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No. 31] NOTE ON TWO PLATES OF TRIBHUVANAMAHADEVI FROM BAUD
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named Gösvāmini and requested her to assume the reins of Government in the manner of that old ruling queen. Mr. Misra identifies queen Tribhuvanamahädēvi who issued the Dhenkanal plate with the Bhauma-Kara queen of the same name mentioned in the inscriptions of the years 103, 145 and 149, referred to above. Mr. De on the other hand thinks that Tribhuvanamahādēvi of the Dhenkanal plate ruled in the year 160 immediately after Prithvimahādēvi alias Tribhuvanamahādēvi who issued the Baud plates in the year 158. We are inclined to favour Mr. Misra's identification as Mr. De's suggestion appears to be doubtful in view of the following facts.
In the first place, the fact that the feudatories cited the instance of an ancient ruling queon named Gösvāmini to induce Tribhuvanamahādēvi of the Dhenkanal plate to ascend the throne suggests that she was the first ruling queen on the Bhauma-Kara thrope. Had there been two other queens previously ruling in the family within less than half a century before hor age and had one of them ruled immediately before herself, the reference to an earlier queen's rule by way of illustration was certainly uncalled for and meaningless. Even if such an illustration was necessary at all to induce a third queen of the family to the throne, it is no doubt strange that the ruling queen who flourished immediately before should have been passed over in silence and the case of another reigning more than quarter of a century earlier would have been cited
Secondly, according to Mr. De, Tribhuvanamahādēvi of the Dhenkanal plate was the wife of Sivakara III who issued his grants in the year 149. If she was thus the mother of Santikara III and Subhākara V, it is only natural to expect a prominent mention of her name in the grants of queen Dandimahādēvi who was the daughter of Subhākara V. But her name is conspicuous by its absence in the later records of the family. This difficulty has been explained away by Mr. De who thinks that Tribhuvanamahādēvi of the Dhenkanal plate was a step-mother of Dandimahädēvi's father and that she, like Prithvimahädēvi, did not recognise her step-sons' title to the Bhauma-Kara throne. If such was the case, Tribhuvanamahādēvi of the Dhenkanal plate is expected to have been a partisan of Prithvimahādēvi in her struggle with the lawful claimants of the throne and the non-mention of the latter's name in her record becomes doubly inexplicable.
Thirdly, the two known facts (1) that Tribhuvanamahādēvī, mother of Subhākara III of the Hindol and Dharakota plates (dated 103), was born in the Nāga family and (2) that Tribhuvanamahādēvi alias Sindagauri of the Dhenkanal plate was the daughter of Rājamalla of the southern country appear to suggest that the two were one and the game person. The name Sindagauri (i.e., Sinda-Gauri or Gauri of the Sindas) shows that the issuer of the Dhenkanal plate was born in the Sinda family while it is well known that the Sindas who originally belonged to Karnataka claimed Näga origin. We are inclined to believe that Tribhuvanamahādēvi, who was the mother of Subhākara III and has to be identified with the ruling queen of the Dhenkanal plate, was the daughter of a Sinda king bearing the name or biruda Rajamalla. It has to be noticed that Prithvi
1"Dēvi purripi dövya Sri Gosvaminya...chirom dhåriteniv=ēyam vasundhara tad-adhun=api prasida tathaiva suchiram dharay=ninam kriyatim lok-Anugrahah svikriyatamavi(tam vit) prakram-agata-Kara-rajyA-Srir"iti sa-rabhasam-abhiskēka-mangala-pratipad-onmukhēna mahati mahisamanta-chakrēna nivödyamina...sim. hisanamirudha (Misra, op. cit., pp. 25-26, text lines 17-21). An alternative interpretation of this passage may be that the queen's other name was Gosvamint and that she had ruled the kingdom for sometime on previous occasion before the accession of her son (or stop-son) Subhākara III, although there is no indication in favour of such a possibility in the inscriptions of the family.
Cf. Bomb. Gaz., Vol. I, Part II, pp. 573 ff.
* We have no knowledge of a Sinda-Naga ruler named Rajamalla who flourished in the tenth century. But the said name is known to have been popular in the Sincla family. An inscription of 1148-49 A.C. mentions a chiot named Irmadi-Rachamalla (i.c., Rajantalla the Second, showing probably that there was Ilajaro alla I among his predecessors) who claimed the Näga lineage and enjoyed the biruda Sinda-Govinda that reminds us of Sinda. Gaurl. See ARSIE for 1904, p. 9 (cf. Nos. 56 and 69 of 1904); Kielhorn's List of Inecriptions of Southern India, No. 2153.
