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 64

No. 5.)
RAGHOLI PLATES OF JAYAVARDHANA IT.
castes, which trace their origin to some such inanimate objects as scarecrowe, dirt from Mabad@ya's body, or the sweat of his brow. In fact the aboriginal Gonds aver that their leader Lingo liberated the first men of the tribe from a cave in the Iron valley in the Red hill by removing a stone 16 oubits high with which Mahadeva had closed the mouth of the cave, and ont came 16 scores of Gonds at once. The Sailodbhava origin would thus appear something like an improvement on this story. Recognising the tendenoy, which has always existed and still exists, to adopt oponymous names under the influence of what Sir Alfred Lyall calls the gradual Brahmaņising of castes, it would not be surprising to find a family with a dubious patronymic insinuating a non-Brahmaņical origin, preferring a metronymic connected with BO holy a deity as the Ganges, in spite of the Kshatriya mode of calling themselves after the male parent. It will then be asked why in the present grant the Sailavamsa was at all mentioned, to which an answer may be found in the fact that there are always three classes of people : the conservatives or those who would stick to the old things only, the moderates who would tolerate both the new and the old, and the extremists who would wholly discard the old, and probably the donor of the present grant belonged to the second class. All this is, however, extremely hypothetical, and I only hazard it in the hope that a better explanation may be forthcoming. By the way I may mention that it was the Gangavansa kings of Orissa who revived Sun-worship and built many temples dedicated to that deity ;' and again most of the officials, such as samdhartri and sannidhatri (1. 24), are those chiefly found in the grants of Orissa kings. These are other items in support of the donor's family connection with Orissa.
With regard to the places mentioned in the grant, I identify Khaddika with Khadi, a village three miles north-east of Ragholi where the plates were found. It is only a Sanskritised name like Lañjika' for Lanji, which is also not very far away from this place. Kateraka is probably the present Katera near Katangi, 60 miles west of Ragholi. I cannot identify Chattulliha, unless it is a mistake for Raghulliha or Ragholi, where the plates have been found. With the elision of a little stroke in the first letter, and giving a slightly alanting position to the second, the word would read as Raghalliha. This may find support from the fact that the engraving of the grant is very defective, and that several other mistakes have been committed in lines 33, 40, 44, etc. I cannot find in the Central Provinces a place answering to Srivardhangpura. It could not be Srivardhana in the Bombay Presidency, the famous seaport referred to by European travellers as Ziffardań and celebrated as the birth-place of the first Peshwa. From what has been stated above, the family would seem to have come from a seaport in the east rather than from the west. But the place must be searched for nearer home, and it may be that it is now non-existent. The probability is that it was situated somewhere near Ramtek in the Nagpur district. Five miles from this place there is a village called Nagardhan which was known as Nandivardhana) in olden times, and local traditions assert that the surrounding country was ruled from that place by Kshatriya Rajas. The village contains ancient remains and is mentioned as the name of a district together with Nagpur in the Debli plates of the RAshtrakața king Krishna III. dated in the year 940 A.D. It is plain therefore that
1 Canningham's Reports, Vol. IX. p. 168.
1 Bee Hunter'. Orissa, Vol. I. p. 279 f. Dr. Hunter says :-"At remote period, San-worship, driven out of VMio India by materializing superstitions, found shelter on the recluded Eastern coast. Ita existence in Oriss in Ancient time is proved not only by the fact of a specific division of the country being devoted to it, but also by the rock writings .. . . The most exquisite memorial of Sun-worship in India, or I believe in any country, is the temple of Konirak upon the Orissa shore."
In the Batanpur inscription of Jajalladers, Ep. Ind. Vol. I. p. 33. • Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XI. p. 487. • Mr. Craddock's Settlement Report, 1895, p. 15.
• It may be borne in mind that this part of the country was for long time under Gonds and afterwards the Marathas, and Ms rule the memory of these only survives.
Above, Vol. V. p. 196 f.