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No. 36-KALACHURI INSCRIPTION FROM KARITALAI
(1 Plate) BAL CHANDRA JAIN, RAIPUR.
(Received on 13.7.1967) The stone slab bearing the present inscription was dug out by Sri Kanchhedi Lalji Patel in 1953 while he was ploughing his field in the village of Karitalaii in the Murwara Tahsil of the Jabalpur District, Madhya Pradesh. In April 1955, I visited the place and examined the inscription. The inscribed stone was later removed by me to the Raipur Museum.
The slab measures 2' 71" in length and 1' 31' in height. The inscription contains 13 lines of writing. A piece of stone has broken away from the top left corner of the slab causing loss of four letters in line 1 and of two letters in line 2. The middle and lower parts of the record are also damaged.
The record is well written and neatly engraved. The charactors are Nagari of about the 10th century A.D. and resemble those of the stone inscriptions of the early Kalachuri rulers."
The language of the record is Sanskrit and, except the words fubham and me galar at the end, it is metrically composed throughout. There are in all 12 verses. As regards orthography, the consonant following is often reduplicated. V is always written for b. The sign for upadhmäniya has been used thrice in lines 1, 2 and 10. The inscription is not datod.
Verse 4 of the record mentions the Kalachuri king Yuvarajadēva (I), son of Mugdhatunga. The damaged portion in verse 6 seems to have contained the name of his son Lakamapardja I whose minister Somēśvara is mentioned in verse 10.
The objeot of the inscription is to record the construction of a küpa (well) in the heart of the city of Somasvilmipura (obviously Kärstalāi) by Sõmēbvara who was a minister of Kalachuri Lakshmanarāja II and is known from another record' to have erected a temple of Vishnu at Kårstalai. His father Bhākamisra (Bhämisra of the present inscription) was one of the two ministers of king Yuvarājadēva I.
Verse 1 seems to praise Vishnu and Lakshmi. Verse 2 praises the moon, while verse 3 refers to the kings of the lunar race. The poet has compared the qualities of the lunar race with those of the moon in phrases having two meanings. In verse 4, we are told that Yuvarājadēva (I), son of Mugdhatunga, was born in the said family. Verse 5 describes the exploits of the former and states that his elephants had pressed the Gaudas, punished the Kõsalas, beaten the kings of the south ard conquered the Gurjaras. Thus, unlike the Bilhari inscription, the present record which is definitely earlier than the former, claims for Yuvarājadēva I alias Kėyūravarsha, the victories
1 The village is 36 miles north-east of Katni, headquarters of the Murwara subdivision. The following insoriptions were discovered at or near Karitalai : (1) copper plate of Jayanātha, Gupta year 174 (CII, Vol. III, pp. 117 ff.); (2) inscription of Lakshmanerāja I, Kalachuri year 693 (above, Vol. XXIII, pp. 256 ff.; CII, Vol. IV, No. 37); (3) inscription of the time of Lakshmanarāja II, which records the erection of a temple of the Enemy of the Demons' (i.e. Vishnu) by his minister Soměsvara (above, Vol. II, pp. 174 ff; CII, Vol. IV. No. 42); (4) Sati record of the time of Virsränadēva, Vikrama Samvat 1412 (ASR, Vol. IX, p. 113; Hiralal- List, No. 48). See also Hiralal, op. oit., No. 74.
. Cf. abovo, Vol. II, pp. 174 ff.; Vol. XXIII, pp. 250 ff.: CII, Vol. IV. Nos. 37 and 49. OU, Vol. IV, No. 42.
Bhakamitra and Gollaks alias Gauda, son of Bhanu, wore the two ministers of Yuvarājadova I (cf. ibid., pp. Ixxxiv. . Ibid., Vol. I, pp. 266 ff.; CII, Vol. IV No. 45.
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