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 444

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No. 59]
MADANAPADA PLATE OF VISVARUPASENA not improve the position since the title would not still offer any satisfactory sense. The copy must have been made from a modified draft like that of the Madanapădă plate which, as we have seen, reads vrishabhan ka since vrishabha was re-engraved on nih sa of mihsanka without erasing nika. That nka was left out through oversight is suggested by the correction effected in the same title in the Idilpur plate in which shabha is re-engraved after having erased sanka.
The circumstances under which Visvarūpasēna's son ruled during the lifetime of his father cannot be determined in the present state of our knowledge. The case does not look like that of Pangu Nirjitavarman succeeding his son Pārtha on the throne of Kashmir. It appears that the 14th regnal year of Viévarūpasēna, when the corrections were offected in the Madanapādā plate, fell not long after the 2nd regnal year of his son when it was originally issued. Thus it looks as if the son was raised to the throne when the father was already a king for several years. Whether this was the result of the son's revolt and temporary success against the father or the father being temporarily incapacitated by the attack of some disease from which his recovery was not expected or by his captivity for a few years in the hands of his enemies is more than what we can say at present. In the Idilpur plate, originally issued by Visvarüpa's son like the Madanapada plate. the son seems to refer to his father reverentially as brihan-nrépati-charanāhi while the son, if he is identical with Süryasēns as he seems to us to be, is mentioned in the Vangiya Sahitya Parishad plate as having created a jāgir which was ratified by Visvarūpasēna. These facts probably suggest that the second of the two alternatives, viz. the son ascending the throne during & period when the father was somehow incapable of holding the reins of government, is preferable. Whether the issue of Süryasēna's grants from Phaspha-grāma suggests the temporary loss of Vikramapura to some enemy is more than what we can say at present. He ruled at least for about three years since the Idilpur plate was issued in his 3rd regnal year. The period of the son's rule seems to have corresponded roughly to the years 11-13 of the father's reign.
Of the geographical names mentioned in the inscription, we have already spoken of the reference to Puri, Banāras and Allahābād. The gift village was situated in the province of Pundravardhana which included wide areas of Northern and South-Eastern Bengal in the age in question. Its division called Vanga must have comprised the Dacca-Faridpur region while the Sub-Division of Vikramapura no doubt included the Munshiganj Sub-Division of the Dacca District and the Madaripur Sub-Division of the Faridpur District. The Madaripur region, now separated from the Pargana of Vikramapura in Munshiganj by the river Padmā, is still called Dakshiņa-Vikramapura, 'South Vikramapura', and it seems that the old Vikramapura division was divided into two halves by the changing course of the Padmā at a date later than the Sēna age. As already indicated above, the gift village called Piñjökāshthi or Piñjöthiya is the modern Piñjāri in the Kotālipādā Pargana of the Faridpur District. The other localities mentioned in the inscription including the description of the boundaries of the gift village have not been identified.
TEXTS Metres: verse 1 Vasantatilaka ; verses 2-3, 5, 7-10, 13, 15-16, 20 Sārdülavikridita ; verses 4, 17
Prithvi : verses 6, 12 Sragdharā; verses 11, 26 Pushpitägrā; verse 14 Giti; verses 18, 21-25 Anushțubh ; verse 19 Mandā krāntā; verse 27 Arya.]
Obverse 1 Siddham o namo Nārāyanāya || Vandē='ravinda-vana-va(bä)ndhavam=andhakāra-kärā-niva
(ba)ddha-bhuvana-traya-mukti-hētum paryāya-vistrita-si1 Ariraja-vrishabha-lankara means the god Siva to the bull that was the enemy kings, the bull being Siva' vahana. The expression vrishabh-anka has no senso suitable to the context.
* See Ray, DHNI, Vol. I, pp. 124-25.
N. G. Majumdar, op. cit., p. 126, text line 49. • Ibid., p. 147, text line 54; p. 148, text line 86.
From impressions. • Expressed by symbol,