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 442

No. 59) MADANAPADA PLATE OF VISVARUPASENA
319 Lines 46 ff. describe the donee who was the Brāhmaṇa Visvarūpadēvašarman of the Vatan götra and the Bhargava, Chyavana, Apnuvat, Aurva and Jämadagnya pravaras. He was the son of Vanamālin, grandson of Garbhēśvara and great-grandson of Parāśara. The donee is called , śruti-pathaka, i.e. a reciter of the Vedic texts, and the grant is stated to have been made according to the principle of bhūmr-chchhidra for acquiring the merits as described in the Siva Purāna. An interesting passage in this section states that the grant was made in the month of Bhadra (probably on the 8th day) in the year 14. But, in the expression chaturdasayāvdū(bdi)ya, chaturda sa is clearly re-engraved after having erased the aksharas dviti, so that the passage read dvitiy-ävli(bdi)ya in the original writing. Thus the original grant was made by the son of Visvarūpasēna in his second regnal year while the corrections were carried out in the charter in the 14th year of Visvarupasena's reign.
The above section is followed in lines 52 ff. by the donor's request to future kings for the prouection of the grant, seven imprecatory and benedictory verses being quoted in this connection. The concluding section contains & verse (lines 58-59) stating that Kõpivishņu, the Mahāsāndhivigrahika (minister of foreign affairs) of Gauda, was the duta or executor of the grant This is followed by three endorsements: (1) briman-mahāsāṁ-karana-ni (i.e. friman-mahasandhwigrahika-karananirikshita),' 'examined and approved by the office or clerk of the minister of foreign affairs '; (2) tri-mahāmahattaka-karana-ni, 1.e. examined and approved by the office or clerk of the Mahamahattaka (probably the head of the group of villages including the gift land); and (3) érimatkarana-m, i.e. examined by the king's personal office or by his personal clerk. The date of the issue of the charter, viz. the 1st of Asvina in the year 14, comes at the end. It is interesting to note that this date is not re-engraved on an erasure, although it certainly refers to the reign of Visvarūpasēna and not of the original donor of the charter. This is clear from the fact that while the original grant was made in the second year of the reign of Visvarūpasöna's son, the corrections were inserted in the 14th regnal year of Visvarūpasēns himself. It seems that this space was blank in the original grant, the date of which in the donor's second regnal year was quoted in line 51.
What has been stated above regarding the nature of the grant, viz. its original 18sue by the son of Vigvarūpasēna and the later insertion of Visvarūpasõna's name in the place of that of the original donor, seems to admit of no doubt. But it involves a number of problems most of which cannot be settled without further light being thrown on the subject by new discoveries. We have seen that the name of the original donor of the Madanapada plate, who was the son of king Visvarūpasēna and whose name was erased in verse 14 and line 28, was written in two aksharas before sena, that the second of these two aksharas was endowed with a sign of superscript and that the first of them was a letter like s which did not necessitate the change of the preceding t in Sandhi. The word in two aksharas that suggests itself to us for filling up this lacuna is suryya since Kumāra Suryasõna is known from the Vanglys Sähitya Parishad plate of Visvarūpasēna and he is generally regarded as a son of the latter. But the name of his mother who was the queen of Visvarüpasēna, that was erased in verse 13, cannot be restored. Even the re-engraved name of Vibvarūpasēna's mother, who was the queen of Lakshmanasēna, cannot be read in our inscription. It has been read as Tadadevi or Tändradevi. But they do not suit the metre. In this connection, it may be pointed out that the Idilpur plate, ascribed to Kāda vasons, exhibits the erasure of the old writing of the name of the donor's mother in verse 14 (verse 13 of our record) and that of the donor in verse 15 (verse 14 of our record) as well as in line 43 (just as in line 38 of our record). The queen-mother's name in this case has been read as Chandrädevi which also violates the metre.
The contraction ni may also stand for nibaddha or registered (of. abovo, Vol. XIX, p. 18, text lin. 16). We have drishta, which is the same as nurikakita, seen', on the oopper plates of such dynasties us The Vakatakas and the Pallavas. See Select Inscriptions, pp. 406, 412, 419, 183, 437.
1 Sve Hisl. Beng., Dacca University, Vol. I, p. 227.