Epigraphia Indica Vol 12

Author(s): Sten Konow
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 98

No. 13.]
NIDHANPUR COPPER PLATES OF BHASKARAVARMAN.
71
we find Vajradatta mentioned as a son of Bhagadatta in the Mahābhārata. This is certainly the older version. Mr. Gait, in his History of Assam (p. 14), has, on the other hand, adopted the version of the later copper plates when he says: This king (Bhagadatta), it is said, was succeeded by his brother Bajradatta, and the latter by his son Bajrapani.' I do not know where he has got this last king-Vajrapāņi-from.
The inscription then goes on to inform us (v.7) that after Vajradatta his descendants governed for three thousand years, and then Pushyavarman became king. Then follows the enumeration of his immediate successors down to Bhāskaravarman, the king who issued the grant. He is praised in vv. 22-25 and in the ensuing prose passage, but part of the panegyrio on him has been lost, owing to the disappearance of the third plate. The last plate, now the third, opens in the midst of the description of the boundaries of the land granted; then follow the names of some officers, evidently such as had something to do with the grant and the document. Then come a couple of the customary verses praising a donor of land and cursing those who might take it away. Here ends the original inscription. But an additional verse has been added at the end, indicating that the plates had been burnt and rewritten which new writing should not therefore, be looked on as forged.
The question as to when and by whom this document was renewed, is probably not of great importance. I have already said that, in my opinion, the renewal was probably made by the donor himself; for, as stated in Mr. Gait's invaluable History of Assam3, the dynasty of Bhāskaravarman was soon after his time overthrown by & barbarian Salastambha by name. Moreover, if somebody else-even his successor-renewed the grant, his name would have been incidentally mentioned in the renewed inscription in an additional verse.
Yuan-Chwang bas described Bhaskaravarman as a Brāhman. Probably his descent from Nārāyana Dēva and his staunch adherence to the Brahmanical creed, and possibly also the fact that he personated Brahma, the fountain head of all Brähmaņs-in the procession of Harshavardhana who hiniself figured as Sakra, led the Chinese traveller to this conclusion. On the other hand, Mr. Vincent A. Smith has asserted that “almost certainly he (Bhaskara) must have been & hinduised Kach aborigine." The inscription ander review is not in favour of this assumption. As a matter of fact, fow kings of mediaval and anoient India oould show Buch a brilliant record of illustrious ancestors: Naraka, though styled an Asura for his iniquities, was a mighty monarch whose exploits were recorded in various Purāņas, who was the issue of one incarnation of Vishna (Varāhs), and killed by another (Srikrishņa); Bhagadatta played & very prominent part in the story of the Mahabharata; Vajradatta was as heroic as
See Mahābh., XIV, luxv, 1. Pragjyotisham ath-abhyētga syaoharat sa hayottamah ! Bhagadatt-atmajas tatra wiryayau ranakarkasah II Sa hayois Pandu-putrasya vishayantam upagatam 1 yuyudhe Bharata riktha Vafradatto malipatih II 88 'Miniryaya nagarad Bhagadatta-onto nripa!
afvam ayantam unmathya nagarabhimukhó yayaw 11
* It is of interest to note that these two verses, which are taken from the Brihaspati Samhita, occur in almost all the copper plate grants of the Bengal kings, but are absent from all other Assam plates bitherto published
The only exception is the grant of Vaidyadēvs (Ep. Ind., Vol. II, pp. 347 f.), who, however, was originally the minister of the Bengal king Kumarapals, and not an indigenous king of Kimarupa.
See p. 28.
• The nature of the writing of the renewed inscription is also what is gonerally to be found in the 7th century.
Early History of India, 2nd edition, p. 341.