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No. 18.)
MALLAR PLATES OF MAHA-SIVAGUPTA.
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also mentions the king of Kösala as different from Pulakasin II. whom he calls the king of Mabarashtra. So the capital of Kāsala cannot be located at Bhandak.
From Yuan Chwang's account we learn that from Kalinga he went north-west by hill and wood for above 1800 li to Kõsala.... The king was a Kshatriya by birth, a Buddhist in religion and of noted benevolence ..To the south-west of this country, above 300 li from the capital was a mountain called Po-lo-ma-lo-ki-li'. From Kösala he travelled South, through a forest, for above 900 li to the An-to-lo (Andhra) country, the capital of which was Ping-chi-(ki)-lo. This description suits Sirpur better than any other place in Chhattisgarh. Sirpur lies north-west of Mukhalingam on the left bank of the Varsadhārā, 18 miles from Parlākimedi in the Ganjam District, which is now generally taken to be the ancient capital of Kalinga. The reigning king, who was either Mahā-Sivagupta Bālārjuna or his successor, was no doubt a Kshatriya, as the Sõmavamsi kings traced their descent from Pāņdu, the father of the Epic heroes Pandavas. Mahā-Sivagupta was a devotee of Siva, but the present grant shows that he patronised Buddhism also and the same can probably be said of his successor. The mountain Po-lo-mo-lo-ki-li, which has been rendered by Bhramara-giri, may refer to Bhamgāra-Pavvato (Skt. Bhringāra-parvata) which is mentioned in an ancient Brāhmi stone inscription at Arang. It may be noted in this connection that Ārang lies south-west of Sirpur as required by the Chinese pilgrim's description. If Ping-chi-lo, the capital of the Andhra country, is identified with Vongi (which was then the capital of the Eastern Chalukyas), it will be seen to lie almost due south of Sirpur. Sirpur, therefore, answers best to the bearings and other description of the capital of Kösala in Yuan Chwang's account. It is true that the distance of Sirpur from Mukhalingam, Arang and Vēngi does not exactly agree with Yuan Chwang's account, but this is not the only case in which the Chinese pilgrim's distances are found to be incorrect. We have, therefore, no hesitation in identifying the capital of Kõsala in the seventh century A.D. with Sirpur in the Raipur District.
The present grant is not dated, but as stated above it can be assigned to the first half of the seventh century A.D. It records the donation of a village on the occasion of a solar eclipse on the new-moon day of Ashādha. Taking the month to be purnimānta we find that there was a solar eclipse in Ashādha four times in the period A.D. 600 to 650, viz., A. D. 606, 616, 633 and 643. Of these A.D. 633 and 643 would perhaps be too late dates for Maha-Sivagupta Bālārjuna. So A.D. 606 or 616 may be the date of the present grant. It does not, of course, admit of verification.
Unlike his ancestors Tīvaradēva and Harshadēva who are known to be devotees of Vishnu, Mahā-Sivagupta Bālārjuna was a worshipper of Siva. The seal of the present grant has consequently Nandi, the emblem of Siva, and not Garuda, that of Vishņu, who figures on the seal of the Räjim and Balodā plates of Tivaradēva. It may again be noted that like the afore-mentioned grants of Tivaradēva, the present inscription does not mention the title Trikaling-adhipati which is met with in many records of the later kings of the Sõmavamsi dynasty who ruled over the eastern parts of Dakshiņa Kösala.
1 Watters, On Yuan Chwang, Vol. II, pp. 200, 209.
For a similar discrepanoy in Yuan Chwang's account, see his description of Harsha, who from his copper plate inscriptions and Bapa's Harshacharita is known to have been a devotee of Siva.
* Hiralal's List, No. 183. Bhringåra which means a cricket is after all not very different from bhramara. Or was it some mountain in the Bhramara-kötya-mandala in the Bastar State ? (Above, Vol. IX, pp. 179 1.) There is, again, a hill named Bhamragarh in the Ahiri Zamindari of the Chanda District, which also lies SouthWest of Sirpur, but the distance is more than 160 miles.
• Sirpur is about 275 miles as the crow flies from Mukhalingam and about 300 miles from Vēögl. Those distances will be somewhat increased if the inevitable windings of the road are taken into consideration.
• Tivaradēva calls himself Parama-Vaishnava in his plates. • Soe v. 20 of the Sirpur Lakshmana Temple Inscription, above, Vol. XI, p. 192.
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