of the Chåpa Mahusamantadhipati Dharanivaráha, must be identi fied with the Maharajadhiraja Mahipaladeva of Kanauj (whose Asni inscription is dated in about A.D. 917), the successor of Mahendra påladeva, and cannot have been one of the Chudåsamas of Girnar-Junagadh.
In the grant A. the king, known to us from the grant B. and other inscriptions as Mahêndrapala, is called Mahendrayudha. This name of course at once recalls the names Indrayudha and Chakršyudha, the former denoting a king who according to the Harivansa-Purána was ruling the north in Saka-samvat 705=A.D. 783-84, and the latter another king, to whom the sovereignty of Mahodaya (Kananj) was given, after the defeat of Indraråja i.e., in my opinion, Indrayudha), by the Påla Dharmapala, and who was defeated by Nagabhata, the grandfather of Bhôjadêve of Kananj. It may also be mentioned that in Rajasekhara's Karpuramafijari a certain mercbant is represented as having gone to Kanauj, the capital of Vajra. yudha, the king of Panchala.' That story would seem to show that in the opinion of Rajasekhara, who was Mahendrapala's guru, a name with the somewhat anusual ending dyudha, such as Vajrayudba, was a suitable or characteristic name of a Kanauj king. Most probably Mahendrapala himself was known to Rajasekbara also by the name Mahendrayudha.
The date of the grant A., fri-Valabhi-samvat 574 Mâgha-fuddha 6, is by a long way the earliest date in which we find the technical expression Valabhi-samvat. In the inscriptions of the Valabhi kings themselves the year of a date is ordinarily preceded by only san, rarely by samvat; and hitherto the earliest inscription containing the term Valabhi-samvat was the Vérával inscription of the temple-priest Bbáva-Brihaspati of Valabhi-samvat 850 (No. 503 of my Northern List). In the Morbi plate of Jâinka (ibid. No. 502) of the year 585 of the same era the number 585 in line 19 is preceded by simply samvat, while in line 17 the year is described as a Gaupta (i.e. Gupta) year. It is curious that in Kathiavad we should find the GuptaValabhi, Vikrama and Saka eras employed in dates of the same period and in almost the same localities. A.-PLATES OF BALAVARMAN; VALABHI-SAMVAT 574.
TEXT,
First Plate. 1 Om [ll] Jayag=ch=&bhyudayas-cha || Svasti [ll] Nakshisapurát-parama
bhattaraka-mahåráj[6]dhi
Of Nagabhaça Mr. Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha has discovered in the Jodhpur State a stone inscription dated in about A.D. 815 (nasi atsara-la[1873).
* See Dr. Sten Konow's edition, pp. 74 and 286. • From a photograph supplied by Mr. Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha. • Denoted by a symbol.