Epigraphia Indica Vol 34

SR No.: 032588
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: D C Sircar
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1961
Total Pages: 384
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

Page 139

92
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXXIV
of the records of Gayadatunga and Vinitatunga is that many of the mistakes are common to all the four epigraphs and that the names of the donors and their ancestors are often unsuitable in the metrical scheme of the stanzas. Moreover, the section contains a stanza which is only the half of a verse in the Sragdharā metre. These facts would show that the stereotyped introduction had been originally composed for the eulogy of some other ruler but that it was adapted for the grants of the Baid two chiefs. The source from which it was borrowed, however, cannot be determined. The seals attached to the charters of the two rulers, with the exception of Gayādatunga's grant published by Dr. Sahu, are similar. None of the epigraphs of the family bears any date.
As we shall see below, Gayādatunga is described in his records published by Chakravarti, Vasu and Banerji as issuing his grants from [a city on the hill oalled Mahaparvata situated in Yamagarta-mandala, as belonging to the Tunga family of the Sandilya götra hailing from Rohitigiri, and as the son of Salonatunga and a descendant (probably, grandson) of Jagattunga. Rohită. giri may be identified with Rohtāsgarh in the Shahabad District of Bihar. Vinitatunga's desoription contains the same details excepting that he was the son of Khadgatunga and a descendant (probably, grandson) of Vinitatunga (I). It is difficult to say which of the two rulers, Gayādatunga and Vinitatunga II, flourished earlier. The charters of both chiefs are written in the same alphabet which is the Siddhamätrikā script prevalent in Eastern India about the 10th century A.D. As regards the chronology of these Tungas, it has to be noted that they were semi-independent feu. datories of the Bhauma-Kara monarchs of Orissa and that the name of a subordinate chief called Vinitatunga actually occurs in both the Talcher plates of Sivakara III, which are dated in the year 149 of the Bhauma-Kara era probably corresponding to 980 A.D. A record of the BlaumaKara year 180 (c. 1011 A.D.), however, mentions Apsarõdēva, apparently not a Tunga, as the ruler of Yamagarti-mandala under the Bhauma-Kara queen Dandimabädevi, granddaughter of Sivakara III. Thus the semi-independent rule of the Tungas, which was the result of the weakness of Bhauma-Kara authority, appears to have lasted for a short time about the close of the tenth and the beginning of the 11th century A.D. In this contection, we should also note that Gayadatunga appears to have been named after his father's overlord who was either Gayāda I (i.e. Santikara I Lalitabära or bhara, known date year 93-c. 924 A.D.) or II (i.. Santikara II whose song' Talcher plates are dated in the year 145-c. 976 A.D. and the year 149-0.980 A.D.)' of the Bhauna-Kara dynasty. In the present state of our knowledge, it appears that Gayādatunga and Vinītatunga were the only two semi-independent chiefs of tho Tuuga family ruling about the said period while their ancestors known from their records were weaker subordinates of the BhaumaKaras. The two chiefe probably belonged to collateral branches of the family and ruled one after the other.
The recently discovered Taloher plate of Gayādatunga with its simpler introduction and cheaper senl may be regarded as an earlier record of the Tunga king of that name. This would imply that the proper seal was improvised and the bombastic introduction adapted from some unknown source during the rule of this chief, his name being unsuitable in the metrical scheme of the stanza in the introduction. In such a case, we have to attribute the metrical, grammatical and orthographical errors in the records to the carelessness and insufficient linguistic knowledge of Gayadatunga's officers who were responsible for the adaptation. We have then also to suggest that Vinitatunga II flourished later than Gayādatunga.
Cf. above, Vol. XXIX, pp. 85, 191 and note 2. • Ibid., pp. 79 ff. • Ibid., p. 83. • See below, pp. 934.