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No. 44)
TWO GRANTS OF SAILODBHAVAS.
265
are written in the regular East Indian alphabet of the seventh century, which offers a slightly different and earlier look. This faot was sometimes coupled with another that, while in the prose introduotion in the Ganjam and Khurda plates Madhavarāja II (Sainyabhita Madhavavarman II) is described as the son of Ayabobhita I and grandson of Sainyabhita Madhavarijs (Madhavavarman I), the versified introduotion in the Puri and Buguda plates and other later records of the family represents Ayabobhita I (father of Sainyabhita Madhavavarman II Srinivasa) as born in the family of Sainyabhita I (Sainyabhita Madhavavarman I). On the basis of these differences it was suggested by some writers that a period of time must have intervened between the reigns of Sainyabhita Madhavaraja II, issuer of the Ganjam and Khurda plates, and Sainyabhita Madhavavarman II Srinivasa. But the identity of the former with the latter was very clearly suggested by the Cuttack (Orissa) Museum plates of Sainyabhita Madhavavarman II Srinivasa, · which are written in the same style as the Buguda and Puri plates and other later records of the family, but are engraved in characters similar to those of the Ganjam and Khurda plates, The evidence of the Cuttack (Orissa) Museum plates, however, does not appear to have satisfied all writers on the subjects even though it received welcome support from the palaeography of the Nivina grant and Banpur plates of Mānabhita Dharmarāja.
The language and orthography of the inscription under review do not call for any special remark as the style is the same as in other documents of the king, which have the introduotory part in verses. Indeed the stanzas contained in the present record are mostly also found in the Buguda, Cuttack (Orissa) Museum and Puri plates. The officials responsible for the preparation of the charter are the same as those of the Buguda and Puri plates although, as has been noticed above, the original writing of the Buguda inscription was beaten in and re-engraved on the same plates somo years after its issue. Both the present record and the Puri plates were issued by the king in his 13th regnal year. Tbe date of the Buguda plates also may have been the same year; but it seems to have been left out at the time of the re-engraving of the inscription at a later date.
The introductory part of the Ganjam plates, issued in the Gupta year 300=619 A.D. when the Sailodbhava king Sainyabhita Madhavavarman II was a feudatory of the Gauda monarch Sasanka, As well as of the Khurda plates (without date), issued after his assumption of independence, is couched in proge. But the other charters of the king including the present record, all issued at a later period, contain a versified introduction composed for the first time by one of the king's court poets. Most of the stanzas are not only common in the Buguda, Cuttack (Orissa) Museum and Puri plates and the inscription under study but many of them are also quoted in the charters of the successors of Sainyabhīta Mādhavavarman II Srinivasa. Verses 1-11 of our record are the same as verdes 1-2, 4-12 of the grant of Ayasõbhita II Madhyamarāja while no less than nine of them are also quoted in the charter of Mānabhīta Dharmarāja, both of which have been edited by us above. As we have shown in that connection, one of these stanzas (verse 11 of the present record) credits Sainyabhita Madhavavarman II Srinivasa with the performance of several sacrifices including the Abvamēdha which must have been celebrated sometime after 619 A.D., when the Sailodbhava ruler was still a feudatory, but before his thirteenth regnal year, the Carliest date so far found in the records containing the said stanza and issued during his independent rule. There is no doubt that the Sailodbhava king succeeded in throwing off the
1 Above, Vol. XXIII, pp. 126-27; JARR8, Vol. X, pp. 1-15. See also above, Vol. VII, p. 102, etc. * Above, Vol. XXIV, pp. 148 ff.
See The Classical Age (The History and Culture of the Indian People, Vol. III), pp. 144 ff. For an explanation of Ayabobhita I being represented as a son (probably an adopted son) of Sainyabhita Madhavavarman I in some records in probe and as a descendant in others in verse, see above, Vol. XXIX, p. 35 and noto 2. See also the case of Kämāndi, above, Vol. XXIX, p. 45.
• See below, p. 269.
See above, Vol. XXIX Pp. 32 ff.
