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 385

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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(Vol. IX.
The inscription purports to reoord the gift of 120 villages appertaining to the Lamphi (LApha) fort to a noble named Lunga, who had come from Dolhi, by the Haihaya king Prithvl. dova, on the 1st day of the dark fortnight of Mågha in Samvat 806. For what services the gift was made and on what conditions, is not stated, but it was to be hereditary and it was given because the king's "mind was pleased with the Kauraviya" I which apparently means that he was pleased with the Kawar tribe, to which the donee belonged, presumably for their military services. What strikes one most at the first glance is the freshness of the metal, the clean cat and the modern characters, and this rouses suspicion. The intermixtare of Oriya letters is in itself suspicious. They might, however, be old and indicace that the plate is an old one. On looking for the date such an idea gets partially confirmed, but the suspicion again revives as soon as we learn from the Zamîndâr that, since the grant was made, only 27 generations have supervened. The Zamindar thinks the date to be of the Vikrama era, so that the plato would be about 1,159 years old. This would give, on the average, 43 years to a generation, which is absurd. A critical examination of the record affords as easy an evidence of its being spurious. The characters are in reality all modern, having been taken from the Hindi and Oriya alphabets. The inscriptional alphabet of the Chhattisgarh Haihayas has a peculiarity of its own, not easily describable, but which distinguishes it from the modern alphabet. The most distinctive letters are cha, ja, dha, bha and sa, but in all instances where these letters occur in the present plate, they have no such distinctive features. The style of the record is also modern. I have not come across any Haihaya inscription with a frí at the top, which modern writers usually put in. Again the word fri Krishnachandra, which is apparently meant as an invocation, is a modernism, similar phrases being fri-Ráma, fri-Gandía, etc. In all Haihaya inscriptions, the invocation is om namah Sivaya, i.e. I bow down to Siva. The forger, who, I believe, had seen many of the Haihaya inscriptions, forgot the distinctive Haihaya invocation owing to the story of Sri-Krishna being uppermost in his mind, and he thought that as Krishna was so well pleased with Mayůradh vaja, the supposed ancestor of the Haihayas, an invocation to that deity would be most appropriate. The next phrase, calling the record vijaya-lékha or the victorious writ, meaning royal record, is another novelty of the Oriya type, in which, as in Dravidian languages, the addition of vijaya or victory to every act done by a high personage is a matter of etiquette. A Rája does not go, he conquers vijaya karuchhants, he does not eat, he conquers the kitchen, he does not answer the call of nature, he conquers the latrine, and so on. I bave not come across any other grant being distinguished as vijaya-lékha. The next phrase refers to a seal, which is nowhere to be found. The prefatory phrases done, the record proper again begins with a modernism, viz. fri 5. This reminds one of a Hindi letter-writer which was used in schools, some years ago, in which there was a couplet to the effect that 6 śris should be recorded for a preceptor, 5 for a master, 4 for an enemy, 3 for a friend, 2 for a servant, and l for a wife or son. This must have occurred to the writer's mind, more particularly because he was, as I sappose, a school-master himself and was probably teaching the Pattrahitaishini to his pupils.
Now with regard to the date, the Vikrama year 806 or 749 A.D. is impossible. It goes back to a period when probably the Haihayas had not at all come to Chhattisgarh. From inscriptions we have a date 1114 of Jâjalladêva I., who was fifth in descent from Kalingaraja, the first Haihaya, who is said to have conquered Dakshinakosala. Taking then the date of Kalingaraja to be 1000 A.D., the present grant would have been made by the Haihayas 250 years before they began to rule in Chhattisgarh. Even if we suppose that it refers to the Kalachuri ora, it would be equivalent to 1054 A.D., i.e. almost contemporaneous with the commencement of Haihaya rule. Prithviraja was fourth in descent from Kalingaraja and was the father of Jajalladeva I. The date of this plate would place a difference of 60 years between
[Perhaps Kanrariya is intended.-S. K.)
Ep. Ind. Vol. I, p. 84