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

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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[Vol. XXXIII
From the ductus of the writing, the inscription can be divided into different sections engraved on different dates. In most of the cases, a section contains more than one transaction. Some of these transactions relate to arrangements (sthiti) and not gifts actually. The sections are analysed below one by one.
Section I (lines 1-2). There are three transactions recorded in this section.
(a) The first sentence states that the sixteenth pada was allotted to the lasini Vījalā, the daughter of Padmavati, with the stipulation that she would enjoy it together with some other unnamed vilāsinis (a parābhiḥ saman). The word pada here seems to mean'a share' or ' a quarter of the standard land measure'. An account of 15 other padas appears to be lost with the earlier part of the record on the missing first plate. The word vilāsiņi is also used in line 4 apparently in the sense of a Dēvadāsi. Probably the word ganikā (line 2) and mēhari (lines 1, 7, etc.) are also used in a similar sense. The name of the deity to whom Vijalā was attached seems to have been mentioned in the missing first plate of the set. It may have been the god Tripurusha mentioned in the following sentence. The name of the donor of the pada to Vijalā is not known from the extant part of the record.
(6) The next sentence states that, in the same way (tathā), the flute-player named Lhaudiyaka (i.e. Lhaudiya) was allotted to Tripurusha which was the name of the deity. The expression tripurusha has been used here and in many other places in the record in the plural. But, in line 21, the same deity is mentioned as Tripurushadēva in the singular. It was therefore the name of a single deity, probably a combined image of the Trimurti of Brahman, Vishņu and Siva.
(c) The last sentence of the section speaks of the arrangement, according to which a mēhari, whose name cannot be fully deciphered, was to receive annually five Droņas of wheat out of the collections made on behalf of the deity (devakiy-ādāna-madhyāt) from the Nandānā-grāmiya-bhoga, no doubt a free-holding comprising a part or the whole of the village of Nandāņā (modern Nānāņā) under the enjoyment of the deity. This deity seems to be no other than Tripurusha mentioned in the previous sentence. We have already noted that the word mēhari, literally & songstress ', seems to have been used to indicate a Dēvadāsi.
Section II (lines 2-8). There are four transactions referred to in this section.
(a) The first sentence records the allotment of the seventeenth pada to a ganika's daughter with the stipulation that she would enjoy it together with some other ganikās. As indicated above, the word ganika, like vīlasini and mēhari in Section I, probably means 'a Dévadāsi'. The ganikā's name was Göchhini, though her daughter's name cannot be deciphered.
(6) The second sentence records the grant of the village of Bhiņķalavādā. The village is stated to have been given to Tripurusha, though it was actually meant for the deity Chandalēsvara. This probably suggests that the shrine of Chandalēsvara lay in the neighbourhood of the Tripurusha temple. The expzession atr-aiva used in connection with Bhiņtalavādā seems to suggest that the village lay in the vicinity of the temple situated at Nāļol. The following sentence further states that the income or produce of the said village should have to be collected by the Varikas attached to the god Tripurusha as a part of their own collections and that the expenses for the training, food, etc., of the vilasinis attached to the god Chandalēśvara as well as any other expenditure made for the said god should have to be met from the collections or income of the god Tripurusha. It is clear that the management of the affairs of the god Chandalēśvara was entrusted to the Värikas of Tripurusha. As we have elsewhere seen, the Vārikas were the suporintendents of a temple like the
1 For the deity or deities called the Tripurushas', see also the Karimnagar insoription of Prataparudra I (Sreenivasachar, Corpua, Vol. II, p. 176). For a Tripurusha temple at Anhilwada, see Tawney's Prabandha. chintamani, pp. 26, oto. In the composito Trimurti images of Gujarat, Sürya-nārāyaṇa was often representod in Vishnu's place (Majumdar, Chaulukyas of Gujarat, pp. 300, 381),