________________
280
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(Vol. XXVI
Letters of nine lines are visible on the stone; of these the first is too fragmentary to permit any intelligent reading. The existence of a tenth line can be inferred from the slight traces of the tops of two of its letters that can be seen below the ninth line. The original line of the inscription was longer than the longest line preserved on the stone, but how much longer it was we cannot say. Nor can we make any conjecture as to how many lines the record originally contained.
The inscription has been very neatly engraved and the characters are the Nägari characters of the 13th century A. D. The language is Sanskrit and the record is, so far as the preserved portion shows, composed in verse. The composer was a good master of the ornate style of poetry, which was popular in contemporary times.
To judge from the fragments preserved, it would appear that the inscription contained the eulogy of a king named Malayavarman. His name appears thrice in the preserved portion, in 11. 2, 3 and 7, though in slightly varying forms. The pedigree of the king and the name of his house are not to be found in the present fragment, but there can be no doubt that king Malayavarman of our record is to be identified with the ruler of the same name belonging to the feudatory Pratihāra family ruling at Gwalior, who is known to us from his own plate found at Kurēthā in Gwalior State, dated Vikrama Samvat 1277, and from that of his brother Nrivarman, found at the same place and dated Vikrams Samvat 1304. It is unfortunate that both these records should still remain unpublished; we have only their brief summaries given by Dr. Bhandarkar in the Progress Report. A. S. W.C., 1915-16, p. 59. From these it appears that king Malayavarman belonged to the Pratīhāra family ruling at Gwalior, that his grandfather was Pratäpasimha and father Vigraha. His mother was Lalbanadēvi, daughter of the Chahamäna king Kalhapadēva of Nádol. He had a younger brother named Nțivarman. The identification of king Malayavarman of our record with the Pratibāra king mentioned in the above two records is based upon two grounds. Firstly, the palæography of our record shows that it may have belonged to the 13th century A. D. Secondly, Mongrol, where this inscribed stone was recovered, is only about 100 miles from Gwalior, which was under the rule of the Pratihāra kings Malayavarman and Nộivarman. It may further be pointed out that we do not yet know of any other king, named Malayavarman, ruling in this part of the country during the 12th or the 13th century A.D.
The Malayavarman of our record is further to be identified with the king of the same name, whose coins have been published by Cunningham in his Coins of Medieval India at p. 92 and Plate X. These coins have the crude figure of a horseman on one side and the king's name, written in three lines, on the other. The coins are rather unique, because after the king's name, they also give the year of their issue. Samvat 1280 and [12183 are the dates supplied by coins for Malayavarman, and his Kurēthā plate was issued in Vikrama Samvat 1277. It is thus clear that the Malayavarman of the coins is identical with the Malayavarman of the Kurēthā plate, as proved conclusively by their dates ; our Malayavarman can be no different personage. It may be added that the coins of Malayavarman are found at Gwalior, Jhansi and Narwar, which are not far distant from Kotah State, where this inscription was found.
We shall now briefly review the contents of the record. Only the letters -lyato- of the first line are visible, but we cannot make out any sense from then.. The second line opens with the name of king Malayavarman; what follows is too fragmentary to be made out. The third line once more mentions the name of the king as one 'in which the word malaya precedes the word
Bbaudarkar, List of Inscriptions of Northern India, Nos. 476 and 541.
