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No. 39]
MADRAS MUSEUM PLATES OF ANANTASAKTIVARMAN; YEAR 28
least 28 years. The view that Kalingadhipati Umavarman may not have been altogether unrelated to his political predecessors of the Mathara family is not improbable if we compare the seals of his grants with those issued by Saktivarman and Anantaśaktivarman. The legend on the seals of the Andhavaram plates of the latter and on those of Umavarman's two grants is in four lines, ending with the name of the king in the genitive case.1 In the same form is found the legend on the seal of the Ragōlu plates, too, which is, however, in two lines and ends with the king's name likewise in the genitive case.
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This similarity in the seals of the above three kings is noteworthy since in regard to the seals of the other kings of Kalinga who immediately followed them, viz., Chandavarman and Nanda-Prabhanjanavarman, and Umavarman of the Tekkali plates, the legend is different and it reads pitribhaktaḥ. These Pitribhakta kings, as they may be tentatively designated, were evidently of a different stock from the Maṭharas and were again different from the family of Umavarman of the Brihatprōshṭhā grant. With the evidence now at our disposal, it is obviously incorrect to call all the kings of Kalinga from Saktivarman down to Visakhavarman as of one and the same family, Mathara or Pitribhakta. Kalingadhipati Chandavarman of the Bobbili plates seems to have succeeded Kalingadhipati Umavaraman not long after, since it is found that the composer of his record was Rudradatta, son of Maṭrivara. The latter, as pointed out above, had composed both Anantaśak. tivarman's Andhavaram plates and Umavarman's Brihatprōshṭhā grant. In phraseology the grants of all the three rulers show affinity. Thus the passage dharmma-kkrama-vikkramāṇām anyatama-yogad avapya, etc., is found in our grant as well as in the Bobbili plates of Chandavarman. Shattrimsad-agrahara-samanyam, etc., is common to both the Bobbili plates and the Brihatprōshṭhā grant. In the scheme of early Kalinga chronology, the Matharas preceded a certain Kalingadhipati Umavarman, of unknown dynasty, who was himself closely ollowed by the 'Pitribhakta kings led by Chandavarman."
As already observed, the present record mentions two dutakas in place of ajñapti. Evidently the task of the dutaka and that of the ajñapti were similar, viz., that of executing the royal gift." In the Andhavaram plates of the king no specific person is mentioned as the ajñapti, the task having been entrusted to the mahadandanayakas as the record states. In the present grant, however, two dutakas are mentioned, Sivabhojaka and Vasudatta by name. Both are described as kumārāmātyas. But Sivabhöjaka is given the additional epithets of Mahabalādhikrita and Dandanetri. The latter was thus a more dignified official, being both a generalissimo and a judge. The grant is stated to have been written by Děśäkshapaṭaladhikrita Talavara Arjunadatta. An amatya Arjunadatta is stated to have written the Rägōlu plates issued by Saktivarman whom we have considered as the grandfather of Anantaśaktivarman. It may not be improbable that
1 The legend on the seal of the Andhavaram plates is highly damaged. But that it contained the name of the king in the genitive case and the whole legend was in four lines may be safely assumed.
2 Early History of Andhradesa (1942), pp. 387-8.
Contra: ARSIE, 1934-5, part 11, item 1, wherein Mr. C. R. K. Charlu considers that there were two persons of the name of Mätrivara, and that Mätrivara son of Haridatta of Umavarman's Brihatproshtha grant was a later descendant of Matṛivara, father of Rudradatta of the Bobbili plates of Chandavarman. But there is really no need to postulate two Mätrivaras as has been pointed out by R. K. Ghoshal (above, Vol. XXVI, p. 133 f.n. 4). The scheme of chronology of these kings which is proposed in Early History of Andhradesa, pp. 387 ff., appears faulty and I am unable to accept it for various reasons.
Fleet, CII., Vol. III, p. 100 n.
[From the wording of the record, one may apply the titles Mahabalädhikrita and Dandanetri even to both Sivabhojaka and Vasudatta. Yet, I am inclined to connect the first with the former and the second with the latter: Kumaramatya Mahabalädhikrita Sivabhöjaka and Kumaramatya Dandanetri Vasudatta. Besides, Dandanetri, in my opinion, is a military rank like Mahabaladhikrita, though inferior to it. Daneanetri may be equal to Senapati and Mahabaladhikrila to Mahāsēnāpati.-Ed.]
6 DGA
