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 384

No. 61] NOTE ON RATNAGIRI PLATES OF SOMAVAMSI KARNA
273 King Karna'. Sandhivigrahin Krishnadēva, who was probably the dutaka of the charter, has been described in the following two stanzas (verses 30-31) :
Yajda(d-da)nda-mandal-āgrēna khanditair=ahitair-ayam(yam) Sü(Su)näsiro='rthavân puthvil prithyāḥ) pātrê yalch=ā)tra vasundharā || Yasya vu(bre)ddhi-valba)lāl=Lakshmir=čka-patni-va(vra)ta-rsthi(sthi)lā [l*
sa frimän Krishanadēvd=bhū[d*]=bhüpatëh sandhivigrahi || The meaning of the first of the two stanzas, as it is found in the record, is rather obscure. But the author's idea seems to be that king Karna was made the lord of the earth in the real sense by the various kings killed by his minister Kpishṇadēve and that the earth, including the territories of those rulers, came into the possession of a better master.
Vähēru and Mangaka, who engraved the Balijhari (Narsingpur) plates, are described in that record as Suvarna-vithi-vijñānin, i.e. an artisan who lived in a locality called Suvarna vithi, probably meaning "the goldsmiths' quarters' literally. But, in the present inscription, the ngraver Sankhuka is called Svarna-vīthi-Svannahi(or Sunnahi)-v[jfā]nin. It is not improbable that Svannahi or Sunnahi was the name of an area in Svarnavithi or Suvarnavithi.
The passage referring to the gift village in lines 33-34 may be read as Uttaru T3sha(sa)liya-vrajmë(sic. rājye?) Atfhävisa-khanda-sam[baddha*]-Konā-grāmah Atastati-khandiyaVrā(Brā)hmanän-āpujya, eto. It is difficult to understand why, when the gift village was situated in one khanda or subdivision, the Brāhmaṇas honoured in connection with its grant should be represented as living in another khanda. I think it possible that the intended reading for Atastatikhandiyao is atasztat-khandīyao.
In this connection, reference may be made to another inscription of king Karna dēva of the Sömavamsa of Orissa, which I had an opportunity of examining recently. Among the epigraphs copied by me at the Orissa State Museum, Bhubaneswar, in Decenber 1957, there is a fragmentary inscription engraved on the back of an image of the Sun-god. The characters of the record resemble those of the Ratnagiri plates and its language is Sanskrit. M. P. Acharya informed me that the inscribed image had been secured from the village of Gandhibedha in the Balasore District of Orissa. The left half of the inscription is broken away and lost while the letters of the extant part of the writing have been deliberately rubbed off by means of chiselling. In spite, however, of this attempt to cancel the writing, the first two lines of the extant part of the record can be read as follows:
1 dhirāja-paramēsvara-Somakulatilaka-Tri(Tri)
2 sri-Karnnarājadēvasya pravarddhamāna-vi Before dhirāja at the beginning of line 1, the Siddham symbol follower by the letters paramabhatjāraka-mahārājā° must have broken off. The letters lost at the beginning of the second line, following Tri(Tri) at the end of line 1, must have been "kalingādhipati, Trikalingādhipali being a well-known title of the Sõmavamsi kings. The number of lost letters in line 1 suggests that there was another expression between "kalingadhipati in the lost part and fri-Karnnao in the extant portion of line 2. This lost word seems to be para manähësvara, an epithet of king Karņa found in line 31 of the Ratnagiri plates, in which, however, the said epithet occurs before paramabhatāraka. But, if it is supposed to have been engraved in the game position in the lost part of line 1 of the Gandibedha inscription, the gap between the lost kalingādhipali and the extant fri-Karnna in line 2 becomes bigger. Although the Ratnagiri
1 This is No. B 394 of A.R.Ep., 1957-58.