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172
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(4) His son Devapâla, A.D. 948; contemporaneous with the Chandella Yasovarman (alias Lakshavarman). Whether Devapâla is identical with Vijayapala, who in an inscription from Alwar, of the Vikrama year 1016 A.D. 959-60, is described as the successor of Kshitipala, I am unable to determine (see Proceedings, As. Soc. Beng., 1879, p. 162).
I abstain for the present from any speculations on the possible predecessors or successors of these kings, but, in conclusion, I must point out that our Devapâla can have nothing to do with the Devapâla in Dr. Hörnle's list in the Centenary Review, Beng. 48. Soc., part II, p. 208, or in the lists of Sir A. Cunningham in Archeological Survey of India, vol. XV, p. 149, and elsewhere.
THE SECOND PART.
On the second part of the inscription (lines 39-46), which, as I have stated above, is almost entirely in verse, I need only add a few words here. The language here, too, is Sanskrit, and it is generally more correct than in the preceding portion, but by no means free from mistakes. Thus, we find in line 42 the Ablative fear, used instead of the Genitive; in line 48 af (for fan) used in a causal sense; in line 42 the barbarous T; in line 39, for the sake of the metre, ag for any; in line 42 the
crude form
for ; in lines 39 and 40 offences against the metre; etc.
As regards the contents, after the words 'om, om, adoration to Ganapati,' and two verses invoking the blessings of Gapanâtha and Trivikrama (Vishnu), we are told that a certain prince at Mahodayâ, which is compared with Indra's town Amaravati, once gave the town Rayakka to some Brahmans, who after it were called Rayakkabhattas. One of their descendants, named Vasishtha, happened to come on matters of busi ness here', to Siyaḍont, where he dwelt near the Raja of the place whose name apparently was Hariraja. And Vasishtha's son, Damodara, founded here a temple of Murari (Vishnu), furnished it with an image of the god, provided it with a garden, and probably endowed it with funds for the worship of the deity. The concluding line would appear to say that the father of Damodara died in battle.
[This temple of Vishnu has since been identified by Dr. A. Führer with a large ruined shrine at the neighbouring village of Satgatto, to the NE. of Siron. Near the ruined temple is a large baoli or well, still in fair preservation, and the village abounds in fine statues of Vishnu,-some of which have been transferred to the Lucknow Museum.-J. B.]
I have stated before that the concluding lines of the inscription are more or less damaged, and there are some passages in them which, in consequence, I fail to understand properly; but the above gives correctly the general sense of the original, and I have omitted nothing which would be of any importance to the historian.
The town Râyakka, mentioned in the above, I am unable to identify. With the term Rayakkabhatta we may compare Râyakavala, the designation of a Brahman caste, in line 27 of the inscription of Bhimadeva II. published in Ind. Ant., vol. XI, p. 71.
