Epigraphia Indica Vol 33

SR No.: 032587
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: D C Sircar
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1959
Total Pages: 514
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 29 MB

Page 110

No. 10) FRAGMENTARY YAJVAPALA INSCRIPTION FROM NARWAR Gopala. Her name is lost; but another inscription of the family gives it as Lāvanyadēvi. The next stanza (verse 7) refers to the person who succeeded to Asalla's position [as kingl (cf. labhë tasya padam). The reference is undoubtedly to Gopala who was the son and successor of Asalla. But the name cannot be traced in the extant parts of any of the three stanzas (verge 7-9) that describe the Yajvapāla monarch during whose rule the inscription was engraved.
Verse 10 introduces Gopagiri (Gwalior) where the family, to which the hero of the prasasti belonged, originally resided, while the next stanze (verse 11) speaks of a Mathura Kayastha family hailing from that place and belonging to the Harita gotra. Verse 12 describes Syāma of the family mentioned in the foregoing stanza. He is compared with Syāma-vața or the sacred banyan tree at Prayāga near Allahabad, U.P.: The next stanza (verse 13) speaks of Bhuvanapāla who seems to have been the son of Syäma, although no word indicating the relationship between Syäma and Bhuvanapāla can be traced in the extant parts of verses 12-13. An interesting information about Bhuvanapāla is that he is stated to have been seated on half of the throne of king Bhoja of Dhārā. The expression mantra-balāt used in this context seems to suggest that he was a minister of that monarch. It is difficult to determine whether the word mukhya in a damaged passage of the stanza suggests that he was Bhoja's chief minister. As will be seen below, Bhuvanapāla's greatgrandson was a contemporary of Yajvapāla Chāhada (c. 1231-34 A.D.). Bhöja of Dhära, contemporary of Bhuvanapāla, therefore cannot be identified with Paramāra Bhõja II who ruled about the close of the 13th century. He seems to be none other than Bhöja I (c. 1010-55 A.D.) of the Paramāra dynasty. But there is an interval of nearly two centuries between Paramāra Bhöja I and Yajvapāla Chāhada. This seems to be too long a period to be covered by four generations only, even if it may not be altogether impossible.
Bhuvanapāla's son was Vāsudēva (verse 14).whose son was Dāmādara (verse 15). The name of Damodara's son is lost in verse 16; but he is stated to have been the Kosādhyaksha (treasurer) of king Chahada, apparently the Yajvapāla king of that name. Verse 17 states that Dāmõdara's son visited Kāsi, Gay, and other holy places, while the next stanza (verse 18) mentions his wife named Dharmā who was the daughter of Pithane. The lady Dharmā is stated in verse 19 to have given birth to five sons. The first of these five brothers is described in verses 20-22. Unfortunately his name is lost; but he is described as a poet and an expert in vamsa-varnana (i.e. description of families). He is further stated to have been & servant of king Göpa, no doubt the Yajvapāla king Gopāla who was the great-grandson of Chāhada. It is interesting to note that, while the father was a contemporary of Chāhada (c. 1231-54 A.D.), the son was serving under Gõpāla (c. 1279-89 A.D.).
The concluding part of the last line of the inscription, as already indicated above, gives us only the first six syllables of a stanza which was expected to be verse 23 of the eulogy under study. It was meant to introduce the younger brother of the eldest of Dharmā's five sons.
It seems that one of the five sons of Dharmă was the hero of the prasasti under study. This is not only suggested by the fact that Dharmā's sons were contemporaries of the reigning Yajvapāla king but probably also by the mention of their mother in the eulogy. In the praśastis composed during the reigns of Gopāla and Ganapati generally the mother of the hero is mentioned and not his grandmother or great-grandmother. But who the hero was cannot be determined. A guess may, however, be hazarded in this connection. We have seen that the eulogy was possibly composed by the poet Sivanābhaka who is described in a stanza found in several records as a member of a
1 Above, p. 34, text line 8.
* For the mention of Syama in literary works like the Rāmāyana (11,68, 23), Kalidasa's Raghutamia (XIII. 63) and Bhavabhūti's Uttararāmacharita (Anka I), see ABORI Vol. XXXVIII, pp. 87 ff.
* There is only one case of the mention of the hero's grandmother and nono mentioning his great-grandmother.