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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA,
(VOL. IV.
No king Chakrayudha of Kananj is known to us from other inscriptions, and all that can be said with confidence regarding the event spoken of in the two copper-plates is, that, counting back eight generations from the date of the king Mahipala, Vikrama-Samvat 1083 = A.D. 1026-27, it must have taken place about the middle or in the earlier part of the 9th century A.D. — The peoples or tribes, which in the present inscription are stated to have readily accepted the king installed by Dharmapala, are mostly such as would be expected to have had dealings with Kanyakubja. Kanyakubja itself was in the country of the Panchålas in Madhyadega. According to the topographical list of the Brihatsanhitd, the Kurts and Matsyas also belong to the middle country, the Madras to the north-west, the Gandháras to the northern, and the Kiras to the north-east division of India. The Avantis are the people of Ujjayini in Málava. Yadas, according to the Lakkha Mandal Prasasti, were long ruling in part of the Panjab, but they are found also south of the Yamund; and south of this river and north of the Narmada probably were also the Bhojas who head the list. Of the Yavanas it is difficult to speak with any certainty, but it seems not improbable that the word Yavana is used bere simply in the sense of Mléchohha, and is pat in, next to the word Yadu, rather for the sake of poetical ornamentation than with the object of conveying any very definito meaning.- Dharmapala, when he made this grant, resided at Påtaliputra, the modern Patna, on the Ganges. The orders of his successors Dévapala and Narayanapala were issued from Mudgagiri (Mungir or Monghyr), and that of Mahipala from Vilâgapura. In the plate of Vigrahapala III. the name of the king's residence is illegible.
The grant, as already stated, was made to a temple of the god N[u]nna-Narayana, or, more fully, 'to the holy lord N[n]nna-Narayana (bhagavan-N[w]nna-Nardyana-bhattáraka), installed there tatra pratishthapita) (viz. at the temple founded by Narayanavarman), associated with (ie, and to the Låta Brâhmaņas, priests and other attendants who wait upon him.' The words of the text which thus describe the donee exactly correspond to the words tatra pratishthapitasya bhagavata) Sivabhattárakasya pdbupatacharya-parishadas-cha in line 39 of the Bhagalpur plate, by which a donation was made in favour of the god Siva. Their goneral
1 For a list of the PAls kings from Gopala I. to Vigrahapala III. see Ind. Ant. Vol. XXI. p. 99. For the rulers of Kanani we possess no date between that of the Bengal As. Soc.'s plate of the Mahardja Viwaya kapala.
Harsha-]Samvat 188 = A.D. 783-84 (Ind. Ant. Vol. XV. p. 140), and that of the Deðgadh inscription of the Mahardjadhirdja Bhojadeva, the successor of the Mahardjadhirdja Ramabhadradeva, Vikrama-Samvat 919 - A.D. 862 (Archeol. Suro. of India, Vol. X. p. 101). When treating of the verse of the Bhagalpur plate on a former occasion (Ind. Ant. Vol. XX. p. 187), I suggested, with some diflidence, that the ruler who was placed on the throne of Knauj by Dharmapala might possibly have been Blöjadevs. I was quite aware then of the statement in tbe Juinn Harivania Purana (Dr. Rajendralal Mitra's Notices, Vol. VI. p. 80; Ind. Ant. Vol. XV. p. 141; Dr. Bhandarkar's Early History, 2nd ed., p. 65), that in Saks-Samvat 705 - A.D. 783-84, when that work was composed, the north was governed by a certain Indrayudha, but did not venture to place Dharmapala so early as to allow of his baviog bad dealings with that king. I even then felt convinced that there must be some connection between the Indrayudbs of the Harivania-Purdna and the king Indra and Chakrayudhs of the Bhagalpur plate, What tbat connection was, I do not know; and I am unwilling to put forth another conjecture on a question which apy day may be settled by the discovery of a properly dated inscription that may tell us something about the state of Kapauj io tbe first half of the 9th century A.D.
Sve Ind. Ant. Vol. XXII. p. 169 ff.
• In Ep. Ind. Vol. I. p. 132, v. 23, the Kurus are reported to have been defented by the Chandella Yalvarman.
Ibid. p. 184, it will be seen that a king of Kansoj onee received an image of the god Vaikuntha from a king of Kirn. Ibid. Vol. II. pp. 16 and 194, the Kiras are represented as baving been held in check or defeated by the Chodi Karna and the Paramara Lakshmadeva; but in either case the writer probably thought more of his pun than ot telling a real fact.
Ibid. Vol. I. p. 10 ff. Dr. F. E. Hall's edition of this inscription, in Jour. Roy. 4.. Soc. Vol. XX. p. 462 ff.. seems to have been quite lost sight of.
Lata in central and southern Gujarat, and it seems very appropriate that Gujarat Brabmaņas should have been in charge of tbe temple of Narayana (Vishnu. Kpisho), whose own principal residence wus DvArukA in Gujarat.
