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No. 15.] CHANDRAVATI PLATES OF CHANDRA DEVA: V. S. 1150 AND 1156. 193
Mahārāja-putra Govindachandra-Deva that his father Madanapala-Deva was ruling in Vikrama-Samvat 1161. We may, therefore, assume that Chandra-Deva must have died and his son Madanapala-Deva succeeded him some time between Vikrama-Samvat 1156 and 1161. We have for Chandra-Deva no earlier dates than V. S. 1148. So we cannot yet determine the date of his coming to the throne of Kanyakubja, which he is said in the inscriptions to have conquered.
PLATES OF VIKRAMA-SAMVAT 1150.
The first document is inscribed on five plates, comprising a total of ninety lines. It begins with an invocation to the Goddess Śri, consort of Vishnu, favourite deity of the kings of the Gahaḍavala family, and goes on to describe the genealogy of the donor, king Chandra-Deva, and his conquest of Kanauj. This is followed by the royal order announcing that the Parama-bhaṭṭaraka Maharaj-adhiraja Param-esvara Parama-maheśvara SrimachChandraditya-Deva, after bathing at the Svarga-dvara tirtha at the confluence of the Sarayn and the Gharghara in Ayodhya, conferred on a body of 500 Brahmanas (pamchasatasamkhyebhyah) the pattala of Kathehali with the exception of certain villages formerly given to temples, Brahmanas etc., on Sunday the fifteenth day of the dark half of the month of Asvina in the year Samvat 1150 (expressed both in words and figures), on the sacred occasion of a solar eclipse. The date corresponds to A.D. 1093, October 23. He also gave away the village of Sarisõda in the Vrihaḍrihēvam kānai pattala for the residence of the same community of Brahmanas. The document winds up with nine verses, the first seven of which are of an imprecatory nature. The eighth mentions the name and the parentage of the scribe Hridayadhara, son of the illustrious Sivastambha, and the last eulogizes the donor ChandraDěva as the king by the resoundings of whose copper-plates bearing grants of land, "at the time of their being engraved with rows of closely written lines, the universe has become deafened."
It is interesting to note that one of the ghats of Ayodhya still bears the name of Svargadvāra. The pattala of Kathehall is now known as Katehir, the largest pargana in the district of Benares. "It is bounded on the south by Athaganwan, Sheopur and Jahlupur, on the east by the Ganges and the pargana Barah of Tahsil Chandauli, on the west by Kol Aslah and on the north by the small pargona of Sultanipur and the river Gumti." Its ancient boundaries (chatur-aghata), as recorded in this inscription, were " Kōllakanandivara pattala, the Gōmati, Bhagirathi and Varana." We may assume that the pattala of Kathehali was nearly co-extensive with its modern representative; for, though one of the old boundaries, Kollakanandivära has not been identified with certainty, it is not impossible that it is the same as Kol Aslah which now marks the western limit of the Katehir pargana. We note in support of this that Kol Aslah is also a pargana and its first component may well be a remnant of " Kollaka."
TEXT.1
1. 11
सोयं नरपतिमुकुटमकरिकामरकतप्रभापटलपल्लवितपादपोठो गजपतिगलगतिप्रलय पंचानन स्त्रियं कुपतिक
1. 12 पटपाटनकपणत चपलपंचाल चूल चुंबनचणचंद्रहासो मिरिपतिपिषुपिखचणमास्तः कवलितकलिकालकपट पेटको निर्वाणपथिकलोपाकदर्शनः समधिग1. 13 तसकलदर्शनखरसपेशलज्ञानसंपद्दिजितमुनिमनोवृत्तिराश्रयः श्रेयसामाकरः सव्वंविद्यानामालयः कलानामाधारः सा (खा) मिसंपदां परमभट्टारक महाराजाधिराजप
1 From the plates.
2 D
