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 420

No. 56-TWO INSCRIPTIONS OF GUPTA AGE
(1 Plute) D. C. SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND
(Received on 9.5.1959) 1. Kalāchhala Fragmentary Grant of Isvararăta The inscription was discovered by Prof. A. V. Pandya of Sardar Vallabhbhai University at the village of Kalāchhalā near Karāli, about 10 miles to the west of Chhota Udaipur in Kathiawar. It is stated to have been lying with one Gambhirasingh Adesingh Parmar of the said village. Prof. Pandya deciphered the text of the inscription with the help of Prof. V. V. Mirashi and Dr. M. G. Dikshit and has published his transcript in the Vallabh Vidyanagar Research Bulletin, Vol. I, No. 2, International Language Section, pp. 2 and 28, with a photograph (Plate II A facing p. 4) and an eye-copy (p. 28). Prof. V.y. Mirashi has also edited the inscription in CII, Vol. IV, pp.603-04, Plate XCVII.
This is the first plate of a set, which is inscribed only on the inner side. The concluding part of the record, probably engraved on two other plates (i.e. on both sides of the second and the inner side of the third), is lost. There is a hole in the lower margin of the writing. But the ring which must have passed through it to hold the plates together and the seal of the donor of the charter which may have been affixed to it are both lost. The plate measures about 8 inches in length and about 3 inches in height. Its weight has not been recorded.
There are only four lines of writing on the plate. The characters belong to the West Indian variety of the South Indian alphabet of about the second half of the 4th century A.D. Letters like n and medial u exhibit an angle at the lower end. The intial vowel i occurs in - line 1. The language of the record is Sanskrit. Of orthographical interest is the fact that. consonants are rarely reduplicated in conjunction with .
Prof. Pandya assigns the record approximately to the fourth century A.D.' and further says, "Shri Miraghi supports the writer's dating of this plate (4th century A.D.), for its characters and wording bear close resemblance to those of the grants of the Mahārājas Svāmidāsa, Bhulunda and Rudradása. He suggests further that Isvararāta's suzerain was some king of the Abhira dynasty." In his own work referred to above, Prof. Mirashi says that Isvararāta ruled in the 4th century A.D. over a fairly extensive territory including Central Gujarăt and parts of the Khandesh District as a feudatory of the Abhiras and that his family continued to hold Central Gujarāt until it was ousted by Sarva-bhattāraka who rose to power about 400 A.D. as indicated by his coins imitated from those of the Western Kshatrapas.. We are sorry that it is not possible to agree with these views entirely. About the period in question, Kathiawar and the adjoining regions formed a part of the dominions first of the Sakas of Western India and then of the Imperial Guptas. No Abhira emperor is known to have ruled in the 4th century over wide areas of Western India.
The palaeography of the epigraph closely resembles that of the Sanchi inscription of Chandragupta II (376-413 A.D.), which is dated in the Gupta year 93 (412 A.D.). It is considerably earlier
1 An inaccurate transcript and a faulty interpretation of the record were originally published by Prof. Pandya in a brochure entitled New Dynasties of Gujarat History, 1950, p. 12, together with the same photograph and eye.
*Ibid., p. 2. 3 Ibid., p. 28.
• Op. cit., p. xxxvi. Prof. Mirashi's views that the records of Svămidăsa, Bhulunda and Rudradása (Bhandarkar's List, Nos. 1259, 1266 and 1861) are dated in the Traikutaka-Kalachuri-Chidi era and that they were feudatories of an unknown Abhira ruler (of. ABORI, Vol. XXV. pp. 159 ff.; OII, Vol. IV, pp. 5 ff.) are absolutely untenable. See IHQ, Vol. XXII, pp. 84-85; Vol. XXIV, pp. 75-77. * Cf. CII, Vot. II, No. 5, Plate III B; Bühler's Table VII.
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