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106 EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXXI and Pratihara Bhögilla of the Arangl plates of Mabiudēvarāja, each of whom had granted & village which was later confirmed by a charter by the kings in question.
The kings of Sarabhapura appear to have been, in the beginning, the feudatories of the Guptas and Sarabha, father of Narēndra, like Göparăja of the Eran stone inscription of the Gupta year 191, was probably governing one of the eastern provinces of the Gupta empire. The Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta speaks of Mahēndra of Koala as one of the kings defeated by him. This bears a clear testimony to the extension of the Gupta influence in South Kosala. The successors of Sarabha bad the status of sämanta and are praised in their records as sämanta-makufachudāmani. They had their seats of government at Sarabhapura and Sripura. Towards the end of the Gupta rule when the empire was plunged into confusion because of the Hūņa inroads, these kings appear to have assumed an autonomous or semi-independent status. The suggestion that the Sarabhapura kings were the feudatories of the Vākäta kag does not rest on a sound foundation. The use of the box-headed characters by these kings could not necessarily be due to Vākāțaka influence or domination when it is known that the box-headed characters of the 'scooped out' or 'closed' variety were used in the Fran inscription of Samudragupta and the Udayagiri inscription of Chandragupta II. The statement in the Balagbato plates of Prithivishēņa II that the king of Kösala was a feudatory of Vākāțaka Narēndrasēna and that of the Ajants inscription" which describes Harisbēņa, probably, as the conqueror of Kosala along with several other countries need not necessarily be taken to imply that the Sarabhapure kings were the feudatories of the Vākāțskas. Kösala appears to have had much wider extent than the territories governed by the Sarabhapura kings.11 There is nothing to suggest that they ever ruled over the Chanda District or even the whole of the Bilaspur and Bastar Districts of Madhya Pradesh.
TEXTU
Piret Plate i Om svasti [1] Sarabhapurad=vikkram-õpanata-samanta-ma[kuta-chūļā-maņi]. 2 prabha-prasēk-ārebu-dhauta-pada-yugalo ripu-vilāsi[ni-simant-oddharana].
1 Above, Vol. XXIII, pp. 20-21.
* For the identification of this city with Sarpagarh in the former Gangpur State in Orissa, see above Vol. XXIII, p. 17; Vol. XXVI, p. 229, f.n.2. Hiralal favoured Sirpur in the Raipur District of Madhya Pradesh (ibid., Vol. XI, p. 186, n. 5).
OI1, Vol. III, p. 93. • Ibid., p. 7.
*[The author has misunderstood the meaning of the epithet vibram-panata-admanta-maluta-ohidamani. prabhd-praalk-ambu-dhauta-pada-yugala which suits independent rulers only.-E..]
. Above, Vol. XXII, pp. 17 ff. *CII, Vol. III, Plate II-A. • Ibid., Plate II.B. . Above, Vol. IX, p. 269. 10 Hyderabad Archaeolugical Series, No. 14, p. 14. 11 Cf. Ind. Ant., Vol. LXII, pp. 161 ff.
13 The Bhandara (Chanda District) board of gold coins containing ona non of Mahendraditya and 11 of PreBanNamitra need not be taken as evidence of the oxtension of the territuries of the Sarabhafura kings over the Chanda District as it is likely that the coins travelled to that place which was not far away from the Sarabnapurs dominions.
From inked impressions supplied by the Government Epigraphist for India. 14 Expressed by symbol.
15 A portion of the first plate is broken off. Thus six letters of line 1. seven of line 2, eight of line 3, and nine each of lines 5 and 6 are lost. But the loet letters can be restored with the help of other charters of the king.
