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No. 39) SONEPUR INSCRIPTION OF BHANUDEVA.
327 is still worshipped in a temple on the river Tel near Sonepur. What we have read as of Naedavisaya-gräma väraha has been read by Tripathi as ina Edaviya-panamu vära, in which ina has been taken to be a local word meaning here and the purpose of the document has been supposod to be to record the grant of twelve coins called Edaviya-Pana in favour of the god. But, in such a case, ina would be meaningless in the context. A coin called Edaviya (the last akshara is certainly sa)Pana is also as yet unknown from any other source.
The next sentence in lines 6-8 reads ëhā je harai harāus tāhāra kapäle Siva-tāla Vrakma-tāla Vishnu-tāla tini tāla padaï (Sanskrit etat yaḥ harati hārayati [vā] tasya kapāle Siva-tālah (cha) Brahma-tālah [cha] Vishnu-tālal (cha) trayah iūlāḥ patanti). The word kapāla has been used here in the literal sense of 'forehead' and the figurative sense of lot' and tāla (literally, the palm of the hand') apparently to indicate a slap'. A blow on the forehead ' figuratively means in the East Indian languages 'the destruction of one's good luck' or 'one's ruin'. The idea bere is that, if any person confiscates the gift land or causes its confiscation, his forehead would be struck by a blow each from the hands of the gods Siva, Brahman and Vishņu. Tripathi and others read Rudra-tāla in the place of Vishnu-tāla without noticing that Siva-tāla is mentioned side by side. The word tāla is translated by Tripathi as a bolt', although it means 'a bolt' only in the sense of the bolt or lock of a door'.
The last sentence of the inscription in line 8 teads: tāhāra kapālai noivansa hoi (Sanskrit tasya ka päle nirvan sah bhavati). To become nirvaṁśà means 'not to have any progeny', or 'to lose all of one's own children and their progeny, i.e. to have none in one's line to offer one a pinda after death'. The sentence means to say that the loss of progeny would fall to the lot of one responsible for tho resumption of the gift land. Tripathi reads tāhāra kapāla ina ho vasa hoi and translates the sentence as His forehead becomes subdued or ruined'. The akshara ho has been inadvertently introduced in the text while vasa (the reading is clearly 'vansa) has been taken to stand for Sanskrit va sa. The word ina (meaning 'here'according to Tripathi) has been left out in the translation. As a matter of fact this word does not occur in the inscription under study or in any other Oriya inscription known to me.
The importance of the inscription lies in the fact that it testifies to the inclusion of the district around Sonepur in the dominions of the Imperial Gangas in the thirteenth or fourteenth century A.D. We know that the Telugu-Chöda king Sõmēsvaradēvavarman III was ruling at Sonepur about the second half of the twelfth century. He was also a devotee of the god Vaidyanatha (Siva) whose temple may have been built by the Telugu-Chödas. It now appears that the Gangas ousted Telugu-Choda rule from that region. But it is difficult to determine as to which of the Ganga kings was responsible for the achievement
The geographical names mentioned in the inscription are Sūnapūra, the location of which has already been indicated above, and the district of Naēda tho name of which reminds us of the locality called Laida about 33 miles from Sambalpur.
TEXT:
1 Svast[i] [ll*] sri-vira-Bhāņudēvasya pravadhyamāna-vijaē-rājē samvata 2 [87]&7* erähi Mina-lishna 38 Sari-värd Sänapüra-kataka
1 Above, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 283 ff. • From impressions. . This akshara is redundant. • Tripathi reads 16 or a 6. . Tripathi roads 2. Originally rd bad been written in the place of a and it was later changed to ma.
