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 63

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[Vol. IX.
The object of the inscription is to record the grant of the village Khaddike in the Katêraka district (1. 23) to a temple of the Sun.god at Chatfulliha (1. 29 f.) by king Jayavardhana II. It was issned from Srivardhanapura (1.1) and is dated in the srd year of his reign on the 30th day of the month Karttika (11. 46 and 31). Judging from the writing it may be assigned to the eighth century A.D.; the characters very much resemble those of the Paithan plates of Govinda III. dated in the year 794 A.D. Jayavardhana II. is described in lines 20-22 as a devotee of Mahêśvara, the lord of the whole Vindhya, and Mahardjádhiraja Paramésvara. He belonged to the Sailavamsa (verse 1). His grandfather, who bore the same name as himself, killed the former king of the Vindhya and made the Vindhya his residence (v. 3). The son of Jayavardhana I. and father of the donor was Srivardhana II., who styled himself Vindhyêśvara (v.4), and who may have founded Srivardhanapura from which the present charter was issued. Five more ancestors of this line are mentioned, the first of whom was Srivardhana I. His son was Pfithuvardhana, who is stated to have attacked Gujarat (v. 1). In his family was born Sauvardhana (v. 2), one of whose three sons killed the king of Paundra (Bengal and Bihar), while another conquered the king of Kasi (Benares). Of this latter, whose name is not mentioned, Jayavardhana I. was the son (v. 3).
The first verse of this charter opens with an obscure epithet to Srivardhana I. who is called Kailas-dchala-tunga-pinga-vipula-drônija-varasa-prabhúsh, which apparently means the lord of the family of her who was born in the great valley of the lofty peaks of the Kailasa mountain. It is very difficult to hit at the true import of this expression, and the only conjecture I can hazard is that it may mean the Gangavamsa, of which the Sailsvamba was probably a branch or a more well known name at that time. Otherwise it is difficult to see why in the same verse the same person should be called the lord or ornament of two familieg. If my conjecture is correct, the force of prakhyátó bhuvi (famous or known on the earth) preceding Sailavamsa-tilakali would be apparent. The Sailavat sa is very probably identical with the Sailodbhavas or silodbhavas of Orissa, to which Prof. Hultzsch has kindly drawn my attention. In the plates of the time of Sasankaraja, a fendatory chief Madhavaraja II., who issued the charter, is spoken of as belonging to the Silodbhava family, which is identical with the Sailodbhava of the Buguda plates of Madhavavarman as pointed out there. The former is dated in the year 619-20 A.D. and is the older of the two. Both were found in the Ganjam district, and both the charters were issued from Kôngeda or Kaingoda, which is identified by Prof. Kielhorn with the Kong-u-to of the Chinese traveller Hinen Tsiang, who visited the place in the year 639 A.D. This principality was included in the Kalinga country or, roughly speaking, Orissa. In fact the village granted by Madhavaraja II. was situated in the district of Krishnagiri, a synonym of Nilagiri which is a name of Jagannatha (Part) in Orissa.? And it is well known that Orissa is the country where the Gångavamsa originated. King Indravarman of Kalinganagara is spoken of as the establisher of the spotless family of the Gangas,'8 an epithet which does not occur in other grants of the Gangas' of Kalinga. So he was a perpetuator of a dynasty with a new name, which probably he introduced in preference to an old one which was not very complimentary. The new name is a metronymio; 50 we may suppose that the one suppressed was a patronymic. The Buguda inscription tells us how one Palindasêna worshipped Brahmâ in order to create a fit ruler for the land, and how the god granted his wish by creating out of a rock the lord Bailodbhava, who became the founder of the family of that name. However complimentary the story may have been in the beginning, it could not have failed later on to appear somewhat analogous to the alleged origin of low
Above, Vol. III. p. 103 #. Above, Vol. VI. p. 144.
Above, Vol. VI. p. 136. 7 Above, Vol. VI. p. 144
1 Wilson's Vishnu-Purdina, Vol. II. p. 170, note 6. • Above, Vol. III. p. 42. • Cunningham's Ancient Geography, p. 515. . Above, Vol. III. p. 127.