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No. 44] TWO GRANTS OF BHANJA KINGS OF VANJULVAKA
279 bhañjadēva, addressed the village folk of the Nānākhanda' vishaya (district) including the sämantas (subordinate rulers) and bhogins (jagirdārs) together with their karanas (i.e. adhikaranas or officers) In the style of the charters of the branch of the Bhañja family in question, the king first informed the addressees of his all-round prosperity and next of the grant of Sēdāgräma in the above district together with another locality called Rāigrāma, made by him in favour of a Brāhmaṇa named Bhatta Däuli. The donee was the son of Bhatta Sida and grandson of Bhatta Balabhadra. He belonged to the Bhäradvāja götra having the Angirasa pravara and the Bärhaspatya anupravara and was a student of the Chhandöga charana and Kauthuma sākhā (of the Sämavēda). He is described as a resident of Kõlakhali, although the original home of his family is given as Vātalavidima. Lines 18-20 say that the above gift was made a permanent revenue-free holding by means of the copper-plate charter. Some of the usual imprecatory and benedictory verses are then quoted in lines 24-33. In this connection, the well known verse, Sarvan-etān-bhāvinah pārthivendrān, etc., is quoted with the substitution of the donor's name, Nettabhanja, in place of the usual Rāmabhadra and a prose passage introducing the stanza says that the grant was made on Monday when the tithi was the dev-otsava-dvādasi and the nakshatra Rēvati. As all the dvadasis (the twelfth thithi of either half of the lunar months) are associated with the god Vishņu', the ishta-dēvatā of the donor, it is difficult to determine, in the absence of any indication regarding the month and the fortnight, the particular dvādasi referred to in the passage. The details are thus insufficient to calculate the exact date of the grant. Of the following two verses quoted in lines 36-39, the one beginning with asmin vam se kshaya-kshine is found in numerous other Orissan records. The concluding lines (lines 40-42) give the names of the persons associated with the grant. The charter was registered with a seal (lāñchhita) by Jivalóka-mahādēvi (or less probably, Srijivaloka-mahadēvi) who seems to have been a queen of Nēttabhañja Tribhuvanakalasa, issuer of the charter. We know of many other similar instances of the mention of queens in connection with the function indicated by the word lanchhita especially in records coming from the Ganjam area. The grant is said to have been approved (anumata) by Bhatta Arkadēva, while it was taken to the donee's home or executed (prave sita) by the Pratihāra (officer in charge of the palace-gate and head of the palace guards) Rāula. It is further said that the grant was assented to (anujñāta) by the Värguli (bearer of the kings' betel-box) Mahindapa who seems to have been a witness or worked on behalf of the executor of the grant, Rāula. The plates were engraved by the arkasālin (i.e., akshasălin or goldsmith) Napa. The document was written by the Sandhivigrahin (minister for war and peace) whose name was Pânã. The date of the grant, viz. year 13 of the donor's reign, comes at the end of the inscription in line 42
There is no doubt that Ränaka Nētttabhañja Tribhuvanakalasa who issued the charter under discussion belonged to the family of the earlier Bhañjas of Khiñjalimandala. This is suggested not only by the king's names and the issue of the grant from Vañjulvaka, the later capital of the rulers of that family, but also by the very style of the document. The genealogy of the family quoted above would show that there is hardly any space for Néttabhañja Tribhuvanakalaśa and for his father and grandfather in the family before Nēttabhañja Kalyanakalasa II. The secondary or coronation name ending in kalasa was a style unknown in the family before the sons of Raņabhañja. The expression pravěsita, used in connection with the execution of a grant, is found in the
1 It may be suggested that the passage nana-khanda-vishaye means " in the various subdivisions and districts (of the kingdom)". But the description of the gift village in line 14 below as "attached to this district" seems to presuppose the mention of the name of the vishaya in the passage under consideration. Note also the singular used in vishaye.
*Cf. J.R.A.S.B., Letters, Vol. XVI, p. 117.
Soe Sabdakalpadruma, s.v. dvadasi. The Vishnu-smriti (XLIX, 1), however, lays special stress on Märgasiraba sudi 12, which may be the tithi intended in our record.
• See Bhandarkar, List, Nos. 1500-02.
