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No. 24) HINGNI BERDI PLATES OF RASHTRAKUTA VIBHURAJA ; YEAR 3 175 resemble closely the forms of letters found in the Añjanēri plates' of Prithvichandra Bliogabakti. The writing on the second side of the second plate shows a very crude hand. It is strongly doubted if all the three sides of the two plates were engraved by one and the same person.
The language of the inscription is Sanskrit. The composition is in prose and is full of mistakes, but the sense can be clear, if proper restorations are made in the text.
The inscription refers to the Rashtrakūta dynasty which is styled Rashtrakuçesvarānām-an. vavāya in the initial portion. It is stated that the Rashtrakūta princess Syāvalangi Mahadovi, the Queen-consort of Rashtrakūta Dāvarāja and mother of Manarāja, donated an agrahāra called Kamalibhūhaka to a Brahmin called Nannasvāmin, belonging to the Agastya götra, for the purpose of carrying on religious duties. In addition to this land a dakshina of fifty bars (salākā) of gold was given to the Brahmin with the consent of Rashtrakūta Vibhurāja. The grant was made on tho full-moon day in the month of Vaisakha in the third regnal year of king Vibhurāja.
The plates refer to the Rashtrakūta dynasty thrice (lines 1, 9 and 16) and from tha find-spot of the plates it seems certain that the family must have bean ruling somewhere in Mahārāshtra. The royal persons belonging to this family are described in the usual panegyric and as such do not yield any historical information. King Vibhurāja is mentioned twice and there is no specific reference to his period, except that the palaeography of the grant, which as stated above, places it in the 5th century A. C. In the absence of these details it would have been difficult to identify this king Vibhurāja, as none of the branches of the Rashtrakūta dynasty anywhere refers to him.
The mention of king Dēvarāja, however, affords some clues. Recently Principal V.V. Mirashi, in his article entitled "The Rashtrakütas of Mānapura ", has suggested that there was a minor branch of the Rashtrakūta dynasty ruling in certain parts of the Satara District during the 4-6th conturies A.C. Hitherto only three copper-plate grants of this family have been found, viz., Undikavātikā grant of Rashtrakūta Abhimanyu, Pandurangapalli platosof Rashtrakūta Avidhiya, and Gokak platos' of Rashtrakūta Dējja Mahārāja. From the identification of the place names recorded in the first two of these grants, it has been shown that the members of this branch of the Rashtrakūta dynasty were ruling in the Mäna täluk of the Satara District. The genealogy and the approximato period assigned to them is given as follows:
Rāshtrakūtas of Mänapura
Mānārika (375-400 A.C.)
Dēvarāja (400-425 A.C.)
Son (name not known)
Avidhéya (440-455 A.C.)
Bhavishya (455-170 A.C.)
Abhimanyu (470-490 A. C.)
Dajja Mahārāja (530-560 A.C.)
-Above, Vol. XXV, pp. 225-238 and plates. • ABORI, Vol. XXV, pp. 36-50. • JBBRAS, Vol. XVI, pp. 88 ff. • Mysore Archeological Report for 1929, p. 197. . Above, Vol. XXI, p. 289. 6 DGA/53
