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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXX
one of their Hindu feudatories. If Malayavarman conquered Gwalior shortly after Qutbuddin's death, his accession probably took place sometime earlier. With the material at our disposal, his reign may be tentatively assigned to the period 1205-35 A.D. His father Vigraha seems to have flourished in the period circa 1185-1205 A.D. It appears that Malayavarman and his predecessors were feudatories of the kings of Gwalior, whose subservience to the Musalmans was one of the causes that led to the extirpation of their rule from Gwalior by Malayavarman. His father Vigraha thus seems to have killed some leader or leaders of the Mléchchha or Muslim armies that besieged Gwalior about the end of 1196 A.D. when he was fighting on behalf of his overlord, the king of Gwalior (Rai Solankh Pal of the Tajul Ma'asir). It may be noticed that the occupation of the Gwalior fortress by Iltutmish in 1232 A.D. did not mean the end of Malayavarman's rule. The Tabaqat-:-Näsiri says that Milak Deo (i.e. Malayavarmadēva) succeeded in escaping from the besieged fortress. That he continued to rule over some parts of the Gwalior region seems to be suggested by the other Kurēthả plate, edited below, which was issued by his successor in V.8. 1304 (1247 A.D.). For some time after 1232 A.D. the Musalmans were probably holding away only over a small area around the fortress of Gwalior which, however, could not be recovered by the Hindus for many years to come. The relations of Malayavarman, after his escape from the fortress of Gwalior, with the Muslim occupants of the fortress are unknown. The fall of the Pratihåra house of Gwalior probably led to the rise of the Jajapēllas of Nalapura (Narwar), who may have originally been feudatories of the king of Gwalior.'
of the geographical names mentioned in the inscription, Göpādri is of course modern Gwalior while Charmaavati is the river Chambal, the well-known tributary of the Yamunā. Kadavathē, the gift village, has been identified with Kurēthi which is the findspot of the record.
TEXT [Metres : verses 1, 12, 13, 15 Arya ; verses 2-4, 10-11, 16-22 Anushtubh ; verses 5-6, 9
Vasantatilakā; verse 7 Upajāti; verse 8 Indravaṁsā; verse 14 Sārdūlavikridita.) 1 Siddhams ir Om namo Dharmmāya | Dēkē kāle pătrē sraddhāvat-sätvi(ttvi)kēna bhāvēna!
danam yasya nidānam sa jayati Dharmah satām 2 sēvyaḥ [*] 1 [ll] Vpindå rak-āsura-ganair=archchit-amhri-yug-āṁvu(bu)jā dēvi Malaya
bhūpālam să påvād-Amralobita ||2 [ll] Nishkalamka-Prathāra
Bhandarkar thinks that Malayavarman's capture of Gwalior refers to the recovery of the fort by the Hindus from the Muhammadans in the confusion caused by Qutbuddin's death in 1210 A.D. (PRASI, wc, 1915-16, p. 59), But the Muslim historians do not say that in 1196 A.D. Gwalior was ocoupied by the Musalmans and a Muslim officer was placed in charge of the fortress. Altekar's statement that the Kurēthā plate of Malayavarmaa olaims that this fort (Gwalior) was recaptured by the king from the Muslims' (above, Vol. XXVI, p. 281) is wrong. On the basis of the reference to Malayavarman's victory over a powerful enemy in line 8 of the fragmentary inscription, he further suggests, " It would appear that the Muslim general, who was in charge of Gwalior, died fighting when he lost the fort to king Malayavarman" (loo. cit.). But we know that no Muslim officer was placed in chargo of the Gwalior fortress in 1196 A.D. Moreover Malayavarman is now known to have fought also with other eneinies besides the ruler of Gwalior.
Hindu rulo was re-established at Gwalior by the Tomaras (1398-1516 A.D.).
Cf. Cambridge Frisury of India, Vol III, p. 68; Elliot and Dowson, op. cit., pp. 351, 368-69; Ind. Ant., Vol. XLVII, pp. 24 ff. The Jajapēlla king Chahada who captured the fortress of Narwar and made it his capital is known from epigraphic and numismatic records with dates ranging between V.S. 1294 (1) and 1311 (i.e. between 1237 and 1254 A.D.). About the end of 1251 A.D., during the reign of Sultan Nägiruddin of Delhi, Ghiyasuddin Ballan led an expedition against Chahada who was then regarded as the most powerful Hindu king in that part of the country. Chahada was defented, but his descendants continued to rule till the end of the thirteenth century probahly as feudatoring of the Musulmans.
. From impressions. · Expressed by symbol. . It is a symbolical representation of the Prapana,
