Epigraphia Indica Vol 29

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

Page 96

45
ALAGUM INSCRIPTION OF ANANTAVARMAN; REGNAL YEAR 62
No. 6] vaishnava, which show that he was a devotee of both the gods Śiva and Vishnu. His family belonged to the Kasyapa götra and to the pañch-ärsheya-pravara (i.e., having five sages as pravaras or distinguished members of the götra in question). The Kasyapa götra, however, is known to have only three pravaras, viz., Kasyapa, Avatsara and Naidhruva. Pañch-ärsheya thus appears to be a mistake for try-ärsheya. In dealing with the ancestry of Kamandi, the inscription rather curiously speaks of Pitämaha Pötändi, of the former's son Bhimandi and of the latter's vams-ödbhava or descendant Kāmānḍi. It seems that Pōtandi was the pitämaha or grandfather of Kamandi and that Bhimāṇḍi was his father inspite of the fact that he is said to have been merely a descendant of Bhimāņḍi. This seems to be suggested by the word pitamaha used in connection with the name of Pōtandi, by the similar formations of the three names, viz., Pōtandi, Bhimandi and Kämäṇḍi, and also by the fact that there is hardly any meaning in mentioning only two distant ancestors of the donor when the established custom throughout India was generally to mention only his father and grandfather. It may, however, not be impossible that Kämäṇḍi was actually the son of a brother of Bhimanḍi who later adopted him as his own son. That is possibly why Kamandi is called a vamé-ödbhava and not exactly a putra of Bhimandi. It may be recalled in this connection that the Sailōdbhava king Ayasobhita I of Kōngōda in Orissa is described in some records in prose as the son of Sainyabhita Madhavavarman I, but in others in verse as merely a descendant of the latter. A very interesting information about Kāmāṇḍi's family given in the record is that it hailed from a village, the name of which reads like Kadamvura, in the Chōla country, which was the modern Tanjore-Trichinopoly region of South India.
Kāmāṇḍi is said to have purchased with his own money a hala of land styled Kapālē vara in the village of Alagumma which formed a part of the Ramanga vishaya and made it an endowment in favour of the matha of the god Garttēśvaradeva. The purchase is said to have been witnessed by certain honest praja-lõkas apparently meaning the people of the locality. The object of the grant was two-fold. In the first place, it was to provide food to an ascetic, possibly living in the matha referred to, whose name may have been Bhij or Abhij. Secondly, three pravarttas of paddy were allotted for providing naivedya or the daily ceremonial offering to the god Garttesvaradeva. In this description of the grant, the word hala, known also from other sources, has been used to indicate a piece of land of uncertain area. The exact weight of a pravartta of paddy is likewise unknown."
In addition to the piece of land granted, a sum of money was deposited with the local adhikarins (possibly superintendents of the temple) who are said to have been maintaining the palli-deva, literally 'village deity' (possibly meaning Garttesvara), for providing an akhanda or perpetual lamp, apparently in the temple, in honour of the god Garttesvara. The lamp was expected to be the kula-tarana (i.e., a thing that ensures easy crossing of the sea of samsara for the members of one's family) of" this kaparyaka" probably meaning Kāmāṇḍi himself. The word kaparyaka appears to be a mistake for a word like käpyaka meaning 'a penitent'. The amount granted in this connection is described as a hundred churnis added by five puranas. The word churni usually means a hundred cowrie-shells, while purana was the old silver karshapana usually regarded as equal to 1280 cowrie-shells. According to Oriya lexicons, however, both the words churni and purana are recognised in the sense of kähāņa (Sanskrit karshapana) which was equal to 1280 cowrie-shells. There is no doubt that the words have been used in the same sense also in the record under
1 See Successors of the Satavahanas, pp. 400 f. Cf. also ibid., p. 250 and note.
Is it Oriya paufi which is equal to ten maunds?
Cf. Pramoda Abhidhana, s.v. churni and purana. The Mehar plate (above, Vol. XXVII, p. 189, text line 35; of. p. 191, note 5) spells the word as churni and uses it as a synonym of purana. The same word also occurs in line 59 of the Vangiya Sahitya Parishat plate of Visvarupasana (Inscriptions of Bengal, Vol. III, p. 147), although it was wrongly read as churna.
1 ᎠᏩᎪ