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YO. 24.]
KHAIRUA PLATES OF YASAHKARNADEVA.
209
may bave been either Räjarāja (1022-62) or more probably his brother and successor, Vijayāditya VII., who occupied the Vēngi throne with some interruption till 1077 A.D. It was the latter's rule which was disturbed by outside invasion, the Chalukya Vikramăditya VI. having attacked him twice. In one of the South Indian inscriptions Vijayaditya is described as a warrior whose broad hands held weapons of war' and the same thing is perhaps alladed to in our inscription where in verse 23 'the play of arms of the ruler of the Andhra's' is spoken of as disclosing no flaw. The dates of Vijayaditya and Yasabkarna fit in so well that there seems little doubt that the former was the Andhra king referred to.
With regard to geographical names occurring in the record Tripuri is the well-known Tewar 8 miles from Jabalpur, in the middle of which there is still a Siva liriga going under the name of Tripurėśvara or the lord of Tripura or Tripuri. Karnavati (v. 14) has now been wiped out of existence. It was about a mile from Tripuri and the site is still known as Karanbila name with double signification, retaining the memory of the founder in the first half and giving the distinguishing mark of the site in the second half, there being a jungle of bil trees planted to supply leaves to the numerous Siva lirigas once enshrined there. The Kuntala and Andhra countries have been referred to hefore. Prayaga and Kaçi, the Godavari and Kalinga are too well known to require any description. With regard to the village Dzula Pamchēla and to Dēvagrama, pattala in which it was situated, I am indebted to Rai Bahadur Pandit Janaki Prasid, Secretary to His Highness the Maharaja of Röwah, for instituting an enquiry in the Röwah State, from which it appears that close to Kbairhå there are 2 villages named Dēogavån and Deogain, the former being & corruption of Dėvagrama and the latter a diminutive of the same, where there are a number of very old wells and water reservoirs together with remains of old buildings. I am therefore inclined to think that Deogavin, close to the village Arjhula, with which it appears to have been amalgamated but again separated by the Settlement Department of the State, represents the head quarters of the pattalā (a pargand like sub-division) Dévagrama. Its great extent is indicated by the division of the old town into two villages, Dēogavån and Deogain, the bigger portion being given a masculine and the smaller * feminine name, like husband and wife, though two yet one. Dēnlā Pamchēla, for which we should now expect some such form as Dēoră, is not traceable in the vicinity of Khairhå or Deogavin, though there are several villages of that name in the adjoining district of Jabalpur. There are no materials available to show the extent of a pattala in olden times, but if it included large areas, one of the Doorås of the Murwårå tahsil in the north-east oorner adjoining the Baghelkhand border may be identified with the village granted in this record. The meaning of the word Panchēla added to it, would then be significant. Panchēla was the tract of country to the east of the East Indian Railway line from Sihori in the middle of the Jabalpur district, to its northern border, the whole of which abuts on Baghelkhand. Sir William Sleeman in mentioning the 52 garhs of the Gond king Sangrām Shāh, says that Pachēlgarh was the country lying between the rivers Burma (Bearma) and Mahanadi (chhoti) or the Pargana of Kombee (Kumbhi) which corresponds to the tract referred to above.
A word with regard to the third portion of this record, which contains an unusually large number of benedictive and imprecatory quotations. Mr. Pargiter remarks that it was & common practice in making grants of land in Ancient India for the donor to emphasize the gift and endeavour to secure its permanence by inserting in the deed of the grant one or more versen which were considered as sacred regulatione regarding gifts of land. Such verses either affirmed
See Godavari District Gazetteer, 1907, p. 21.
* Such names are very common in that part of the country, for further examples of which see the Jublub. pore District Gazetteer, p. 122.
• Journal Beng. 41. Soc., 1887, p. 646. • J. R. 4. 8., 1912, p. 240.
