Epigraphia Indica Vol 32

Author(s): D C Sircar, B Ch Chhabra,
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 94

No. 5-THREE GRANTS FROM CHINCHANI
(3 Plates)
D. C. SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND
Two of the five copper-plate grants discovered at Chinchani in the Dahanu Taluk of the Thana District, Bombay, have been edited in the foregoing article. One of them pertains to the reign of king Indra III (915-28 A.D.) and the other to that of Krishna III (939-67 A.D.), both the rulers belonging to the Imperial Rashtrakuṭa dynasty of Manyakheta (Mālkhed). Of the three other copper-plate charters discovered at the same place, two were issued by a Motha chief of Samyana (Sanjan in the Thana District). The name of the family to which the issuer of the remaining charter from Chinchani belonged is not mentioned in the record; but he was also a ruler of Samyana and seems to have been a Mōdha. The family name, viz. Mōdha, associates these chiefs of Samyana with the Brahmana and Baniya communities of the same name now residing in various parts of the Northern Konkan and its neighbourhood. No ruler of this dynasty was known so far from any other source. The three charters are dated respectively in Saka 956 (1034 A.D.), Saka 969 (1048 A.D.) and Saka 975 (1053 A.D.). Before the inscriptions are taken up for discussion, a few words may be said about the circumstances leading to the rise of the Mōḍhas at Samyāna.
We have seen above how an Arab governor was ruling over the territorial division of Samyana on behalf of the Rashtrakuta kings Krishna II (878-915 A.D.) and Indra III (915-27 A.D.). It is well known that the Silaḥāras claimed to be the rulers of the Northern Konkan with their capital at Puri since the days of Amōghavarsha I (814-80 A.D.). The founder of the Silāhāra house was Kapardin I whose son Pullasakti (843-44 A.D.) and grandson Kapardin II (851-78 A.D.) are known to have enjoyed the title 'lord of the Konkan' or ' lord of the entire Konkan' as feudatories of the said Rashtrakuta monarch. The Silahāra inscriptions give the names of the following rulers of the family after Kapardin II: (1) his son Vappuvanna, (2-3) Vappuvanna's sons Jhanjha and Goggi, and (4) Goggi's son Vajjada I. Little is known about these rulers, although Al Mas'udi speaks about 916 A.D. of Jhanjha as governor of the Lar (Laṭa) country and
1 See Bomb. Gaz., Vol. IX, part i, pp. 2-3, 11-12, for the Mōdha Brahmanas who are believed to have migrated to Gujarat from Upper India, and for the town of Mōdhera (cf. also ibid., p. 72; Vol. VII, pp. 608-09) which is supposed to have given the M5dhas their name. For the same sub-caste of the Brahmanas in Kutch, Kathiawar, Poona, Rewa Kantha and Thana, see respectively Vol. V, p. 45; Vol. VIII, p. 146; Vol. XVIII, part i, p. 163; Vol. VI, pp. 23-24; and Vol. XIII, p. 80. For the Mōdha Bäniäs in Gujarat, Kutch, Kathiawar and Thana, see respectively Vol. IX, part i, p. 72; Vol. V, p. 50; Vol. VIII, p. 148; and Vol. XIII, p. 112.
* For a Mödha named Kumyara who was the son of Vaijala and a Mahakshapatalika of Chanlukya Bhima II, see an inscription of V. S. 1256 in Ind. Ant., Vol. XI, p. 72, text lines 41-42. See also Sankalia, Archaeology of Gujarat, p. 208 and note 1.
Cf. p. 50.
Bomb. Gaz., Vol. I, part ii, pp. 538 ff. The identification of the city of Purt is not definitely settled. Different scholars have identified it variously with Thapa (chief town of the Thana Distriot), Gharapurt (Elephanta), Rajapuri in Kolaba and Rajapur in Ratnagiri. See ibid., pp. 283-84. Some of the Silahara records were issued from Sthänaka or Thapa. It is sometimes also believed that Thana was the capital of the Bilähäras while Puri was their secondary capital (Ind. Cult., Vol. II, p. 402).
Ind. Ant., Vol. XIII, p. 136.
• Ibid., pp. 134-35.
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