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No. 45]
MAHADA PLATES OF SOMESVARADEVAVARMAN: YEAR 23
287
Both the palaeography and contents of the Patna Museum and the Kumarisimha plates indicate that they were issued by one and the same king, Sõmeévardēva II, lord of Kōsala, from his capital at Suvarnapura, the former in the 17th year of his reign and the latter in the 11th year. Both the charters were written by the same person, the vijñānin Lokanatha. While the Patna Museum plates do not specifically mention the name of the grandfather of Somesvaradeva II, the Kumarisimha grant names him as Chandradityadeva. Since Jasarājadēva II of the former grant is clearly stated as meditating on the feet of Chandradityadeva, we have here an indication that Chandradityadeva was perhaps his father1 and this is confirmed by the other grant which specifically says so. Hence the donor of the two charters is identical and the genealogies supplied by them can be combined to form a single family tree as shown below":
Challamaraja
Jasarāja (Yasōraja) I (Lord of Kōsala)
Sömesvaradeva I
Chandradityadeva
Jasarājadēva (Yasōrāja) II
Somesvaradeva II (Lord of Kösala, capital: Suvarnapura).
Before the correlation of this line of chiefs with the one in the Mahaḍā plates is established, the chronolgical position of the rulers of the line has to be determined. And in this respect we are on much surer ground than what palaeography alone can furnish. The palaeographical dating of the Patna Museum plates, so far attempted, has been divergent. R. D. Banerji, who edited the plates, assigned them to the 14th century A.C., while Krishna Sastri thought the characters of the record were referable to the 11th century, a view with which Dr. Hirananda Sastri was inclined to agree. Indeed the palaeography of the record is not so late as Banerji suggets, since the letters show definitely much earlier forms than those found in the charters of the 13th or 14th century, of which we have instances in the Kendupāṭņā plates of Ganga Narasimhadeva II of Orissa, dated Saka 1217 (1295 A.C.). They are also even earlier than the characters of the Bhuvanesvar bi-lingual (Oriya-Tamil) inscription of Vira-Narasimha of the 13th century A.C. and those of the Lingaraja Temple inscription of the Ganga king Narasimha I of Saka 1165.5 On the other hand, they have very close resemblance with the Bhuvanesvar stone inscription of Svapnēsvara, a general of the Eastern Ganga king Aniyankabhima who ruled in the 12th century A.C. The only difference noticeable between the records of Somesvaradeva II under study and the afore-mentioned inscription of Svapanesvara is that the alphabet of the former shows rounded forms while the characters
1 Suggested by Banerji, above, Vol. XIX, p. 97.
Krishna Sastri thought that Chandraditya was perhaps identical with Challamaraja, An. Rep. of the Ar. Sur., Mastern Circle, 1916-17, p.4. G. Ramadas (Journal of the Kalinga Historical Research Society, Vol. I, No. 3, p. 231) identifies Chandraditya with Jasaraja I, a view with which we do not agree. The wording of the Kumarisinha grant is clear in indicating that Chandraditya was the grandfather of the donor Söměśvara.
J.4.8. B., Vol. LXV (1896), plates VIII to XVIII, now re-edited in the same journal, Vol. XVII, pp. 33-39. ♦ Bhandarkar's List, No 1527.; J. P. A. 8. B., Vol. XX, p. 41 and plate.
Ind. Cult., Vol. III, p. 122 and plate. Above, Vol. VI, pp. 198 ff. and plate.
