Epigraphia Indica Vol 28

Author(s): Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 31

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXVIII is described as meditating on the feet of a Bhattāraka or lord paramount, which indicates his toudatory status. Neither the family to which the princes belonged, nor the suzerain to whom they owod allegiance, is mentioned in the present grant. No ancestors of Svæmiraja have been named. In all these respects the present grant resembles those of the Mahārājas of Khandesh.
The object of the inscription appears to be to record two gifts(i) one of twelve nivarlanas of land in the village Chinohapattiki which was made at the request of the President (Sthavira) and Members of the Executive Committee (Pramukhas) of the assembly (Samüha) of the Corporation (Gara) Mahåmātragana, and (i) the other of the village Ankõllika which was made by Nannarāja (or perhaps by Svāmirāja) on his own account near Chatuka Vata' situated in the stream of the Gangå on the occasion of an oclipse which occurred on the now-moon day of Chattra in the cyclic year Ashadha. The donated village Anköllik, was situated on the right bank of the river Sala, to the west of the agrahāra of Achalapurs and to the east of Sri-Parnika. The donees were certain Brāhmaṇas of the White and Black Yajurvēdas and of the Sāmavēda. The insoription oontains another date at the end when the plates were issued, viz., the Afth tithi (expressed by a symbol) of the bright halt of Karttika in the year three hundred and twenty-two (expressed in words) of an unspecified era. The engraver was the Kshatriya Durgaditya, the son of Chandra.
The present record is interesting in several respects and sheds important light on the history of Vidarbha in the post-Vākätaka age. As stated before, the royal family to which Svāmiraja and Nannaraja belonged is not specified in the present grant, but sinoe these names occur in two early Rashtrakūta records discovered in Vidarbha, viz., Tivarakhöļi and Multāiplates, with the alight change of Svämiraja into Svāmikarāja, it seems very likely that the princes mentioned here also belonged to the same lineage. Nay, prima facie, it appeared quite plausible that Svāmirăja and Nannarāja of the present plates were identical with Svāmikarāja and Nannarāja mentioned in the aforementioned two Rashtrakūta grants. The date of the present record seemed also to lend colour to this view ; for the year 322 mentioned in it, if referred to the Gupta era, would correspond to A. C. 641-42 which is not very remote from Saka 553 (A.C. 631), the date of the Tivarakhôd plates of Nannarāja. A close examination of the aforementioned Rashtrakūta grants and their dates, however, soon convinced me that the identification is untenable. I shall now proceed to state my reasons for this view.
As stated before, two grants of the Rashtrakūta Nannarāja discovered in Vidarbha have been published, viz., the Tivarakhöd plates, dated Saka 563 (A.C. 631-32) and the Multai plates dated Saka 631 (A.C. 709-10). The genealogy and, to some extent, the wording of the two grants are identical, but there is a difference of 78 years between the two dates. The two grants were therefore, in all probability, not made by the same ruler; for a reign of more than 78 years is extremely unlikely. Dr. Altekar has already discussed this question in his work on the Rashtrakūtas. He has concluded that the Multäi plates were spurious on the following grounds The genealogy
1 Sco the Indore grante of Svámidisa dated (K.) 67 and Bhulunda dated (K.) 107 and the Sirpur grant of Rudradass dated (K.) 167. Those grants have been shown by me to have been dated in the Kalachuri era (4. B.O.R.I., Vol. XXV, pp. 169-88). They therefore belong to the fourth and fifth centuries A.C.
The grant was apparently made at the akshaya-va la near the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamani. It is also possible that the grant was actually made by Svāmirkja and was only recorded by his brother Naanarija, For a similar grant made at Prayaga at the oonfluence of the Gangi and the Yamuna by a ruling king of Vidarbhs and recorded afterwards by his relative at Nandivardhans, see the Rithapur plates of Bhayadatta. varmen, abovo, Vol. XIX, pp. 100 f. . Abovo, Vol. XI, pp. 276 f.
Im Ani., Vol. XVII, pp. 280 f. • Altokar, Rao trabafo end their times, pp. 6 f.