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No. 17.]
BIHAR KOTRA INSCRIPTION OF NARAVARMAN'S TIME.
131
The inscription records the digging of a reservoir in the name of the bhikshusargha of the four quarters for the quenching of thirst of all beings. The gift was made by one Virasēna, son of Bhattimahara, on the second day of the bright half of the month of Srāvana in the reign of Mahārāja Naravarman, when four hundred and seventy-four years had elapsed, i.e., in A. D. 417-18.
Naravarman is already known to us from the Mandasor inscription of the Malava year 461, in which he is mentioned as the son of Simbavarman and the grandson of Jayavarman. He is mentioned also in the Gangdhar inscription of his son Visvavarman of the Māla va year 480. Again, Visvavarman is mentioned in the Mandasor inscription of his son Bandhuvarman, who was a contemporary and also the feudatory of the Emperor Kumăragupta I. The inscription of Bandhuvarman states that while Bandhuvarman was governing at Dasapura (Mandasor), the guild of silk-weavers built at that city a temple of the Sun in the Mälava year 493 and that the same guild restored part of the temple, which fell into disrepair under other kings, in the Mālava year 529. The entire inscription was actually composed and engraved at the latter date. But it does not give us any information about the successors of Bandhuvarman. Here, the present record comes to our help. Naravarman is described as 'aulikara'. Now, in the Mandasor inscription of the Mälava year 589, the family of Yaśödharman or Vishnuvardhana is mentioned as the lineage that had the aulikara-lañchhana. Evidently, Naravarman of our record and Yasodharman belonged to the same family. Thus Yaśõdharman, whose arms penetrated as far as the Himalayas, who was lord of the countries which were not possessed ever by the Guptas or the Hūņas, and to whose feet obeisance was made even by the famous Hūna king Mihirakula, can no longer be regarded as a military adventurer of the type of Saśānks of Gauda (first quarter of the seventh century) and Yaśövarman of Kanauj (first half of the eighth century). For, from the present record we know at least one of his predecessors.
TEXT. 1 [Si*]ddham'[i*] Srir®-mmahārāja-Narvarmmañaḥ aulikarasya 2 rājyalo-samvatsarë chaturshu varsha-satēshu chatu[h*)1 Above, Vol. XII, p. 315. Fleet's Gupta Inscriptions, No. 17. Ibid., No. 18.
*[Prabhākara of the Mandasor inscription of V. 524 was perhaps the successor, if not the son of Bandhuvarman.-Ed.)
. A satisfactory explanation of the word aulikara has not yet been obtained. But lånchhana " is the techni. cal term for the principal emblem impressed by kings on the copper-seals attached to their charters, and is quite distinct from the emblem on their dhvajas or banners." Thus, the Kadambas of Banavāsl had the sukhacharendra-dhraja or rånara-mahadhtaja, but the simha-lanchhana on the seals of their grants and on their coins. So also the Chalukyas had the varāha-lañchhana. Fleet's Gupta Inscriptions, p. 151, note 4. Aulikara may be synonymous with Limakara. ---Ed.)
From the original stone. *The word stands in front of, and between, lines 1 and 2.
* The word bri, forming the first part of a compound word, is used with a vibhakti. As a separate word it is used in the third case-ending, meaning saha or yukta. But in the present inscription it is used in the first case-ending. There are other instances of this usage; e.g., Srirsmmaharaj. Omavarmma in the Dhavalapets copper-plates of Umavarman (J. A. H. R. S., Vol. X, p. 144). -Ed.)
The form of the initial au in the present record differs from that occurring in the same word aulikara (1. 5) in the Mandasor inscription of Yaçõdharman of the Malava year 589. In the latter inscription the stroke indicating the length of au is attached to the upper part of the letter; in the former the lower part of the letter curves to the left and not to the right as in the Mandasor inscription, which expresses the length of the vowel. The letter looks more like than au.Ed.)
10 There is a vertical stroke before the word rajya, which apparently forms part of a letter. What looks like an e-mātrā in rajya is merely & scratch.
