Epigraphia Indica Vol 12

SR No.: 032566
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sten Konow
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1913
Total Pages: 464
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 300

No. 30.)
DANTEWARA INSCRIPTIONS OF DIKPALADEVA.
245
name of Māņikyēsvari, which was changed to Dantēsvari when they fled to Bastar. It is noteworthy that the tutelary goddess of the Någavamsi kings whom the present family succeeded Was Måņikyadēvi.! Inscriptions found in the state show that she had shrines at Bhairamgarh and Barsir, which are not very far away from Dantėwară, then known as Tädalāpal or Tāds Lamki (the town or island of palms). It is possible that there was one at the latter place also, and apparently this was the first place Annamarāja stopped at before he set out to conquer the surrounding country to get a footing in it.
Looking to the spirit of the age it appears very natural that he should have prayed to the local goddess for success and not improbably made a vow to make offerings, which on account of his having finally achieved success must have been unusually large. Only a tremendous number of victims could be accepted by the goddess in that particular form, and this being Raktadanti, the name Danti, Dantēśvari or Dantávalā nust have suggested itself as most appropriate to call her by. Had he brought the goddess with him, he wonld probably have enshrined her at the capital he selected for his residence and would probably have maintained her old name. The cha" ge was necessitated not only for the reason stated above, but to avoid the name which was dear to his enemies and therefore unpleasant to the conqueror. The Musalmāns usunlly changed the names of the great cities they conquered, for instance, the name of Warangal was changed to Saltanpur, when Ulugh Khan took it.3
With regird to geographical names Navarangapura is a town in the Vizagapatam District and gives its name to the northernmost tahsil stretching into the Central Provinces and Bengal between the States of Bastar and Kālāhandi. The Rāni of Navarangapura, # relative of the Jeypur family, who were at one time retainers of the Gajalati kings of Orissa and came over to Jeypur about the 15th century A.D., still resides at Navarangapura. Orangal is the well known Warangal in the Nizam's dominions separated from Bastar by the Godavari. Hastināpura and Dandakāranya are classical names, the former being the capital city of the Kauravas, for which the great war of the Mahabharata was waged, and the latter the forest in which Råma spent a good deal of his time during bis ezile. I am unable to trace Verdi of the Chandellas.
SANSKRIT TEXT. i alla fat qafat s stacionisarzaga fil2 mataateCOTAT TOT Tina Fahaa. Jeg a 1. a. 3 ॥ वलक्षधनुर्धराधिनाथे पृथिवीं 'शाति काकतीयरुने । अभवत(त्) 4॥ परमग्रहारपीडा कुचव भेषु कुरंगलोचनानां ॥ तस्यैकदा स्वर्स. 5 fehatatugana | Agriae fuaeth Me | BIAT 70
1 Sep above, Vol. III, p. 316.
? Gonds still use this name. • Elliott's History, Vol. II, p. 233. . See the New Imperial Gazetteer of India, Art. Nowrangpor:
The Bastar country is stated in the inscription to be near the Dandakaranya'; and this is in a way suggestite. It has been nsually held tlist Násik was included in Daşdskäranys and that it was from that place that Sita was carried off by Råvans. If Bastar was near Dandikaranya, Nasik could no: baie been within it. In 1897 I visited a plare named Parnnaśālā on the banks of the Godavari just on the southern boundary of the Pastar State, where the tradition is very strong that Sita was abducted from that place. For many reasons I felt convinced that the claim made was a correct one. In the Marathi journals a controversy on this point was raised which elicited many cogent reasons for holding tl.is view. • Prom an impression prepared by Mr. Venkoba Rao.
1 Metre : Vnrantamalika. • Note the double sense of agrahara, donation of laud,' and excellent Docklace."
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