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No. 27.]
TIRODI PLATES OF PRAVARASENA II.
169
the south by Varddhamanaka, on the west by Mrigasima and on the north by Mallakapēdhaka. As the order is addressed to the officers and soldiers in the western division (aparapatta) of Bēnnākata, it is evident that the donated village was situated in it. The grant was written by the chief minister (Räjyādhikrita) Chamidāsa' himself.
We know that the Dudia plates of Pravarasēna II. were issued on the tenth day of the fourth fortnight of the rainy season in his twenty-third regnal year. If Kielhorn's view that the date refers to the bright half of the month Bhādrapada is accepted, the present charter, though issued in the same regnal year, would be later than the Dudia plates by about four months and a half. One other record of the Vākāțakas (viz., the incomplete Bālāghāt plates of Prithivishēna)' has been found in the Bālāghāt district. This is, however, the first inscription of Pravarasēna II. to be discovered so far to the east of his kingdom. As stated below, the donated village Kösambakhanda is to be identified with Kösambā about 6 miles to the south-west of Tirodi, the find-spot of the present plates in the same district. The present inscription shows, therefore, that the country under the direct rule of Pravarasēna II, extended to the east as far as South Kõsala (modern Chhattisgarh) and comprised the modern districts of Bālāghāt, Bhandara and Chanda of C. P. These districts were evidently included in ancient Vidarbha. In the Sanskrit play Malavikāgnimitra of Kálidāsa, who is now generally taken to be a contemporary of Pravarasēna II., the country of Vidarbha is shown to be divided by the river Varada (modern Wardhā). Bēnnäkata of the present plates seems to have been one of the districts of Eastern Vidarbha.
Almost all other charters? of Pravarasēna II, are issued from Pravarapura which was evidently his capital. The place Narattangavāri from which the present plates were issued seems, therefore, to be a holy place(tirtha) where he had gone to bathe in the month of Māgha and where he granted the present charter. The month of Mägha is specially praised in the Purinas as very sacred and various legends are narrated in them to evince the great merit of bathing at a holy place during that month. The eleventh day of the dark half of this month, when purnimanta, which is called Shattila ēkādasi and is observed as a fast-day, is highly glorified in the Padinapurāna 10 Pravarasēna may, therefore, have gone to the Narattangavāri tirtha to bathe on the Shattilā ēkādasi day and have made the present grant on the following day before breaking his fast. We may note in this connection that a similar grant was made by his mother Prabhāvatigupta" at the holy place of Ramagiri (modern Ramtek near Nagpur) on the twelfth day of the bright half of Kärttika, evidently after observing a fast on the preceding Prabodhini ēkādasi.12
[Or Navamidise, see below p. 174, n. 10.-Ed.) . Above, Vol. III, p. 262.
Above, Vol. III, p. 260.
• Kielhorn has evidently adopted the primanta scheme in calculating that date. The same is followed above. The interval between the two dates would be 54 months if the amania system is adopted in both the cases. * Above, Vol. IX, p. 267.
Cf. Malavikagnimitra, Act V, &l. 13. + The only exoeption is the Biwani Copper-plate Inscription of Pravarana II. (0. I. I., Vol. III, Pp. 243 ff.) in which, however, no place of issue is mentioned. The Patna Museum plate also, being the third plate of the set, does not naturally mention any place of issue.
Narattangaväri cannot be taken to be the site of his camp during a campaign; for there is no word like vāsakat added to it.
IMAGE foafer fafter I HIYOT Erdi arrituta Padmapurana (Venkatēsvara Press ed.), Uttarakhanda, Adhyâya 124, 6l. 64-5.
10 Ibid., Uttarakhanda, Adhyâya 43, blokas 5 ff.
11 Her Poona plates also, though issued from the then capital Nandivardhana, were granted on a similar Occasion.
13 This day is referred to by Kalidasa in his Méghadata (fl. 115).
