Epigraphia Indica Vol 20

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

Page 51

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XX.
The last stanza tells us that the prasasti was composed by Śilachandra and the celebrated Karanika Svāmidatta under the inviolable command of the Sangha.
The inscription is not dated but supplies sufficient data to fix the time to which it belongs. It was written when Bälāditya was ruling and when king Yasovarmmadēva was holding the reins of sovereignty. That the Bālāditya of this record must be identified with the homonymous chief whom Hiuen Tsiang eulogises as the subduer of Mihira kula and the founder of the grand temple at Nalanda need not be dilated upon. The inscription itself mentions him as the builder of a magnificient sanctuary at Nälandā. That it is silent about his subjugation of the well-known Hūna king of Sākala (the modern Siālkot in the Panjāb) is either due to his having had very little to do in the matter, as has already been suggested by Vincent Smith, or, perhaps, to the fact that this inscription came into existence before that event. Bālāditya flourished cir. 530 after Christ. Accordingly, Yalovarmmadēva, his suzerain, must have ruled about the same age. So the question arises : Who was that suzerain ? He cannot be the homonymous ruler of Kanauj," who was routed by Muktäpida Lalitāditya of Kashmir and is better known to history as the patron of Bhavabhūti, the eminent playwright, because he came a couple of centuries after this period. The Chandal chief of the same name is also out of the question, for he belongs to a still later epoch, i.e., the 10th century of the Christian era. I know of no other ruler of this name who could be identified with the overlord mentioned in this inscription. But a powerful ruler of the name of Yasõdharma is known to have flourished at the time when Bālāditya reigned, s.e., the period to which this document is assignable. According to the Mandasör stone inscriptions, he was ruling in the Mälava year 589 (= A.D. 533-34), and was a mighty conqueror who governed the whole of Northern India from the Brahmaputra to the Western Ocean and erected two columns of victory with inscriptions commemorating his triumph over the foreign invaders. In view of the facts stated in all thesa records I am of the opinion that the Yafðvarmmadēva of the Nålandā and the Yasodharma of the Mandasör inscriptions are identical and that the late Dr. Fleet was perfectly right when he thought that the name of Yasõdharma should be corrected into Yasovarma. It is true that names ending in dharma are not unknown, but the appellation as given in the document under publication looks more reasonable and more appropriate than the one which was read in the other epigraphs. Accordingly, I would suggest that we should call the sovereign ruler who was chiefly responsible for the breakdown of the power of the Hüņas in India early in the 6th century of the Christian ora by the name of Yasovarmmadēva as given in the present record. From the way this inscription introduces him and Balāditya it is evident that he was the overlord of the latter, The suzerainty of Yasödharma is proven by the above-mentioned inscriptions. Bālāditya, in any case, could not have had two different overlords living side by side and having practically identical names. The chief interest of this inscription, therefore, lies in its enabling us to determine
1 Early History of India, 4th edn., p. 386.
* It is not impossible, however, that Baladitya fought Mihirakula-though under the supreme command of Yas/varmmadēva-and got the credit for ousting him (ie, Mihirakula).
• The guess made in A. 8. R. 1925-26, p. 131 was wrong. C. I. I., Vol. III, Nos. 34 & 35.
Ibid., foot-noto 2 on page 145. ' Janendra in the Mandasör inscription (1. 4) does not necessarily mean a tribal ruler a Fleet seems to have imagined. The word should he taken as a synonym of narendra in the general sense, 1.6, the king of men.' Besides, his mention before Vishnuvardhana olearly shows his suzerainty. Prof. Dr. Vogel has kindly draw my attention to the Yasovarmapurs of the Ghosrawi Buddhist inscription (Ind. Ant. Vol. XVII, pp. 307 ft.) which might have been designated after this monarch. The whereabouts of this place are not known. Sir Alexander Cunningham took it to be the town of Bihr which is not far off from Alanda,