Book Title: Epigraphia Indica Vol 30
Author(s): Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

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Page 351
________________ 262 EPIGRAPHIA INDICA [VOL. XXX as Råghava of the Varman side. We may here recall the statement in the third slök of the Belāva plate that Hari manifested himself in person many times in the Varman line. The first Hari was Krishna himself. The second Hari is Harivarman. The third Hari might be this Varman chief Rāghava who wielded all power during this period and whom it was necessary to eulogise in addition to the reigning king. Vijayasēna began his invasion of the Varman kingdom by his attack on Kaušāmbi, modern 24 Parganas District, and its king Govardhana, who might have been a samanta of the Varmans. This involved the Varman kingdom in a disastrous war. Ramapāla, though eulogised by Purushottama, the author of the Belāva epigraph, probably dared not interfere, exhausted as he was by his recent struggle with the Kaivartas. The Varmans went down finally and Rāghava, the leader of the Varmans, became a prisoner in the hands of Vijayasēna. Thus fell the Varman kingdom before the onslaught of Vijayasēna, and the apparent silence of the Deopājā inscription regarding this great political change in Bengal is thus explained. . The grant was issued by Samalavarman, son of Jätavarman of the Varman dynasty of Vanga. The donee was Bhimadēva. The gift appears to have been made to the temple of Prajñāpāramitã and other deities, founded by him. The ruined temple site referred to above, from the vicinity of which this fragment was recovered, appears to be the temple mentioned in the record. It is interesting to note that Samalavarman makes this donation to a Buddhist shrine to please his patron deity Vishņu. I edit the inscription from the original fragment. The lost part of the propose portion in it could be easily supplied from the Belāva plate of Bhnjavarman. TEXT Obverse ..............(9949979:() Fan...........frata: carentfernt VECETE........... Fof anfauft: YTETIT TETT.............ale wouifcarichfaqenata: . . . . . . .farat frana: fa........ftfeferonifaT7(1) # 1 qf<forate............ hrast [*] farerurfa(ai fa) 74: wafea of ............ Zaferetani # TEATEET(T) 4641814[ufca). 9 .............[fejerf47#97(1) welfafarei a ll $t10 .............fasetticalfede - 11 ..............99#Tata (il grott 47 IR. D. Banerji and N. G. Majumdar hold that this Kansamblis identical with Kusumbi in the Rajshahi District, ignoring the impossibility of the Varmans holding land north of the Ganges, inside the Pila kingdom (of Inscriptions of Bengal, Vol. III, p. 19). (See abovo, p. 256, noto 5.-Ed.)

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