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No. 20] PARBATIYA PLATES OF VANAMALAVARMADEVA
151 resemblance between the forms of the two letters. The Parbatiyā plates under discussion read the name of the capital city of the second line of Prāgjyotisha kings (i. e., the house of Sālastambha) unmistakably as Hadapēbvara which was apparently also the reading of the lost plates. This seems to suggest that the readings intended in the records of Harjaravarman and Balavarman were Hatappēsvara and Hadappēsvara respectively.
The inscription mentions a number of geographical names including those of a river and a hill. The adoration to the river-god Löhitya-sindhu (cf. Lohitya-bhalfāraka also in the Tezpur plates), i.e., the Brahmaputra, is very interesting. The same river is also adored as Lauhityavāridhi, Lauhitya-sindhu and Lauhitya ity=adhipatiḥ saritām in the records respectively of Balavarman who was the grandson of Vanamālavarman, of Ratnapāla who was the son of Brahmapāla founder of the Pāla dynasty (the third line of Prāgjyotisha kings), and of Indrapāla who was the grandson of Ratnapala. The kings apparently held the river-god in special veneration. But more interesting is the reference to the Lauhitya or Brahmaputra as a 'sea'. This seems to be associated with the tradition about the existence, in early times, of the Eastern Ocean (s. e., the Bay of Bengal) near Dēvikõtta which is modern Bangarh in the Dinajpur District in the northern part of Bengal, and with the presence in the central region of Bengal of large bils or lakes like the Chalan.Wide areas in the Mymensing District of Bengal (now in East Pakistan), through which the Brahmaputra at present passes, are spoken of as the 'sea' even today. It is a lowlying country which for six or more months of the year is under water; in that area, communication by boats of maundage varying with the stream and season is always possible. The coast line of this 'sea' may be taken to be passing through Bhairab-bāzār, Bājitpur, Nikli, Dom pārā and Tarail and then towards the north-east. To the west of this line, the country is a bed of dead and dying rivers. Equally interesting is the mention of the Kāmakūta hill, on which the god Kõmēsvara and the goddess Mahägauri are said to have been installed. The same deities are also mentioned in the Guākuchi plates of king Indrapāla of the Pāla dynasty.or the third line of Prāgjyotisha kings. The land granted by this charter is described as Uttara-kūle Mandivishay-āntahpāti-Pandari-bhumito'pakrish!a-dhānya-dvisahasr-ot pattika-bhumi, i.e., the land of an inferior quality yielding 2,000 (dronas) of paddy out of the area called Pandari (modern Pāņduri Mauza in which the Rangiya station on the old Assam Railway is situated) in the Mandi district pertaining to Uttara-kūla. This Uttara-küla (literally 'the north bank") was apparently a division of the kingdom of Prāgjyotisha lying on the north bank of the Brahmaputra. In the description of the boundaries of the above land, the Guākuchi inscription mentions several times Mahägauri-Kaměsvarayoh satka(or deva-satka)- täsana-Pandaribhūmi, i. e., the land called Pappart which was a gift land belonging to the deities Mahāgauri and Kāmēsvara. The names of the hill Kämaküla and the god Käměsvara would suggest that the goddess Mahāgauri was no other than Kämēsvari otherwise called Kāmā ur Kāmākhyā (literally "the goddess with the name Kämā') whose temple stands near Gauhati' in Assam. According to the Kalika
1 Cf. Kamaripa-edsan-avall, p. 59, noto l. . • Ibid., pp. 73, 02, 117.
• Cl. pūrvd kila Devikoita-samipd palchime (sio. pūrod) Püreddadhirdoft in Brihaspati-Rayamukuta's Padachandrika (Select Inscriptions, Vol. I, p. 601). For references to the sea bordering on the country of Priglyötinha or Kimaropa, noe Sachau, Alberuni'. India, I, p. 201 ; Ramayana (Vangavial ed.), Kishkindh. kåpda, ohapter 42, verse 30, etc.
•Kamarpa-sdsan-avali, p. 136-37. • a. The sakta Pithas, pp. 12-13, 16. 6 DGA/53
