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 80

No. 5]
KAPILAS INSCRIPTIONS OF NARASIMHADEVA
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Sikharēsvara ; but the earlier name of the deity was Kailasasikharēsvara according to Inscriptions Nos. 1-2 and Kailasa, apparently a shortened form of the same name, according to Inscription No. 3.
Inscription No. 2 is the most interesting of the three records. Its style reminds us of that of the Kanchipuram inscription of Anangabhima III (c. 1211-38 A.D.), father of Narasimha I, and this fact lends some colour to the identification of Narasimha of our records with Narasimha I. As a matter of fact, some of the passages are common to both the inscriptions which may have been drafted by the same person. Our inscription begins with the word svasti and states in lines 1-2, in the style of the Kanchipuram inscription, that the king succeeded in subduing by the power of his arms the pride of his enemies in numerous battles at the command of the god Purushottama, the lord of the fourteen worlds. This god is no other than Purushottama-Jagannātha worshipped in the celebrated temple at Puri, to whom Anangabhima III dedicated the Ganga kingdom and to whom that king and his successors owed theoretical allegiance."
The above passage is followed in line 2 by the epithet Paramamāhēsvara (i.e. devout worshipper of the god Mahēsvara or Siva) and the imperial title Paramabhattāraka. It has to be noted that, although the king was a devotee of the god Purushottama-Jagannatha identified with Vishnu, he claims at the same time to be a worshipper of Siva. The following two epithets of the king in lines 2-3 are still more interesting. In these he is described at the same time as the son of the goddess Durgā, called the true cause leading to the creation of the universe, and also as the son of the god Purushottama. It is clear from these statements that Narasimha I was devoted to Mahēšvara and his consort Durgā as well as to Purushottama-Jagannātha i.e. Vishnu). We know that the Gangas were staunch Saivas till the earlier part of the reign of Anantavarman Chōdaganga (1078-1147 A.D.) who became a Vaishộava (i.e. a devotee of the god PurushottamaJagannatha of Purt) after his conquest of the Puri-Cuttack region about the beginning of the twelfth century, and that, although for sometime he claimed to be devoted to both Mahēsvara and Vishnu, in his later years he called himself a devotee of Vishnu alone. The devotion of the successors of Anantavarman Chödaganga to the god Vishnu in the shape of the god Purushottama-Jagannātha of Puri received a great impetus at the dedication of the Ganga kingdom to that god by Anangabhima III. It is therefore very interesting to note that our inscription represents Narasimha I as Paramamāhèsvara, Durga-putra and Purushottama-putra and as the builder of the Siva temple on the Kapilās hill. But it is not surprising in view of the fact that his father Anangabhima III himself is also called both Paramavaishnava and Paramamāheśvara as well as Purushottama-putra, Rudra-putra and Durgā-putra at the same time in one of his inscriptions in the Siva temple at Draksharama, which records the grants made by him in favour of that Saiva shrine in his 8th an ka or 6th regnal year. These facts point to the catholicity of the religious approach of the Ganga kings Anangabhima III and Narasimha I.
The next epithet in line 3 compares Narasimha I with the Great Boar (i.e. Vishnu in his Boar incarnation) that raised up the Vēdas and worlds from the ocean. This is followed in lines 3-4 by the imperial titles Mahārājādhirāja and Paramēśvara und an epithet representing the king as the pillar of support to the Ganga dynasty. The following passage in line 4 calls the ruler both Anantavarman and the victorious Vira-bri-Narasimhadēva and seems also to endow him with the title Gajapati. We know that the successors of Anantavarman Chödaganga enjoyed the
1 See above, XXXI, pp. 94 ff.
This seems to suggest that the Kanchipuram inscriptiom was drafted at the Ganga capital. Cf. abovo, Vol. XXX, p. 22 and note 3.
• Ibid., Vol. XXX, p. 19; JIH, Vol. XXXv, pp. 75 ff. • Ibid., Vol. XXVIII, p. 240. .SI1, Vol. IV, No. 1329; JIH, Vol. XXXV, pp. 78-79.