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discovery of some copper plates of the Bhoja dynasty during the years 1948 and 1949 has confir. med the correctness of my reading of the family name. These are noticed in the sequel.
Now, it is known from the 13th rock edict of Asoka that the Bhõjas and the Pitinikas (within his territory) were conforming to his instruction in morality: Dr. Hultszch who regards them as tribes says that they have to be looked for in the west. Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar, however, explains the word Petenika (Pitinika) as one who enjoys hereditary property' and takes BhojaPetenikas as one word meaning the rulers called Bhöjas'. He also considers them to be the same as the Mahābhājas who were minor rulers holding the present Thāņā and Kolabă Districts of the Bombay State. Inscriptions mentioning them are found at Bedsă, Kanheri and Kudā. From these we learn that they were responsible for the excavation of many of the caves in these localities. The Bhõjakas are mentioned also in the Häthigumpha inscription of the Kalinga king Khāra vela, which says that he caused the Rathikas and the Bhojakas to bow down at his feet." According to Dr. Jayaswal the expression Bhojas, as opposed to Petenikas, means non-hereditary leaders who observed the Bhaujya form of constitution mentioned in the Aitareya Brahmana. To him, thus, the Bhõjas appear to be so called because they followed that special form of constitution. He also points out that the name still survives in the modern caste-name Bhöjaka found in the Indian State of Cutch in the Kathiawad Agency Dr. B. C. Law who has collected almost all the references to the Bhojas is of the view that the Bhöjas were a very ancient tribe whose princes held not only the Sātvats, near the Ganges, in subjection, but also ruled over the Vidarbha (Berar) and, according to a passage in Kautilya's Arthaśāstra, even over the Dandaka, the region round Nasik. It may be added that the Dasakumāracharita of Dandin also places the Bhöjas in Vidarbha. We have, however, no means of ascertaining whether, or in what way, the Bhojas mentioned in the rock edict of Asoka as well as in the cave inscriptions of Western and Eastern India noticed above were related to the ruling dynasty of the Bhõjas of Goa, one of whose scions was Dēvarāja of the Sirõda plates.
Recently a number of copper plates have been discovered in and near the Goa territory. A notice about them by Mr. R. S. Panchamukhi, Director of the Kannada Research Institute, Dharwar, is found on page 99 of the Summary of Papers submitted to the 15th Session of the AU-India Oriental Conference. They comprise three charters. Two belong to the Bhõjas, while the third pertains to the Maurya dynasty (of Konkan), though Mr. Panchamukhi has taken them all to be Bhöja grants.
Both the Bhõja grants refer themselves to the reign of Přithivimallavarman, one dated in the first (prathama) regnal year and the other in the 25th regnal year. The earlier record, issued from
10. 1. 1., Vol. I (Inscriptions of Asöka), pp. 46 and 48, text-line 9. * Ibid., p. 48, f.n. 11. • Asoka (1932: 2nd edition), pp. 34-35.
*Arch. Sur. of Western India, Vol. IV, p. 90, (Bedsă ins. No. 3); p. 85 (Kuda ins. No. 6); Lüders' List, Nos. 1021, 1037, 1045, 1052, 1058.
Above, Vol. XX, p. 79. .K. P. Jayaswal, Hindu Polity (1943 : 2nd edition); p. 80.
* Ind. Cult., Vol. I, p. 384. Yatha Dandakyo nama Bhöjah kamäd-brahmara.kanyam-abhimanyamánus=sa. bandhu-rashtro vinanāca. (Arthaśāstra, edited by Shana Sastri, 2nd edition, 1924, p. 11, 11. 13-14). This PASSage is also found in the Kamasutra of Vatayāyana who apparently copied it from Kautilya (Kamastilra, Banaras edition, adhikarana 1, adhyāya 2, sutra 44). See also studies in Kamasutra by H. C. Chakaladar, pp. 84 f.
Vidarbho nama janapadah/tasmin-BMjavamsa-bhrīshanan....................Punyavarmá námsásit (Uchchhuasa 8); Early History of the Deccan (Bom. Gaz., Vol. I, pt. ii), p. 143 and note 2; An. Bhand. Ori. Res. Inst., Vol. XXVI (1945), pp. 20, 22.
. These are shortly to be published in this journal.
* Mr. Panchamukhi gives the date of the former as the 13th year and of the latter as the 15th year. My reading of the dates is based on an examination of the original plates.
