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No. 44)
TWO GRANTS OF BHANJA KINGS OF VANJULVAKA
281
Only two copper plate grants of this family, one of Yasõbhañja and the other of Jayabhañja, both from Antirigam in the Ganjam District, have so far been discovered. Yasõbhañja, said to be the lord of the whole Khiñjali country, is described as the conqueror of Jagadēkamalla who has been identified with the Western Chalukya king Perma-Jagadēkamalla II (circa 1138-51 A.C.). Jayabhañja's grant is dated in his third regnal year when there was a lunar eclipse on Jyështha sudi 15. Bhandarkar, who assigns Yasőbhañja's contemporary Jagadēkamalla to circa 1139-49 A.C., says, "The first lunar eclipse in Jyështha after this date came off on Friday, 22nd May 1164. Jayabhañja therefore came to the throne in A.D. 1161." Unfortunately this is wrong as Bhandarkar confused in many cases the full moon with the new moon in the calculation of dates for his List of Inscriptions of Northern Irulia. As however, the exact date of the end of Yasõbhañja's reign is unknown and as lunar eclipse occurred on the Jyēshtha paurnamasi in 1145, 1146, 1147, 1164, and 1165 A.C., it is impossible to determine the exact date of Jayabhañja's accession on this basis. The fact that these petty rulers of the Ganjam region must have owed allegiance to the early imperial Gaigas of Kalinganagara (modern Mukhalingam near Srikakulam), who were themselves subordinate allies of the great Chöļas, would suggest that the battle against the Western Chalukya king was fought by the Bhanja king in the train of an early imperial Ganga monarch and on behalf of a Chola emperor. The identification of Jagadēkamalla with the Western Chalukya king Jayasimha I Jagadēkamalla (circa 1015-12 A.C.), who is celebrated in history for his conflict with the mighty Chola monarch Räjändra I thus does not appear to be altogether improbable. It should, however, be admitted that the ascription of Ranabhanja's reign to the third quarter of the tenth century and the number of succeeding rulers belonging to his own family and to the branch lines represented by Nottabhanja of Kumarapura and Jayabhanja of Kölada favour Bhandarkar's view regarding the date of Yakobhañja and Jayabhañja about the middle of the twelfth century, unless it is believed that some of the rulors of Vañjulvaka, Kumarapura and Kõlāda were ruling contemporaneously. The problem of the chronology of these rulers cannot be satisfactorily and finally settled until further evidence is forthcoming
Of the geographical names mentioned in the inscription, Vañjulvaka, as already pointed out, has not yet been identified. Nor can the district called Nanākhanda and the villages called Sēdāgrāma, Riigräma, Väta la vidima and Kõlakhali be identified with certainty.
TEXT Motros : Vorsc 1 Mālini; verse 2 Sārdülavikridita ; verse 3 Giti; verses 4-9, 11 Anushtubh ; verse
10 Sälin; verse 12 Pushpitāgrū.]
First Plate 1 Siddham||* Jayati kusumavā(bā)na-prāņa-vikshobha-daksha[ın*]je sva-kirana-parisvē*J$-au2 j[i](rji)tya-rji(i)rîn-indu-lēkhani(kham) | tri(tri)-bhuvana-bhavan-atta(ntar-dyota-bhūavat
pradipam | kana
1 Sewell, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India, p. 336.
Such confusions are due to the fact that the tables in Swamikanna Pillai's Indian Calendar (the same as in Indian Ephemerir, Vol. I, part I, pp. 200-79) were consulted without senetines noticing that they offer a list of new moons and not of full moons.
. See on this point our paper on the Alagum inscription to be oblished in this journal From the original plates.
Expressed by a symbol. • The danda is superfluous.
18 DGA
