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No. 16.]
SOME RASHTRA KUTA RECORDS.
Govinda III. ia mentioned, in all the eight records, only as Jagattunga and Jagattungadêva, without any allusion to his proper name or to any of his other birudas.
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Amôghavarsha I. is mentioned in the Nausâri grants as Śrivallabha, who then became Viranarayana. The Sangli, Kardâ, Bhâdâna, and Khârêpâtan grants mention him as Amoghavarsha, the Bhâdâna record putting forward also a very questionable new biruda for him, in the form of Durlabha. The Dêôli and Karhad grants use only his biruda Nripatungadêva.
And Krishna II. is mentioned by his proper name only, as Krishnaraja, in the Nansârî, Dêôli, Karhâd, and Bhâdâna grants, and by only his biruda of Akalavarsha in the Sângli and Khârêpatan grants; while the Kardâ grant presents both his proper name and the same biruda, mentioning him first as Akálavarsha, and then supplying his proper name as Krishnanṛipa, "king Krishna."
It is rather curious that Govinda III. was thus remembered only as Jagattunga; for, as we shall see further on, this biruda was certainly not the appellation by which he was best known in his own time. It appears first in the Tôrkhêdê grant of A.D. 813, issued in his time. And all that we know as to the origin of it, is the assertion in the Nilgund inscription of A.D. 866, of the next reign, that he, Prabhûtavarsha-Govindaraja, conquered the whole world. and so became known as Jagattunga. It evidently became his leading biruda, supplanting the biruda that was at first his distinctive appellation; because it was used, most exceptionally, in violation of the custom of using the biruda ending in varsha, to denote him in the Kanheri inscription of A.D. 851, in the formal passage which mentions him, as Jagattungadêva, as the predecessor of the then reigning king Amôghavarsha I. His assumption of the biruda, and the fact that it eventually became his most well known appellation, are evidently to be attributed to something or other that occurred when his reign was well advanced, and after A.D. 807 because there is no allusion of any kind to the biruda in the Wapi and Radhanpur grants of that year.
The use of the biruda Śrivallabha in the Rashtrakuța records.
We have now to consider who is most likely to be intended by the biruda Śrivallabha as used to denote the reigning king, without any other appellation, or any other hint,-in a Rashtrakuta record which, like the Lakshmêshwar inscription, C. above, is not dated but is referable to the last quarter of the eighth century A.D.
We have first to note that from Śrivallabha, "favourite of Sri or Fortune," we have the derivative śrivallabhatâ, "the condition of being a Śrivallabha." In the Rashtrakuța records, this word rivallabhatá is met with as the equivalent of råjådhirajaparamésvaratâ, "the condition of being an over-king of kings and a supreme lord." And these two words were used in the general sense, according to free translation, of " supreme sovereignty;" for instance, a verse in the Sâmângad grant of A.D. 754 describes Dantidurga as acquiring the rájádhirájaparamésvaratá by conquering Vallabha, which appellation denotes there, and in the passage quoted below, the Western Chalukya king Kirtivarman II.,- while another verse in the inscription at the Dasavatara cave at Ellôrâ says that, by defeating the army of Vallabha and subjugating certain other kings, he acquired the śrivallabhatá. And, in view of this, the biruda Srivallabha might, without any objection, be applied to any paramount king without exception.
1 As already said, we may expect to find it used, in the same way, in the formal preambles of the prose passages of copper-plate records of Amoghavarsha I., if we ever obtain any such records.
2 Ind. Ant. Vol. XI. p. 112, text lines 24, 25.
Archæol, Surv. West. Ind. Vol. V. p. 88, text lines 10, 11,
2 c
