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104
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. III.
1- The language is Sanskrit Down to the middle of line 42 the inscription is in verse, and tive benedictive and imprecatory verses occur in lines 68-73; the rest is in prose. The number of verses at the beginning is 28. Of these, verses 1-19 occur in the same order, but with some various readings and partly damaged, in the Kåvi grant of Govinda IV. (Ind. Ant. Vol. V. p. 145), which also contains verse 26, beginning with rakshata yena in line 39 of the present inscription, and verse 28, beginning with tên=edam in line 41. Of the remaining seven verses, verses 23-25, beginning with tasy-apyrabhuid in line 35, are found, in a less correct form, in the Kapadvanaj grant of Krishna II. (Ep. Ind. Vol. I. p. 54). Accordingly, the verses which are peculiar to this inscription are only four, viz. verses 20-22, beginning with fri-Kâñchipati in line 30, and verse 27, beginning with a[yam=]rat in line 40. As regards lexicography and grammar, attention may be drawn to the word prátirdjyn, which in line 31 is used as & masculine noun, evidently in the sense of protirdja, 'a hostile king,' and to the redundant suffix kal in achchhidy amanaka in line 67, as well as in the ordinary yathásamva(ba)dhyamánaka in line 44.- The orthography calls for few remarks. The letter b is throughout denoted by the sign for ; the dental sibilant is occasionally employed instead of the palatal, e.g. in asésha, line 34, and satêshu, line 60 ; and the vowel ri is used instead of the syllable ri in kanakádpir, line 9, kriyd, line 62, and friyam, line 72. Besides, we may notice the employment of the guttural nasal instead of anusudra in the word siriha in line 3, the use of the avagraha to denote the elision of a in line 30, and the spelling of the words upalachchhita for upalakshita in line 57, pratipalaitavya for pratipdlayitavya in line 66, and adnayd (P) for djñaya in line 73.
The inscription is one of the Rashtrakūta Gôvindaraja III. or, as he is described in lines 42-44, the Paramabhattdraka Mahdrdjddhiraja Paramétuara Pfithvivallabha Prabhatavarshe Srivallabhs-narendradêve, who meditated on the feet of the Paramabhatfaraka Maharajadhiraja Pamamêsvara, the illustrions Dharavarshadêva, i.e. bis father Dhruvarija Nirupama. In the introductory metrical portion the genealogy of Govindaraja III. is given, beginning with Govindaraja I., exactly as in other inscriptions of the same dynasty (Gôvindaraja I.; his Bon Karkarája; his son Indrarája II.; his son Dantidurga Vallabharaja; Karkaraja's son Krishnaraja Subhatunga Akala varsha; his son Govindaraja II. Vallabha; his younger brother Dhruvaraja Nirupama; and his son Govindaraja III.); and what is new in this inscription are only the verses in lines 30-34, which relate to the circumstances under which Gôvindarája II. was succeeded by his brother. After having stated in line 29 that Govindaraja's younger brother was Dhruvarkja, our inscription goes on somewhat like this :
“Although that brother (Govindaraja) of his had fetched in large numbers those hostile kings even, the ruler of MÅlavs and others, who were joined by the lord of Kanchi, the Ganga, and him of Vengi, his (i.e. Dhruvardja's) mind underwent no change in regard to him, when afterwards he (Dhruvarija, had possessed himself of his ruby-ornaments and his store of gold. When even after his (1.e. Dhruvaraja's) conciliatory overtares Vallabha (Govindaraja) did not make peace, then (Dhruvardja) speedily defeated him in a battle offered by the brother, and he afterwards drove away the eastern and northern opponents, and obtained the whole sovereigaty ....."
Some other inscriptions only state in general terms that Govindaraja II. was superseded by his younger brother Dhruvarâja, while the Déôli grant 8 of Krishnaraja III. records that “sensual pleasures made Govindaraja careless of the kingdom, and that, entrusting fully the universal sovereignty to his younger brother, Nirupama, he allowed his position as sovereign to become loose.” From the present inscription it would rather appear that Dhruvarija
See Dr. Fleet's Gupta Inscriptions, p. 69.
In the proper name Riski in line 48, assuming the reading to be correct, ni is used instead of ri. . See Journal, Bombay Branch, R. 4. 8., Vol. XVIII. 289.
