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No. 28.]
SOME RASHTRAKUTA RECORDS.
The banners and crests of the Rashtrakutas of Malkhed and of the Raṭṭas of Saundatti.
227.
The difference between the lañchhana or crest, which was the device used on the seals of copper-plate charters, occasionally at the tops of inscriptions on stone, and on coins, and the dhvaja or banner, has been explained, with instances, in my Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts, in the Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I. Part II., p. 299, note 4.
The Rashtrakutas of Malkhed had the pâlidhvaja banner and the Garudalañchhana or Garuda crest, which are mentioned in, for instance, lines 9 and 13 of the Sirûr inscription of A.D. 866, E., page 206. And it would appear, from a passage in the Adipurána of Jinasêna, that the pâlidhvaja was a particular arrangement, in rows, of a thousand and eighty flags,-a hundred and eight flags of each of ten kinds of flags bearing, as there specified, the devices of garlands, cloths (?), peacocks, water-lilies, geese, eagles, lions, bulls, elephants, and wheels; see Ind. Ant. Vol. XIV. p. 104 f.
The Raṭṭas of Saundatti, on the other hand, had the suvarna Garuḍadhvaja, or banner of a golden Garuda, and the sindûraláñchhana or sendûraláñchhana, the red-lead crest.
Their lâñchhana is mentioned in the records edited by me in the Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. Vol. X. pp. 194 to 286, in my translations of which I treated it as the mark of vermilion. Subsequently, however, the expression simdûra-láchhanam, for sindúra-láñchhanam, in line 43 of the inscription at Têrdâl, was translated by Mr. Pathak as meaning "who has the device of an elephant." To this there was attached a note, telling us vaguely that, "according to Kêsiraja, sindhura is changed into sindûra." And, 'accepting that statement, I translated sindúra-la[m]chhanam in the Mantûr inscription of A.D. 1040,3 and simdúra-lámchchhanas in the Bhoj plates of A.D. 1208, by "who has the crest of an elephant;" and I have taken it as established that the Raṭṭas of Saundatti had the elephant crest. Since that time, however, I have gradually learnt that, even apart from his habit of often not stating chapter and verse for his assertions, so that it is sometimes difficult or impossible to test them, the person who made that statement about the meaning of sindûra in this combination, is by no means to be accepted implicitly. He has misled us in this matter. And, as happens not infrequently, the process of setting things right cannot be made as brief as the enunciation of the assertion which has led us astray.
On re-examining the Raṭṭa records themselves, I find that they mention the crest by two words, sindura and sendûra.? I find the word sindûra in the following cases: -My inkimpression of the fragmentary inscription of Kârtavirya II. at Saundatti, of the period A.D. 1069 to 1076, shews distinctly simdara-lâmchchhanam, as given by me in Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. Vol. X. p. 213, text line 5. My photograph of the Kalhole inscription of Kartavirya IV. of A.D. 1204 shews distinctly simdura-lámchhanam, as given by me ibid. p. 221, text line 16. And the published facsimile lithographs of the Saundatti inscription of Lakshmidêva II. of A.D. 1228 shews distinctly simdúra-lamchhanam, as given by me, ibid. p. 268, text line 62. And I have the
1 There were, however, exceptions to the rule. And, notably, the seal of the only Ratta copper-plate record which has come to light, the Bhoj plates of A.D. 1208, appears to present, not their crest, but the Garuda which was the device on their banner; see Ind. Ant. Vol. XIX. p. 243.
3 Ind. Ant. Vol. XIV. p. 24, note 24.- I may remark that the editing of that record was done under strict supervision by me; and there can be little doubt, if any, that the original does present simdura and not sendára. Ind. Ant. Vol. XIX. p. 164, text line 9-10.
Ibid. p. 247, text line 88.
See Dyn. Kan. Distrs. p. 552.
I have not got either ink-impressions or photographs of the Mantur inscription and the Bhoj plates.
In the first syllable of this word, the vowel may be either the short e or the long . The following conjunct consonant indicates, preferentially, the short e.
Archeol. Surv. West. Ind. Vol. II. p. 224, Plate 73.
2 G2
