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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. VII.
Kannada-English Dictionary gives sindúra-boftu as meaning "a round mark on the forehead) made with red lead.' That, therefore, was one of the uses of red-lead; namely, for making the tilaka or mark on the forehead, made with coloured earths, sandal-wood, or ungueuts, either as an ornament or as a sectarian distinction.' But a special use of the sindûra as a royal prerogative is established by the Rajatara ngipi, 8, 2010. We are there told, in respect of a certain confidential official named Kôshthèsvara, a councillor of king Jayasimha of Kashmir, that,- baddhy-adhikariņaḥ sulkam grihņat=åkari raja-vat têna sva-namna bhåndêshu drange sind ůra-mudraņam,"imprisoning the officials, he collected the customs at the watch-station, and had his own name stamped in red-lead on the waros as if he were the king."! To this, Dr. Stein has attached the comment that "it is still customary in Jammu territory, and "probably elsewhere too in India, to mark goods for which ootroi-duty has been paid, with “seal-impressions in red-lead sindúra)." That comment is apposite enough. But we further learn from the text that, in ancient times, there was a certain royal privilege of stamping with red-lead. The word mudrana means the act of making the mudrá or stamp or impression of a lánchhana or device on a seal or crest. And we thus see that the possession of the sindůralañchhana or sendûralañchhana entitled an owner of it to stamp his name, crest, or other symbol, in red-lead.
Govinda II., and the Alås plates which purport to have been issued in A.D. 770.
In Vol. VI. above, p. 170 ff., I examined again, in the light of only the most nearly synchronous records, a question which had engaged my attention once before. And I arrived at the same conclusion ; namely, that the successor of Krishņ& I. was his younger son Dhruva. I indicated that the pointed expression used in the Waņi record of A.D. 807 (and repeated in the Radhanpur record of A.D. 808), that Dhruva obtained the sovereignty by " leaping over his elder brother (jy@shth-ollanghana)," would not be incompatible with the possibility that Govinda II., the elder son, was the intended successor of Krishna I., and in fact is rather suggestive that. not only was that the case, but also an appointment of him as Yuvaraja was actually made. And I found, in the Paithan record of A.D. 794, a possible intimation that Govinda II. established himself in the northern parts of the Rashtrakata territories, while Dhruva set himself up as his rival in the south, and that time elapsed before Dhruva made himself master of the whole kingdom. But I found it to be plain that, at the best, Govinda II. made a stand for only a short time. And I arrived at the conclusion, from the early authoritative records, that Dhruva set himself up as king immediately on the death of Kộishna I., and that Gôvinda II. had no real part in the succession at all.
Since then, there has been published, in Vol. VI. above, p. 208 ff, the record contained in the Alås plates. This record mentions Dantidurga, son of Indra II., by a name, Dadrivarman, which is of course nothing but a mistake, made by the writer, for Dantivarman. It introduces Govinda II, as "the dear son" of the favourite of Fortune and the Earth, the Maharajadhiraja, Paramésvara, and Bhaftáraka Akalavarsha-(Krishna I.), and describes him as the Yuvardja Govindara ja, with the birudas or secondary appellations of Prabhatavarsha and Vikramávalóka, " whose head was purified by an anointment to the position of Yuvaraja which was greeted with acclamation by the whole world, and who had attained the panchamahatabda." It brings forward a certain Vijayaditya, with the birudas of Mångva ļoka (sic) and Ratnavarsha, who is described as a son of another) Dantivarman, and as a son's son of a Dhruvaraja (who seems to be Dhruva, the younger brother of Govinda II.). And it recites that, at the request of Vijayaditya, and on a specified day of the month Ash&dha in the Saumya samvatsara, Saka-Samvat 692 (expired), falling in June, A.D. 770, Govinda II., as Yuvarkja, being
Dr. Stein's Text; and Translation, Vol. II. p. 166.
Dyn. Kan. Distrs. p. 393.
