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 198

No. 25] DHULLA PLATE OF SRICHANDRA
135 Of the 9 stanzas in the introductory part of the document, verse 1, found in all the known records of the king, is in adoration of the Jina (i.e. Buddha), the Dharma and the Bhikshu-sangha (i.e. the Buddhist Church), the holy trinity of the Buddhists. Verses 2-8 are found in the Rampal and Madanpur plates in the same order while verse 9 is the same as the seventh and last stanza of the introductory part of the Kēdārpur plate.
Verse 2 introduces a ruler named Parnachandra as born in the family of the Chandras ruling over Rohitāgiri. The following two stanzas (verses 3-4) describe Pürnachandra's son Suvarnachandra who became a Buddhist. Verse 5 speaks of Suvarnachandra's son Trailokyachandra who is compared to Dilipa and is stated not only to have become the mainstay of the royal fortune of the king of the Harikõla country but also to have made himself the lord of Chandradvipa. Pūrnachandra and Suvarnachandra may or may not have been rulers of Robitägiri ; but Trailokyachandra was apparently the ruler of Chandradvipa as a feudatory of the Harikēla king. If Rõhitägiri is identified with Rohtasgarh in the Shahabad District of Bihar, it has to be suggested that Trailökyachandra or one of his ancestors migrated to South-East Bengal where Träilökya succeeded in becoming the subordinate ruler of Chandradvipa.within the dominions of the king of Harikēla. It appears that the Chandras of Rohităgiri were originally the feudatories of the Pāla kings of Bengal and Bihar and that one of the Chandra princes ca to Bengal in connection with his services under the Pāla master. But Trailokyachandra seems to have transferred his allegiance to the king of Harikēla and was rewarded by the viceroyalty of Chandradvipa. As we have elsewherel suggested, Chandradvipa was the old name of parts of the Buckergunge District and Harikēla was originally the name of the area round the Sylhet District, both now in East Pakistan, although at a later date Harikēla (also spelt Harikēlā and Harikēli) came to be used to indicate the tract alled Vanga apparently as a result of the expansion of the dominions of the Harikēla rulers over wide areas of South-East Bengal.
About the end of the ninth century, the Gurjara-Pratihāra king Mahēndrapāla I (c. 885-907 A.D.) conquered considerable areas of Bihar and North Bengal from the Pālas and the fortune of the latter was at a low ebb.Since the Dacca-Tippera region appears to have formed parts of the empire of Dharmapala (c. 770-810 A.D.) and Dēvapāla (c. 810-50 A.D.), this may have been the timewhen the rulers of the Dēva Dynasty, as known from the copper-plate grant of Bhavadēva, were ruling an independent monarchs from the city of Dévaparvata near modern Comilla in the Tippera District of East Pakistan. Shortly after Bhavadova, the third known ruler of the Deva family, a king named Kāntidēva was ruling over the tract called Harikēla as we know from his Chittagong plate. It seems that the dominions of the Dēvas of Dēva parvata soon passed to the hands of the ruling family of Harikēla represented by Kantidēva and that the Harikëla kings, thus came to be in the possession of wide areas of South-East Bengal including the Buckergunge region. Trailökyachandra appears to have ruled over Chandradvipa as & feudatory of the dynasty of Harikēla kings, represented by Kāntidēva, about the second quarter of the tenth century.
1 See above, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 338-39.
* For Mohēndra påla's stone inscriptions in these areas, dated in his regnal years ranging between the years 2 and 19 (or 9), soo Bhandarkar's List, Nos. 1641-47. Recently I had an opportunity of examining ono of these records, viz. the Râm-Gaya inscription (ibid., No. 1645) which R. D. Banerji (Mem. A. 8. B., Vol. V, p. 64) read and interpreted as foliows: (1) Om Samvat 8 fri- Mahindrapala | rajyabhisht. (2) ká Saudi-rishi-putra-Sahad Evasya, "Om, the yoar 8 (fron) tho coronation of Mahindrapāla. (The gift) of Sahadeva, the son of the Rishi Sauri." The correot reading of the inscription is however : (1) Siddham symbol. Samvata 8 || Mahindapala rajabhist. (2) ka || Saudirini 5 P[M]la-saha deva[dharma). The gift of the image was made by & person named Saudirisi and his five sons whogo names are not mentioned.
Cf. JAS, Lotters, Vol. XVII, pp. 83 ff. For another inscription of the 12th regnal year of Bhavadēva, of. Pp. 21-22 of F.A. Khan's report referred to below.
Above, Vol. XXVI, pp. 313 ff.