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210
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[ VOL XVIII.
was apparently dictated by the disa ffection among the vassal kings who had transferred their allegiance from him to another overlord (v. 17). This is evidently a reference to his contending, immediately after his accession, against a confederacy of twelve kings led by Stambha, who can be no other than his elder brother Ranävaloka-Kambhadēva.' This opposition, however, he quickly put down. But the Ganga, whom he had released, refused to pay the fine imposed on him and had to be put in fetters again (v. 18).
Verses 19-20 contain nothing but conventional praise of Govinda III, but the second of these supplies for him a new epithet Tribhuvanadhavala, not known from previous records. From v. 21 begins the description of his expedition of conquest in the north. He appears first to have encountered and defeated Nāgabhata and Chandragupta. Who the second of these princes was it is not difficult to say. The only prince of that name who can be a contemporary of Govinda III is Chandragupta .of the Köbala country ruling at Sripura or Sirpur in the Central Provinces. The name of the family to which he belonged was Pāndava, but there can be no doubt that it was one of the paramount dynasties of the eighth and ninth centuries. As regards Nāgabhata, the other prince vanquished by Govinda III, there can be no question that he pertained to the Imperial Pratīhāra family and was the son of Vatsarāja, king of Avanti, referred to above. His victorious march in the north, as verse 23 tells us, continued till his horses drank and elephants plunged themselves into the spring waters of the Himalayas. And it was here that two more princes, Dharma and Chakrayudha, seem to have offered him their submission. This verse winds up by saying that he thus resembled the Himalayas in kirti or fame, and, therefore, came to be known as Kirtinārāyaṇa, which, we know, was another epithet of Govinda III. Of the two kings who submitted to him as he approached the Himālayas, Dharma has been recognised to be Dharmapāla of the Pāla dynasty, and Chakräyudha to be the prince of the same name who obtained the sovereignty of Kanauj through Dharmapāla.
From the Himalayas Govinda III returned to the Narmadā; and, turning to the east, be went along the bank of the river, conquering the Mālava, Kosala, Kalinga, Vanga, Dahala and Odraka countries (v. 24), and in this connection we are informed of another title that he bore, namely, Vikrama. Making his enemies submissive, he followed the other part of the river and established himself in a capital at the foot of the Vindhyas (v. 25). From verse 26 it appears that he was then in the kingdom of a small ruler, called Mahārāja Sarva, and in the bame verse we are further told that while he was encamped there, a son was born to him who was known as Mahārāja Sarvan and about whom, verses 27-8 tell us that the astrologers predicted a happy and brilliant future. Evidently there is a pun here on the terms Mahārāja and Sarvan. In one case they are taken as two separate words referring to . Mahārāja called Sarvan, no doubt, the Chief in whose principality Govinda III was temporarily settled on the banks of the Narmadā and at the foot of the Vindhyas; and, in the other case, the two terms are to be taken together so as to make Mahārāja Sarvan as the royal title by which we know Amöghavarsha, son of Govinda III, was known. What Verse 26 intends us to understand is that as Govinda III was turning to the west of the Narmadā and was temporarily established in the petty kingdom of his feudatory Sarvan, Amögh varsha was born. Similar information is contained in two other copper-plate grants of this king which tell us that after receiving the submission of the Mālava king, he marched to the Vindhy&s, where a prince named Mārāśarva conciliated him with his choicest heirlooms, and that he spent the rainy season at a place called Sribhavana. Märāśarva
Fleet's Dyn. Kan, Distr. (Bomb. Gazet., Vol. I, pt. II), p. 396. Above, Vol. VI, p. 195. ? Kielhorn's List of Inscriptions of Northern India, No. 617. Above, Vol. XI, p. 185 and fl. * J. B. B. R. A. S., Vol. XXII, pp. 118-9. • above, Vol. VI, p. 174.
Ibid., p. 250.
