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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXXII family referring to the contemporary Silahāra ruler to whom the Moḍhas then owed allegiance. This suspicion seems to be supported by the typical Silähära title 'supreme lord of Tagarapura' applied here to Mōdha Vijala apparently through oversight. It was over-looked by the officer responsible for the draft of the present charter that, while replacing the name of a Silahāra ruler by that of a Mōdha chief in the passage in question, a title suiting only the former was left unmodified.1
It may be argued that Mōdha Vijala mentioned in line 7 is different from Mōdha Vija of line 4 and that the latter was a subordinate of the former. But I do not think it possible to agree with such a view. In the first place, Vijala is phonetically the same as Vijjala which is again a mere variant of Vijja. It is a popular Kannada name and is generally found in the various forms Vijjala, Vijjana, Vijjana, Bijja, Bijjana, Bijjala and Bijjala. Secondly, the issuer of the present charter is apparently identical with the Mōdha chief Vijjala of the Chinchani plates of Saka 969 (1048 A.D.) edited above, in which the chief does not represent himself as a subordinate of any other ruler. Since the Silähäras were still a ruling power in the Northern Konkan, it is difficult to believe that the ruler of Samyana, who issued the present grant, would have acknowledged allegiance to anybody other than a ruler of the Silahara dynasty. There is no evidence of the emergence of a Mōdha king in the Northern Konkan in the period in question, to whom the Modha chief of Samyana could have offered allegiance. Thirdly, we have to note the fact that, as will be shown below, the Modha chief of Saiyana seems to have been ruling over a wider territory in 1053 A. D. than he was holding without reference to a master five years earlier in 1048 A. D. While the chief now claimed to have ruled over the Samyana 700 division, the Silahāra king Chhittaraja, to whom the rulers of Samyana originally owed allegiance, claimed to have held the Konkana 1400 country." About 1053 A. D., the Mōdhas were thus ruling about a half of the Northern Konkan.
Lines 8-12 state that, when Mandalika Vijja-rāņaka was ruling over the Samyana-pattana 700 which was a Mandala or district consisting of 4000 drangas and extending as far as Ākäsikā, the burden of the administration of his kingdom lay on the head of Varishthaka Mummuraka and that of the administration of Samyana (apparently meaning the town which was the headquar ters of the Modha territory) on the head of Mahathakkura Dombalaiya, while there were other chief officers such as the Mahapradhana Buddhappaiya. As we have already seen, the chief minister Mummuraka and the minister Dömbalaiya are also mentioned in the Mōdha chief's earlier record issued in Saka 969 (1048 A. D.).
The chief's order in respect of the grant to be made was addressed to the following subordinates (lines 12-15): the future princes, ministers, priests, administrative officers (amalya) and chief officials (pradhana-niyōgika) as well as the officers in charge of the rashtras (territorial units), the cities and the Dhruvas, as also the people of the countryside. It was also addressed with due respect to the hamyamana (Parsee community), the citizens, and the Mōdha Brahmaņas of Śristhāna (i.e. modern Thana). The Mōdha Brahmaņas mentioned here probably hailed from Sristhana and were settled at Samyana. Then follows in lines 16-26 a long section in prose and verse dealing with the transitoriness of life and wealth, the propriety of giving grants, etc. It is found in some Silahara grants and, in a smaller form, not only in most of the Silähära charters but also in the two records edited above. It also contains some of the usual imprecatory and benedictory stanzas. Lines 26 ff. state how, on the date and occasion indicated above, the Modha chief made a grant after having worshipped Trailökyachakshus (i. e. the Sun-god) and Trailõkyasvamin (either
1 For a similar case found in inscriptions, see JAS, Letters, Vol. XX, p. 213.
See Bomb, Caz., Vol. I, part ii, pp. 222 ff., 468, 470.
Cf. Puri-pramukha-chaturdasa-grama-sati-samanvitäs samasta-Konkana-bhuram samanusäenti (e.g. in ZDMG, Band 90, p. 282, line 31).
Cf. above, Vol. XXV, pp. 59 f. (lines 44 ff.)
