________________
No. 31.)
BHANDUP PLATES OF CHHITTARAJADEVA.
255
authority. Since then, the term has been found used in a different sense in Kashmir, as meaning "five offices, the names of which began with the word maha (mahat), 'great,'" in a passage in the Räjataraîngipi, 4. 140-3, where we are told that king Muktăpida-Lalitāditya (about A.D. 700-37) conferred on his minister Mitraśarman the pancha-mahāśabda, namely mahāpratihārapida, “the office of high chamberlain"; mahāsamdhivigraha, that of "chief minister for peace and war"; mahāśvasalā, that of " chief master of the horse"; mahābhāndāgāra, that of " high keeper of the treasury"; and mahāsādhanabhāga, that of " chief executive minister": the text, it may be added, further seems to imply that the king created these as new posts (60 far as Kashmir was concerned), over and above the "eighteen offices" which already existed. That, however, is a quite exceptional case. We are concerned here with the epigraphic use of the term, in which it occurs in connection, not with ministers, but with great feudatory princes and paramount sovereigns. And there is no reason for departing from the decision that the expression refers in the case of Chittaraja, and generally, to the privilege of having played before him five such instruments as the Sririga or kombu, 'the horn,' the tammața or halige, 'the tabor, timbrel, or tambourine,' the särkha or davala, the conch-shell,' the bhēri or båjā, the kettle-drum,' and the jayaghantā or jāgate, the bell, cymbal, or gong.'
1 Pancha-mahafabda-Bhajananh ta vyadhatta: for the meaning compare ibid., verse 680, wbere the pañcha mahatabda) are distinctly marked as "offices": that verse anys:-"His eldest (maternal whole) Utpalaka took the paicha mahafabdah: the other maternal uncles took the other karmasthanani."
Auother instance in which it is found coupled with a paramount title, in addition to thche given by me in the noto mentioned above, is in a Balagami inscription of A.D. 1158, Pali, Sanskrit, and Old Canarese Inscriptions, No. 183, line 15 Epi. Carn., vol. 7, Shimogs, Sk. 128 ; where the Kalschurys Bijjala is styled samadhigata panchamahälabda-maharajadhiraja : but the actaul position of Bijjala at that time is not clear ; he had a reckoning of his own beginning in A.D. 1156 ; but the Western Chalukya Taila III was still reigning, at least nominally, in A.D. 1158 and down to 1161.
The reason why the cases are so few in which there is a mention of the pafchamahatabda in connection with Paramount sovereigns, is obviously that the privilege belonged to them a matter of course. In literature the playing of the pancha-mahafabda and suspicious drums in a royal procession is mentioned in a passage from a tale by a Jain Kanarese writer, Röväkotyacharya, given in Ind. Ant., vol. 12, p. 96: the words there are pañchamahafabdangalam badda anada pare(re)galum bājise.
To my previous notes on this matter (see also vol. 5 above, p. 216, note 3) the following may be added :
(1) Two cases of ministers who possessed this privilege, but who were also Samantas, are (a) the Mahäsändlivigrahika, the Samanta Bappabhatti, who wrote the record of A.D. 739 on the Nausari plates of the Chalukya prince Avenijansiraya-Pulakösiraja of Gujarat ; Seventh Oriental Congress, Vienna (1886), Arian Section, p. 234, text line 49; bere the term is prāptao instead of the usual samadhigatao; and (b) the Malasand livigrahadhikrita, the Samanta Mándalla, who wrote the record of A.D. 775 on the Pimpari plates of the Rashtrakūta prince Dhäravarsha-Dhruvaraja of Gujarat; vol. 10 above, p. 89, text lines 65-8.
(9) From linea 56-6 of the record of Tivaradēva on the Baloda plates we learn that his son-in-law Nannaraja (wo is mentioned without any indication of princely or official rank) had this privilege ; vol. 7 above, p. 105; and line 2 (n also liue 2 of the Räjim platos, Gupta Inscription, p. 294) speaks of it as belonging to princes in general.
(8) The record on the Kanker plates of A.D. 1213-14 speaks of the privilege in connection with the Mahamandalika Pamparājadēva 48 & boon obtained from the goddess Katyayani ; vol. 9 above, p. 188, text line 2.
(4) A mention of the patichamahafabda of the Jains, as a religious item, is found in an inscription of A.D. 1388, embodying a compact between the Juins and the Vaishnavas which was sanctioned by king Bukkariya I of Vijayanagara; Epi. Carn., vol. 2, Inscrs, at Sravana-Belgola, No. 136.
* These are the instruments, specified according to both their Sanskrit and their Kanarese or other vernacular names, in the passage in the Kanarese Vivokachintamani (referred to in Ind. Ant., vol. 12, p. 96) as given by Kittel in his Kannads-English Dictionary under pancha-mahavadya. Under aydu, he has quoted from Mangarijn'. Nigbanţu a list of the aydu uttama-vadya or "fve best musical instruments" as being wise, the late,' tala, the cymbal, muraja, the tambourine,' kahale, 'the motal horn or trumpet,' and vása, 'the fute or Afo. There was evidently a difference between the "great " instruments and the "best" ones!
