________________
150
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
Mr. C. C. Das Gupta differed from this view and offered the following translation:"And his (Ranabhañja's) ' aupayika', i.e., adopted son is Narendrabhañja, the son of Prithvibhañja, i.e., Ranabbañja adopted as his son Narendrabhañja, the son of Prithvibhañja ".1 In view of the two new Grants, Nos. 4 and 5, the interpretation of MM. H. P. Sastri appears to be preferable. Apart from this there is a further difficulty; for the exact connection of Narendrabhañja with the record is not quite clear. MM. H. P. Sastri says that Prithvibhañja was not a son born in lawful wedlock', but may have been one of the twelve classes of sons allowed by Hindu law', and he suggests that Ranabhañja made the grant on the occasion of the birth of a grandson named Narendrabhañja'. On the other hand Rai Bahadur Hiralal is of opinion that the Khanḍadeuli plate really records a grant of Narendrabhañja and not of his grandfather Ranabhañja. Mr. R. D. Banerji differs from this view and accepts that of MM. H. P. Šāstri. But the fact that the seal of the plate contains the name Narendrabhañja supports the view of Rai Bahadur Hiralal. A further argument may be cited in support of this view. The donee of this grant is the great-grandson of Bhaṭṭaputra Trivikrama. No. 6 records a grant by king Ranabhañja to Bhaṭṭaputra Trivikrama. If these two identical names refer to the same person it is more likely that the donor of No. 2 is a grandson of Rapabbañja rather than Ranabhanja himself.
In No. 3 the name of the successor of Kōṭṭabbañja and the father of Rajabhañja who issued the Grant has been read as Ranabhanja both by Mr. Pratapa Chandra Ghosh and by Mr. Nagendra Nath Vasu who edited the plate. This reading has been generally accepted, and it gives us the following genealogy :
[VOL. XXV.
Kōṭṭabhanja Ranabhanja
Rajabbañja
This genealogy has been reconciled with that given in Nos. 1 and 2 by supposing that the name of Digbhañja, son of Kōṭṭabhañja and father of Ranabhañja, has been omitted through oversight.
Mr. C. C. Das Gupta has justly drawn our attention to the fact that the word 'Ranabhañja' cannot be read on the published facsimile. The first letter is undoubtedly 'ra' but the other letters cannot be clearly read, and in any case there is no na' following ra'. He suggests that this word was misengraved for Digbhañja and constructs the following genealogy from Nos. 1
and 3.5
Kōṭṭabhañja
Digbbañja T
Ranabhañja
1 Annals, Bh. Or. Res. Ins., Vol. XII, p. 235.
Above, Vol. XVIII, p. 293.
Op. cit., p. 183. Curiously enough, on the preceding page Mr. Banerji says: "The actual grant was made by Narendrabhañja".
Above, Vol. XVIII, p. 293, f. n. 1.
Annals, Bh. Or. Res. Ins., Vol. XII, pp. 234-5.
Rajabhatja