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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXXII
of the Maurya lineage. Another inscription1 from Waghli near Chalisgaon in West Khandesh mentions the Maurya chief Govindaraja who was the twenty-first descendant of the chief Kikata of the Maurya dynasty of Valabhi (i.e. modern Wala in Kathiawar) and ruled in Saka 991-1069 A.D. as a subordinate of the Yadava Mahamandalesvara Sõunachandra II of the Seuna country (i.e. modern Khandesh). But the facts that the palaeography of the inscription under study closely resembles, that of the Kanaswa inscription and that the Malwa-Rajasthan region is much closer to Mathura than the Konkan and Khandesh appear to connect the Mauryas mentioned in our epigraph with the Maurya king Dhavala of the Kanaswa inscription. It was probably these Mauryas who are referred to in the Nausari plates of the Gujarat Chalukya chief Pulakosin Avanijanäsraya, dated in the Kalachuri year 490-738 A.D. It is stated in that record that the Chalukya chief repulsed a Tajika (i.e. Arab) army which, after destroying the Saindhava, Kachchhella, Surashtra, Chavōṭaka (i.e. Chapōtkața), Maurya and Gurjara kings and wishing to penetrate the Dakshinapatha country, came to reduce the Navasarika territory under his rule. It was probably the Maurya king Dhavala who was defeated by the Arabs then in occupation of Sind.
DR. Bhandarkar was inclined to identify Maurya Dhavala of the Kanaswa inscription with Paramabhattaraka Mahārājādhirāja Paramesvara Dhavalappa, overlord of Guhilaputra Dhanika of Dhavagarti, mentioned in the Dhod inscription probably dated in the Gupta year 407-726 A.D. Dhavalappa, however, appears to be a South Indian (probably Kannada) name and the king may bave been related to Rashtrakuta Nannappa, bearing a similar appa-ending name, of the Indragarh (Mandasaur District, Madhya Pradesh) inscription of the Malava year (i.e. V.S.) 767-710 A.D. It has, however, to be admitted that the Maurya king's name is given in the Kanaswa inscription as Dhavalalman which may be a Sanskritisation of Dhavalappa. If Bhandarkar's identification is accepted, the southern name of a Maurya king of the MalwaRajasthan region may be explained by supposing that these Mauryas were related to the Mauryas of the Konkan in the south.
As already indicated above, it is very probable that Maurya Dhavala of the Kanaswa inscription belonged to the family referred to in the inscription under study. It also seems that the Mauryas of the Malwa-Rajasthan region were descendants of one of the Kumāra viceroys of the western province of the ancient Maurya empire, which had its headquarters at the city of Ujjayini. Since the Kanaswa inscription of V.S. 795 (738 A.D.) appears to be slightly later than the present record, king Dhavala may be tentatively regarded as one of the successors of Dindiraja Karka of our epigraph. The genealogy of these Mauryas would thus stand as follows:
Mauryas of the Malwa-Rajasthan Region
Krishnaraja Chandragupta
Aryurija
Dindiraja Karka
!
Dhavala, V.S. 795 (738 A.D.)
1 Above, Vol. II, pp. 221 ff. Bhandarkar's List, No. 1220. Cf. ibid., No. 1371 and note.
The inscription has been published (under the name Dabok inscription') above, Vol. XX, pp. 122 f. where the date has been road as the year 207 of the Harsha era corresponding to 813 A.D.
A. R. Ep., 1954-55, No. 188 of App. B; above, Vol. XXXII, pp. 112 ff.
