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 187

128
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[Vol. XXXIII become a lord of the Utkala country at the command of the illustrious Purushottama described as the lord of the fourteen worlds, i.e. the god Purushottama-Jagannatha of Puri. Next he is described as the son of Mahēbvara (Siva)', the son of Purushottama (Vishnu)' and 'the son of Durga'. As already indicated above, these epithets and some others in the description of Kapilēgvara appear to have been borrowed from certain records of the Gauga 'king Anangabhima III and his son and successor Narasimha I. In the inscription under study, Kapilēsvara is endowed with the imperial title Mahārājādhirāja-Paramēsvara and is described as belonging to the solar race. He is further called fri-vira-Gajapati (the Gajapati who is an illustrious hero), Gardēdvara (lord of Gauda) and vijita-navakoti-Karnāt-eśvara (Lord of the Karnāța-nine-crore country conquered by him). It is interesting. to note that Kalavarag-eśvara (i.e. the lord of Gulbarga) is not added here to Kapilēsvara's epithets as in other records. This is probably because the inscription was set up in an area belonging to the dominions of the Bahmani Sulţāns of Gulbarga and the local people were expected to sneer at the hollowness of the claim.
Kapilēsvara was the first independent imperial ruler of the family and Raghudēva is known to have been his younger brothers' son and his viceroy. at Rajabmundry. The mention of Jägebvara as a mähārāya (i.e. makārāja) shows that he was also a ruling chief. This is supported by the evidence of the Raghudēvapura grant. Lines 14-15 of our inscription mention ParasuTämedēva as the younger brother of Kapilēsvara and as a devotee of Mallināthadēva and Mangalachandi (elsewhere called Ganamangalachandi) Parasuramadēva-rāya's son Raghudēva is mentioned in the following lines. He is called Virabhadra Raghudēva-narēndra and is described as a devotee of the god Mallinåthadēva and the goddess Ganamangalachandi and also as having been a favourite son of the goddess Durgā and as favopred by Jagannāthadēva, i.e. the god Purushottama-Jagandātha of Puri. It is further stated that Raghudēva was the ruler of Rājamahēndravara, i.e. Rājamahēndrapura, which is the modern Rajahmundry. As already indicated above, the object of the inscription is recorded in the last two lines (lines 17-18) which state that Raghudēva subdued the governor of the Warangal fort but that he spared the lives of the said Bahmani officer and his soldiers.
The god Mallinātha seems to have been the fainily deity of the ancestors of Kapilēsvara. Since Mallinātha as the name of a deity is very popular in the Telugu speaking areas and not in Orissa, the original home of the Süryavami Gajapati family may have been in the Andhra country. As we have elsewhere suggested, the mother of Kapilēsvara was probably born in the Velama community of Andhra.
The genealogy of the Suryavamai Gajapatis of Orissa supplied by the present inscription represents Kapilēsvara and Paragurāma as the sons of Jägēśvara, and Raghudēva, governor of Rajahmundry, as the son of Parasurama. This information is already available from the Raghudēvapura and Dorapālem grants of Raghudēva edited above. But Raghudēva's secondary name Virabhadra is known only from the present record. The geographical names mentioned in the inscription have already been discussed thove.
TEXT
Part I 1 Sri-Vishnu-rajya-pravarddbamānasyal adya [Brahmaạo] dvitiyya(ya)-parārddhë' | Svě
(Svē)tavaraha-kalpe 1 Above, PP 4, 6 ff. * Cf. ibid., p. 7. • See ibid., pp. 1 ff. • From an impression. . Better read omāne. • The danda here and in other places in this and the following lines are superfluous.