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 134

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[Vol. XXXIII
The date of the grant is quoted in line 15 (verse 14). It is the 34th regnal year of the Early Kadamba king Ravivarman, the day referred to being one in the bright half of the month of Madhu (Chaitra) when the nakshatra was Rohiņi. We know that Ravivarman began to reign about 490 A.D. His 34th regnal year thus fell about 524 A.D. The exact date of the charter. however, cannot be calculated as neither the tithi nor the week-day is mentioned.
The inscription begins with the auspicious word siddham and a stanza (verse 1) in adoration of the Sarcuña Sarvalókanātha. Since both Sarvajña and Lokanatha are well-known names of the Buddha, we prefer to identify the deity referred to in the stunza with the founder of Buddhism, even though the editor of the inscription was inclined to associate the verse with Jainism. As will be seen from our discussion below, the objects of the grant were the maintenance of worship in the Siddhūyatara and the increase of the Sangha. The editor of the epigraph regarded these as Jain religious institutions. But Sangha is well-known in the sense of the Buddhist church. As will be shown below, a Siddh-nyutana is also known to have been associated with the worship of the Buddha. We know that the Early Kadambas were Brahinanical Hindus. Although they had Jain leanings and many of their charters contain Jain adorations and were issued in favour of Jains or Jain institutions, they claimed to be devotees of the god Mahāsēna and the Mothers. This claira is found in the records of Ravivarman, one of which proudly mentious the Kadamba family as having performed the typical Brahmanical sacrifice known as the Aśvamēdha. If it is believed that the charter under study was really issued in favour of Buddhist religious institutions, it shows that, in spite of their Brahmanical faith, the Early Kadambas not only favoured the Jains but also the Buddhists. This points to the catholicity of their religious policy.
Verses 2-4 speak of the following four Kadamba kings: (1) Raghu, (2) Kākustha (correctly Kikutstha), the younger brother of Raghu, (3) Sāntivarman, the son of Kākustha, (4) Mpigēsa, the son of Sāntivarman and (5) Ravi whose relationship with Msigēša is not specified, although from other records we know that king Msigēša or Msigēśavarman was the father and predecessor of Ravi or Ravivarman. The description of the predecessors of Ravi is short, but that of the reigning monarch Ravi continues in the following eight stanzas. Verse 8 speaks of the city of Vaijayanti indirectly as the capital of Ravi's kingdom.
An interesting point in Ravi's description is offered by verse 7 wbich states that the land as far as the Narmada (i.e. the people of that region) sought refuge in the Kadamba king and rejoiced. This no doubt refers to Ravi's claim of a sort of suzerainty over the whole of South India as far as the Narmadā in the north. The claim is of course conventional and merely means that Ravi was an independent or in perial ruler. As we have shown elsewhere, powerful monarchs of ancient and medieval India generally claimed to be rulers or conquerors of the whole of India which was regarded as the conventional chakravarti-kshētra or sphere of influence of an emperor ; but sometimes a South Indian monarch speaks of sir ilar possession of the land between the Vindhyas and Cape Comorin and a North Indian emperor of that between the Vindhyas and the Himalayas. It may be pointed out here that the editor of the record read narmmadam tam mahi instead of Narmmadanta-mahi and thereby missed an early and interesting reference to the southern chakrauntti-kshetra.
Among other conventional claims of the Kadamba king, reference may be made to verses 10-11. The first of these stanzas states that the whole earth wanted Ravi to be its lord while the second says that his coronation ceremony was performed by the goddess Lakshmi herself. But
1 Above, Vol. VIII, pp. 146 ff. Cf. Suc. Sat., pp. 255, 260 ff., 269 ff. * See JRASB, Vol. V, 1939, pp. 407 ff; Sarüpa Bharati, pp. 313 ff.