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No. 2.) MAHOBA PLATES OF PARAMARDI-DEVA: (VIKRAMA-SAMVAT 1230. 11
or A.D. 1308. At that time portions of the Damoh and Jubbalpore Districts were governed by a Mahārāja-putra Våghadeva with head-quarters at Singorgash in the Damoh District. He appears to have been a Parihår? Chief who had accepted the supremacy of Chandella kings. In a village named Salaiya, 3 miles from Banhni, there are two Sati records, one dated in A.D. 1304 and the other in A.D. 1309, the former erected during the reign of Vághadeva and the latter in that of Alå-ud-din, indicating that the Parihår Chan lella rule had come to an end in A.D. 1310, through the Muhammadan invasion. We know from other suroes that it was about this time that Ala-ud-din sent to the Deccam his army, which established a footing in Bundelkhand, ousting the previous dynasties.
With regard to the geographical names, Erachha is the well-known Erich on the Betwa river, which gave its name to the surrounding district. It is about 60 miles from Mahobă. The village Dhanaura, from which grants were mado, is represented by a village of the same name, with its final vowel lengthened. The present village Dhanaura is 11 miles from Erachha. Gahila, where the king was encamped, is apparently Gahuli, about 10 miles north of Dhanauri. I cannot trace the village from which the family of the donee had originally come. As the grant refers to pieces of land and not to the whole village, the boundaries are described by local nalas, ponds and fields, which it is now fruitless to trace.
1 A Sati record in Patan (District Jubbulpore) reads as follows :
संवत १३५१ समये प्रतिहार रात्री वाघदेव भूजमाने ततकाल कायस्थ पं. परषार (१)(धा) वृच्च यथा नमंदा सौर्षे प्रमति तौट्रिम (१)ग्रामे समाक्कने
जगहथ उधत माध वदि १२ सके Mark the word wat in the brst line and compare the tradition that Parihar kingo ruled in Singor. garh, as recorded by General Cunningham in his Archeological Report, Vol. IX, p. 49. Also see Hiralal's Damok Dipaka (Damoh District Gazetteor in Hindi), pp. 108 and 109. It may be noted here that Patan, where the present record exists, is only 20 miles from Singorgarh. The date of the rocord regularly corresponds to Friday, the 15th February, 1303 A.D., as calculated by Dewan Bahadur S. K. Pillay. * One of them is lying on a hillock and reads as follows:
संवत १३८२ समये चैत्र सुदि र सीमे महाराजपुत्र श्री वाघदेव भुज्यमाa fet (:) neftरहण सुत माम काल भवतिभा वाला महासतौ wa(:) Barifa
म कौति पालयः प. जैपाव लिखितोस्ति: भडमामी
श्री लउटनाग्वे गढ़ीति The date of the record regularly corresponds to Monday, the 9th Marca, 1804 A.D. The second one, lying in a field, reads as follows:
संवत १९८८ समये चलयदौन सुताना राज्य बलिपखेट यामे Both the stones are put on the borders of a deserted vilinge, wraya kheda, which is identical with Baliskheta of the above-quoted inscriptions
That Vagha-dēva's rale subsisted till Samvat 1866 is appareut troua Sati record of that year, found at Singorgaph itself. (See Damoh Dipaka, p. 109.)
B 2
