Epigraphia Indica Vol 28

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

Page 51

18
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXVIII
The language is Sanskrit. With the exception of the opening verse and the usual benedictory and imprecatory verses towards the end, the entire record is in prose. The text, however, is full of serious grammatical mistakes, such as mālinasya (1.19) in place of Omālinah. As may be seen from the foot-notes and from the brackets in the transcript, many letters and words are either omitted, misspelt or corrupt. The grant portion is particularly faulty and shows numerous blunders of grammar and syntax.
Like other Chālukya grants, the present inscription opens with an invocation to the boar: incarnation of Vishņu. Then it recounts the genealogy of the Western Chālukyas of Bādāmi, of whom Satyāśraya-Prithivivallabha-Kirtivarmarāja (I); his son, Satyāśraya-Prithivivallabba Pulakēsi-Vallabha-Mahārāja (II), who defeated Harshavardhana ; and his son, SatyāśrayaPrithivivallabha-Kokkuli-Vikramāditya-rāja (I), who meditated on the feet of Någavardhana and who conquered the three kingdoms of Chēra, Chola and Pandya, are referred to in the order of succession (11. 2-12). After Vikramāditya (I) is mentioned his younger brother, Dharāśraya Jayasimbavarman (1.13), who was the founder of the Navasāri branch of the Western Chālukyas and father of the donor of the present grant. The inscription refers itself to the Western Chalukya prince of the Navasări branch, Vinayāditya-Prithivivallabha-YuddhamallaJayāśraya-Mangalarasa (1.15), who like his father is called a Paramamahēšvara. The object of it is to record the grant by Vinayāditya-Mangalarasa of some villages and domestic sites for the benefit of the temple of sun-god at Mānapura with a view to ensuring the supply, to the shrine, of perfumes, flowers, incense, lamps, music and offerings and to provide for repairs to the temple (11.22-23). The endowments comprised the village of Dinaka which was situated to the east of the Mānapura village, owued, by the gun-god and included within the Kurāta vishaya (district); the domestic sites called Kukuti and Mitimmiti in Vëlugräma; and the Urachhaka village and the Bödatta hamlet included within the Vēngi vishaya (11. 19-22). The grant is dated on the 15th day of the bright half of Vaišākha in the Saka year 613 (expired), which falls in A. D. 691-92 and which is expressed in words as well as in numerals (11. 17-18; 33-34). The grant was drafted by Bhatta Rudranāga, son of Kumārasvāmidikshita, who held the high offices of divirapati (chief of the secretariat), foreign minister and revenue minister and is further styled as niravadyaparamēśvara.
The inscription is important as it throws welcome light on the obscure history of the Gujarat (Navasāri) branch of the Western Chālukyas and helps to settle some doubtful points of chronology in respect of this little known branch. Hitherto the definite date of the foundation of this branch by Dharăcaya Jayasimhavarman was shrouded in mystery. By specifying that the year of the grant, viz., A. D. 691-92 was the twenty-first rājya-samvatsara (1.18) or regnal year, this record places it beyond doubt that the Navasāri branch was founded in the year A. D. 669-70. The regnal year mentioned in this record has to be referred to Dharāśraya Jayasirn havarman, since there is no evidence to show that Vinayaditya Mangalarasa ruled in his own right as early as A. D. 691-92. This is confirmed by Yuvarăja Sryāøraya Silāditya's Nausari and Surat plates of K. 421 and 443 which testify that Dharāśraya Jayasimbavarman was ruling from A. D. 669-70 to at least A. D. 691-92.
The record supplies another information of historical and chronological importance. So far the only definite date for Vinayāditya Mangalarasa was known from his unpublished Balsar plates, dated Saka 653 (A. D. 731-32). The present inscription, dated in Saka 613 (A. D. 691-92) supplies for this prince a date, forty years earlier than that hitherto known for him. It is interesting
[See below p. 20 n. 1. -Ed.] J. B. B. R. A. S., Vol. XVI, p. 5: Ind. Ant. Vol. XIII, p. 78.