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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXXII only discrepancy is that the name of the father of Nannaraja of the Berar records is given as Svamikarāja, while that of Nannappa is mentioned as Bhāmāna ; but this discrepancy can be solved by assuming that Bhāmāna was the biruda of Svämikaraja and that, in the metrical composition of the present record (verse 4), the biruda suited the exigencies of the metre better than the name. Nannaraja would thus become identical with Nannappa, appa being the Kannada honorific attached to the name Nanna or Nanna. If this identification be accepted, it will show that Rashtrakūta Nannarāja or Nannappa reigned from 693 to 712 A. D. and that his rule extended from Berar in the south to Malwa in the north. But from the undated Undikaväṭikā grant of Rashtrakūta Abhimanyu we know of another Rashtrakuta family ruling in circa seventh century A. D. over the Hoshanagabad-Mhow region which falls between Berar and Malwa. How could two ruling families hold sway over the same region simultaneously? The difficulty is resolved by assuming that either the two Rashtrakuta families were friendly and had agreed to have concurrent jurisdiction over the Mhow-Hoshangabad region or the two families were mutually at war trying to grab each other's territory. It is, however, more probable that the family of Abhimanyu had already passed out of the stage before the rise, in circa 693 A. D., of Nannaräja-Nannappa who could thus hold undisputed sway over the region extending from Berar in the south-east to Malwa in the north-west.
We have one more inscription mentioning Nannaräja from Berar, viz. Nagardhan plates of Svämiraja, dated in the year 322 of an unspecified era. These plates were issued from Nandivardhana by Nannaraja, brother of the reigning prince Svämiraja and differ from the other Berar plates of Nannaraja not only in respect of palaeography, but also in leaving the era as well as the name of the dynasty unspecified and in calling Nannarāja a brother of Svämiraja instead of a son of Svämikarāja. As the year 322 of the record has been shown to refer to 573 A. D., this grant antedates the Multai and Sangalooda plates by over a century, thus indicating that Nannaraja of the Nagardhan plates was different from Nannaraja of the other Berar plates. The similarity of the names and the identity of territory, however, may show that Nannaräja and Svämirāja of the Nagardhan plates were probably earlier members of the same family. If this view is accepted, we have to conclude that Nandivardhana (modern Nagardhan near Ramtek, Nagpur District), the place of issue of the Nagardhan plates, was the earlier capital of the family. Their capital was subsequently shifted to Achalapura (modern Ellichpur) which is prominently mentioned in literature as well as in the spurious Tiwarkhed plates. Padmanagara, the place of issue of the Sangalooda plates, has been identified with Padmin near the town of Akola. It appears to have been an important town in the time of Nannaraja-Nannappa, if not the new political seat of the family.
Nanna appears to have been a popular name among the Rashtrakutas and Rashtrakuta chiefs bearing this name are also known from other inscriptions. One Nanna Guņāvalōka is mentioned as the grandfather of Rashtrakuta Tunga Dharmavaloka in the latter's Bodhgaya stone inscription, dated in the year 15 of a regnal reckoning. Nanna Gunavalōka of this inscription, which is palaeographically assignable to circa 9th century A. D., is obviously not the same as Nanna of
1 [The identification does not appear to be supported by any evidence besides the contemporaneity of the two chiefs bearing similar names.-Ed.]
Ibid., Vol. VIII, pp. 165 ff. and Plate.
[The Rashtrakuta house represented by Abhimanyu ruled in the Satara-Kolhapur region of the South Maratha country about the sixth century A. D. It had little to do with Malwa. See The Classical Age, ed. by Majumdar, pp. 199-200. Ed.]
Above, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 1 ff. and Plate.
Ibid., p. 5.
Above, Vol. XXIX, p. 113.
R. L. Mitra, Buddha Gaya, p. 195 anl Plate.
