Epigraphia Indica Vol 19

Author(s): Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 77

54
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XIX.
919 and the Saka year 784, the Pehevä (Pehoa) inscription of the Harsha-Samvat 276, the undated prasasti at Gwalior, the inscription in Pandavo-ka-kila at Delhi, the Gwalior inscription of Vikrama-Samvat 932, and the Gwalior inscription of Vikrama-Samvat 933."
The remaining nine documents of the present inscription do not mention the names of the kings who were ruling at the time they were recorded. Nine of the ten dates mentioned in the inscriptions are given in terms of the Harsha era, though the name of the era is nowhere specified. This is also the case in the Dighwa Dubauli plate of Maharaja Mahendrapaladeva and other inscriptions, the dates of which must evidently be referred to the Harsha era. It will be ob served that the tens and units figures of the dates in the first two inscriptions are denoted by numerical symbols, and the hundreds by ordinary numeral figures, as is the case with the dates of the remaining eight inscriptions. These dates range between the years 258 and 298, corresponding respectively to A.D. 864 and A.D. 904. The tenth inscription, i.e., No. IV of the series, is dated in the Vikrama year 943. The exact duration of the reign of Bhojadeva is not known and all that we know at present is that he was ruling at Kanauj (Mahodaya or Kanyakubja) in the years 862, 875, 876 and 882. Smith assigned to Bhoja a reign of half a century (oiros 840890 A.D.), although no inscription of as early a date as A.D. 840 and attributable to his rule was forthcoming when he wrote. This want is now supplied by an inscription of Bhoja found at Barah, District Cawnpore, which is dated in the Vikrama-Samvat 893 (A.D. 836) and has recently been published. It clearly shows that the king had come to the throne of Kanauj even four years sarlier than had been tentatively supposed by the late Mr. Smith. There is, however, no epigraphical evidence of Bhoja having continued to reign beyond A.D. 882 and consequently we can only refer documents Nos. I, II and IX with certainty to Bhoja and Nos. III, VIII and X to his successor Mahendrapala, who, we know from the Siyadōni inscription, was reigning between the years 903-04 and 907-08 A.D. The remaining four inscriptions (Nos. IV to VII) whose dates range between A.D. 886 and A.D. 902 must have been issued in the time of either Bhoja or Mahendrapāla.
Summary of the inscription.
Document No. I. [Lines 1-2.] This epigraph simply states that on the tenth tithi of the dark fortnight of Märggasira, (Harsha)-Samvat 259 (=A.D. 865), (given in words and figures), in the reign of Mahārājādhirāja Bhōjadēva, meditating on the feet of Mahārājādhiraja Ramabhadradova, this excellent eulogy was engraved at Tattänandapura at the bidding of the messenger, the danḍapāsika Amarāditya and under the orders of the illustrious (and) noble Chaturvvaidya, i.e., the community of Brahmanas acquainted with the four Vedas.
Document No. II. [11. 2-6.] This inscription appears to state that on the tenth tithi of the dark fortnight of Ashadha, [Harsha]-Samvat 258 (in words and figures), Bhadraprakasa, son of Bhaddāka Ambuvaka of the vanik-varkkata caste which had migrated from Bhillamāla and was residing at Tattanandapura, and Maumka, son of Gōsuka and of the Lambakanchuka-vanik caste, purchased with drammas belonging to the illustrious Kanchanadevi,
1 Ep. Ind., Vol. V, App., List of Inscriptions of Northern India, Nos. 14, 15, 16 and 546; 4. S. R., 1903-04, pp. 277 seq., and the Annual Report of the Ajmer Museum for 1923-24, p. 3 respectively. The Delhi inscription was found built in a modern flight of steps inside the Talaqi gate of the Pandavo-ki-kila or the Indrapat Fort, as it is commonly called. At my suggestion this inscription has been taken out and placed in the Delhi Fort Museum.
[The Barah copper-plate may also be added to this list.-Ed.] Oxford History of India, p. 183.
See above, pp. 15.
"Now called Chaube.-Ed.]