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No. 3.)
RAJIM STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE NALA KING VILASATUNGA.
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bably this king Vilăsatunga who erected the excellent and lofty temple of Vishnu which is described in verses 19-22. This is followed by the usual prayer to future rulers to preserve the religious monument and the hope that it would last for ever. The prasasti, as the inscription is called in verse 28, was composed probably by Durgagola. It was incised by the artisan (Sutradhāra) Durgahastin, son of Jalahastin.
The inscription is not dated, but on palaeographic grounds it was considered to be not later than the 8th or 9th century A.D. by Cunningham' and was referred to about the middle of the 8th century by D. R. Bhandarkar. As stated before, its characters resemble those of the Lakshmaņa temple inscription of Maha-Sivagupta-Bālārjuna at Sirpur. I have stated elsewhere the evidence on which I place Tivaradēva in circa A.D. 530-550 and his grand-nephew Maha-Sivagupia in the first half of the seventh century A.D. The Nala kings mentioned in the present inscription seem to have established themselves in the Raipur District some time after Maha-Sivagupta. It may, therefore, not be wrong to assign the present record to about A.D. 700.
Until recently the Nala dynasty was known only from references to them in the Aihole inscription of Pulakēsin II and some records of the Later Chālukyas of Kalyāņi. In the former, Kirtivarman I, the father of Pulakēģin, is called the night of destruction to the Nalas, Mauryas and Kadambas. Dr. Fleet thought that the territory of the Nalas lay in the direction of Bellary and Karnūl, because a copper-plate inscription from the Karnül District records the grant, by Vikramaditya I of the Early Chalukya dynasty, of the village Ratnagiri in the Natavādi vishaya, which according to Dr. Fleet, is identical with the modern Ratnāgiri in the Madaksira täluka of the Bellary District. The discovery of the Rithapur plates of Bhavadattavarman showed that the Nalas had extended their sway, for a time at least, to the ancient Vidarbha. These plates are inscribed in box-headed characters resembling those of the Vākātaka grants. They were issued from Nandivardhana which I have shown elsewhere to have been the Vākātaka capital before the foundation of Pravarapura. The occupation of this important city in the heart of the Vākāțaka territory points to the conclusion that the Nalas had invaded the Vākāțaka kingdom and established themselves for a time in Vidarbha. This is again confirmed by the statement in the Bālāghāt plates that the Vākātaka Přithivishēņa II raised his sunken family.11 He seems to have driven out the Nalas from Vidarbha and to have even carried the war into the enemy's territory.
1 Verse 20 shows that the king built the temple for the increase of the religious merit of his son who had died.
* Beglar thought that the inscription contained two dates--one 870 or 879 and the other seven hundred and odd, the units and tens being mutilated, A. 8. I. R., Vol. VII, p. 152, but this is wholly incorrect. What Beglar supposed to be the figures 870 or 879 is only the word utkiruna in 1. 22.
• A.8. I. R., Vol. XVII, p. 7. .P. R. A. 8. W. I., for 1903-04, p. 48. . Above, Vol. XXI, pp. 18 ff. and Vol. XXIII, p. 118. . Above, Vol. VI. Pp. 1 ff. "See, for instance, the Kauthēm grant of Vikramaditys V, Ind. Ant. Vol. XVI, p. 15.
• Bomb. Gas., Vol. I, part II, p. 363. The Nalavādi-vishaya is also mentioned in the Dayyamdinne plates of Vinayāditya dated Baka 614. See above, Vol. XXII, pp. 24 ff.
• Above, Vol. XIX, pp. 100 ff. The king's name appears wrongly na Bhavattavarman in this inscription. 10 Above, Vol. XXII, pp. 210 ff. u Above, Vol. IX, p. 271.
