Epigraphia Indica Vol 30

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

Page 70

No. 9) ANDHAVARAM PLATES OF INDRAVARMAN
39 early Ganga charters, has observed that the preamble recorded in the later charters of early Ganga kings grew lengthier than that in the early ones. Subsequent to 91 G. E. new phrases and clauses denoting their regal glory were added to the preamble and this process of development of phraseology, he surmised, grew round three fundamental factors, namely, (1) the capital city of the early Gangas, (2) their tutelary deity Gökarnasvāmin and (3) their own valour and glory. The principal seat of the Gangas attained the dignity of a vāsaka, (cf. Kalinganagara-vāsakāt, Dantapura-väsakāt, etc.) and the patron deity of the Gangas, Lord Gökarnasvāmin, is described as the sole architect of the whole world, the lord of the movable and immovable creation, who has been firmly established on the holy summit of the Mahēndra mountain.
Of the records so far published, the Chicacole plates of Indravarman dated 128 G.E, are perhaps the earliest to mention Kalinganagara a8 & vāsaka. Basing on this Mr. Sarma has surmised that subsequent to 91 G. E. the new phrases were added to the prasasti. The present Andhavaram plates of Indravarman though dated later than the Chicacole plates referred to above, record curiously the same prasasti as given in the earlier records dated 87 and 91 G. E. In fact it is identical with the prasasti found in the Narsinga palli plates of Hastivarman : G. E. 79. But for the difference in the name of the donee, the village granted and the date, the text of our inscription is practically identical with that of Indravarman's grant dated 91 G. E. In particular the imprecatory verse recorded in lines 21 and 22 is peculiar to these two records.
These plates furnish us with a new Ganga name-Lokarnava. Who is this Lökārņava at whose command the charter is said to have been written? There is no clue in the plates to ascertain this point. We know of Eastern Ganga names like Kāmārnava, Ranarnava, Dānārnava and Gunārnava, but not Lõkārņava. Though by its suffix arnava it sounds like an Eastern Ganga name, no king with that name has been met with so far in the Eastern Ganga genealogy
As noted above, this grant of Indravarman is dated in the augmenting years of Tumburuvamsa (Tumburu-vaṁéa-rājya-sarvatsarāņām). In all the grants of the early Eastern Gangas so far discovered the years were stated to be merely the 'augmenting years' (pravardhamāna-samvatsarāh) presumably of the succession of the Eastern Ganga kings. From the time of Indravarman I and Samantavarman the phraseology adopted in quoting the date of the early Eastern Ganga linge who ruled from Kalinganagara remained the same (pravardhamāna-vijayarājya-8a ratsarab) till the time of Anantavarman of 304 G. E. when for the first time the Ganga Era is specifically mentioned as Gāngēya-vamsa-pravardhamāna-vijayarājya-samvatsarā. Since no records between 254 and 304 G. E. have come to light the actual date of commencement of this particular phraseology in the early Ganga charters could not be ascertained. Basing on the phraseology supplied by the plates of Anantavarman, all the earlier grants so far discovered, though no specific reference to the Gängeya-vassa was made in them, have been presumed to have been dated in the Ganga era. Now the Andhavaram grant raises a doubt as to the correctness of the above presumption. Indravarman of this charter, as is evident from the prasasti, was no doubt a Ganga king. Since he dates his charter in the augmenting years of the Tumburu-vamsa, it seems probable that he was a subordinate of a king of that dynasty. Who are these Tumburus ? Were some of the Early Gangas subordinates to this dynasty? No information is forthooming regardin this Tumburu-vansa except a stray reference to the tribe of Tumburus in the Harivania, wherein they are mentioned along with Tushāras, as inhabitants of the Vindhyan forests. If the Andhavaram plates are to be taken as genuine, the above questions are to be solved by future researches. Still, since the
1 Ibid., p. 20. . Above, Vol. XXIII, pp. 62 ff. and plate. • [Probably it is a birida of Indravarman.--Ed.]
• Harivanba-purina, canto V, v. 20: Yi chanyi Vindhya-nilayas=T'whärädd'w buräumtathi adharma ruchayo ye cha viddhi tan=Venasambhavan