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No. 41.) KARITALAI INSCRIPTION, LAKSHMANARAJA : [KALACHURIJ SAMVAT 593. 259
by them with the Gurjara-Pratihäras in Ujjayini. Mälwā was, therefore, made a protectorate and a subordinate branch of the Rashtrakūtas established in Gujarat to check the advance of the Pratibāras. The same may have happened in the case of Dahala also.As Lakshmanarāja is the earliest known prince of the Kalachuri dynasty of Dähals, it is not unlikely that the present record in its lost portion mentioned the establishment of the Kalachuri family in Dáhala after the defeat of Nagabhata. Subsequently the Rashtrakūtas made many matrimonial alliances with the Kalachurise and thus made the Kalachuri kingdom a bulwark on the north of the Narmadā against any possible invasion of their territory by the Gurjara-Pratihäras.
It would not be out of place to discuss here the relation of this Lakshmanarāja with other princes of the same name known from two other records discovered in North India. The Kahlā plates of Sodhadēva mention a Kalachuri prince Lakshmanarāja in whose family was born the prince Rājaputra whose descendant in the eleventh generation named Södhadēva made a grant in V. S. 1134 (A. D. 1077). The date of this Rājaputra is approximately settled by the statement in the record that Guņāmbhodhidēva I, his descendant in the third generation, helped Bhoja in his wars against a Gauda king. This Bhoja can be no other than the Gurjara-Pratihāra Bhõja whose known dates range from A. D. 836 to 882. Guņāmbhõdhidēva I may therefore have flourished about A. D. 850. His third lineal ancestor Rājaputra can consequently be placed in circa A. D. 775 The indefinite manner in which the relationship of Rajaputra to Laksamanarāja is mentioned in the Kahlā plates makes it difficult to conjecture the date of the latter, but that he did not flourish later than the beginning of the eighth century A. D. seems certain. He cannot, therefore, be identified with Lakshmanarāja of the present inscription
There are three other kings named Lakshmaņarāja known from a stone inscription found at Kasiãs in the Gorakhpur District, U. P. Rai Bahadur D. R. Sahni has assigned this inscription to the 11th or 12th century A. D., but on paleographic evidence it appears to belong to a period not later than the tenth century A. D. The princes mentioned in this inscription were ruling over a territory contiguous to the kingdom of the Kalachuris of the Kahla plates. One would, therefore, expect to find some links connecting the two families in the genealogical lists of the two inscriptions, but none have been noticed so far. A careful comparison of the two lists would show, however, that there are two names common to them, viz., Rājaputra and his son Sivarāja. The former name is evidently a biruda and we find it actually stated in the Kasiã inscription that the real name of the prince was Lakshmana and that he was called Rajaputra because of his virtues. The Rajaputra of the Kahlā plates flourished about A. D. 775 which is, therefore, the date of Lakshmanarāja II of the Kasia inscription. Lakshmanarāja I, his great-grandfather, and
1 See c. ., Ind. Ant., Vol. XIII, p. 67.
* So far as one can judge from the present fragmentary record, it seems to have contained glorification of the Rashtrakūtas rather than of the Kalachuris. It is noteworthy that the line containing the name of the reigning king is added in the margin.
See e.g., the Kardā plates of Karka III, II. 16-25, Ind. Ant., Vol. XII, p. 265. Above, Vol. VII, p. 89.
Ibid., Vol. XVIII, pp. 128ff.
. It may be noted here that in the Kasik inscription, (1) the medial diphthongs are denoted by small curves added to the left of the top line : (2) the medial appears as a small serif at the bottom of the vertical; (3) the left limba of dh and kh, the tail of h and the vertical of th have not yet developed as in the Nagarf alphabet of the eleventh or twelfth century A. D. Its th has, however, developed a vertical stroke on the right. I would, therefore, assign the inscription to the tenth century A. D. The record seems to mention two successors of Lakshmanarija III and the names of one or two more may bave been lost in the mutilated portion. As I have placed Lakshmaparaja III of the Kasia inscription in circa A. D. 850, the last Kalachuri prince mentioned in the record must have reigned some time during the tenth century A. D. This date is corroborated by the palæographic evidence detailed above.
