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 185

126 EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXXIII of Rajahmundry under Gajapati Kapilēsvara of Orissa, in connection with the Oriya conquest of the fortress of Vörumgallu in the land (rājya) of Varamgallu, i.e. the Warangal fort. The occupation of Warangal by the Oriyas is mentioned in another inscription in the fort, referring to its conquest by Kapilēsvara's son Hambira and bearing the date Pramāthin, Māgha-su. 10, Va (i.e. Vadda-vāra, Saturday) which is exactly the same as the date of the record under study. There is no doubt that both the inscriptions refer to the same event, viz. the conquest of the Warangal fort by the generals of Gajapati Kapilēsvara. It may be that Hambira was the chief commander of the Gajapati forces and that Raghudēva was the second in command. It is interesting to note that Hambira's inscription is found on the eastern gate of the Warangal fort while Raghudēva's record is incised on its western gate, locally known as the fifth gate. This apears to show that the two leaders of the Gajapati forces led the attack on the Warangal fort from two different sides. Raghudēva, the Oriya governor of Rajahmundry, is also known from several of his inscriptions bearing dates in the sixth decade of the fifteenth century.
The object of the inscription is recorded in two sentences in the last two lines (lines 17-18). The concluding part of the first of these sentences is very much damaged. But it seems to read as Võrumgamţi-durgga-patinku sādhila in which sādhilā (past tense of the Oriya verb sädhivā) has no doubt been used in the sense of subdued' or 'defeated'. It is therefore stated here that Raghudēva-narēndra subdued the lord of the Vorumgayți-durga (i.e. the Warangal fort). The second sentence says that he spared the lives of the governor of the fort and the latter's followers (yihara sasainya-sahitya jiva-dāna dilā). The conquest of Warangal by the generals of Kapilēgvara is one of the events in the struggle between the Bahmanis of Gulbarga and the Gajapatis of Orissa.
The inscription is interesting from several points of view. In the first place, it represents the god Vishnu as the imperial ruler of the earth and apparently as the overlord of the emperor Kapilēsvara of the Süryavamsi Gajapati family of Orissa. The date of the record has been put against the background of eternity as it is represented as falling in the eternal reign period of the said god. This is because of the fact, as we have shown eleswhere, that Ganga Anangabhima III (c. 1211-38 A.D.) dedicated his kingdom in favour of the god Purushottama-Jagannātha of Puri, who is regarded as a form of Vishnu, and that the Ganga king's successors as well as the later imperial rulers of Orissa including their theoretical successors, the present Mahārājas of Puri, regarded themselves as the viceroys of the deity who was considered the real lord of the country. This conception is noticed in several inscriptions of the Ganga dynasty. The present epigraph is the only record outside the Ganga family, which echoes the same idea. There is, however, a slight difference in the conception as found in the inscription under review. The god is not represented here as the lord of the kingdom of Orissa with the king of Orissa as his viceroy. The idea expressed in our record is that the god was the lord of the earth while Kapilēsvara, endowed with imperial style, was the king of the Utkala country under him. This mode of introducing a king is possibly the only case of the kind in the whole range of Indian epigraphy.
The second point of interest in the record is its style which exhibits an influence of certain inscriptions of the Gangas. Some of the passages in Kapilēsvara's description in the present inscription are copied from records like the Dräkshārāma," Bhubaneswar and Kāñchipuram inscriptions of Anangabhima III and one of the Kapilās inscriptions of Narasimha I (c 1238-64 A.D.). The
1 Above, p. 1, note 3 ; IHQ, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 280-81; cf. SII, Vol. VII, p. 372, No. 733.
* Above, pp. 1-2. - . lbid., Vol. XXX, p. 19.
SII, Vol. IV, p. 467, No. 1329. . Alove, Vol. XXX, p. 234. • Ibid., Vol. XXXI, pp. 94 ff.
See above, pp. 41 ff.