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No. 6.1
BHANDAK PLATES OF KRISHNARAJA I: SAKA 694.
123
among virtuous and chaste women.' The name of the queen was therefore Bhavaganā. Dr. Fleet translates the corresponding half.verse of the Såmångad grant na follows: "She attained the position of honourable young women who are faithful wives. On comparing my translation with that of Dr. Fleet there will be no doubt as to which reading is to be preferred. Coming to Krishna himself, in addition to his birudas Subhatunga and Akalavarsha, which we know from other inscriptions as well, he appears to have also assumed the title Sri-pralayamahi-varaha. Besides these three birudas this record contains no further historical informa. tion about him, and it would therefore appear that it was issued in the early part of his reign : at any rato, before the event of the construction of the Ellora temple, which event is described with such pomp and ceremony in a later record of this dynasty,
With regard to the charge bronght against Krishna by Dr. Fleet that he had uprooted his relative Dantidurge, who had resorted to evil ways and appropriated the kingdom for the benefit of his family,' I hope this record of Kțishņa-raja himself will have the last word to say and that too in a decided negative. The weak points of Dr. Fleet's theory have already been pointed out with sufficient clearness and force by Mr. Devadatta R. Bhandarkar recently in his article on the Alås plates of Govinda II. It is here sufficient to point out that Dantidurga was no lioentions weakling, but a very powerful and, probably, also a popular king. In fact, he was the first king of his dynasty to assume the title of Rajadhiraja-Paramefvara, or, to quote the words of Dr. Fleet himself, he was the real founder of the dynasty." In our grant, just as in the Sámångad grant, he is called the 'son to the lotus (which was) his family'; both these records lay stress on his devotion to his mother in unmistakable terms. It is, therefore, preposterous to identify the relative of Krishna 'who had taken to evil ways' with the founder of the dynasty, Dantidurga, who had merited the epithet sva-kul-ambhoja-bhaskara. Besides, were Krishna really guilty of the murder, it is inconceivable that he should have tolerated the ealogy showered upon the murdered uncle in a grant of his own and coolly added that he ascended the throne after the victim of the assassination had gone to heaven!
The formal part of the grant records that the king, being on camped at Nändi-pura-dvári, granted on the occasion of a sankranti, at the request of one Madana, the village of Nagaņapuri to the Bhattāraka of the temple of Aditya in the town of Udunvara-manti. The conclud. ing verse gives the name of the writer as V&mana-[n]ga.
The grant is dated in the Saks year 194 expired on the third day of the dark hall of IshAdha, which was, as remarked above, a Sankranti. Dewan Bahadur Swamikannu Pillai, who kindly examined for me the details of the date, informs me that the tithi mentioned in our rooord onded on the 23rd June (Tuesday) A.D. 772, at abont one ghafikd after sunrise; the day" was also the first day of the solar month Kakataka by the Tamil rute. The Karkataka Sankranti fell on June 22nd (i.e, on the previous day) at a little before midnight. We are therefore led to assume that in the present case the first day of the civil month was called Sankranti, though the astronomical Sankranti fell on the previous day, « supposition which is countenanced by the practice actually followed in Southern India in certain well-known instanove.
TEXT. [Metres:•v. 1, Amstubh (Sloka); vv. 2-7, Valantatilakd ; v. 8, Anushfudh (Bloka); v. 9, Indravajrd; vy. 10-16, Anushpibh (Sloka) ; v. 17, Vasantatilakd ; v. 18, Sandglavikridita; vv. 19-24, Arya ; v. 25-26, Anushfubh (Sloka); v. 27, defective Arya.] 1 [W]
TH Tattfarad a 0 ] Tee कान्तन्दुकरया
R. G. Bhandarker, Early History of the Dallas (Bombay Chusettser, Vol. L, Part II), p. 190. * Kanaru. Djetit, p. 391. Bp. Ind., VOL VI, p. 309.
• Kanare Dynashe, p. 889. From the original plates and a set of impreenson,
• Represented by a symbol.
