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No. 14]
MANDKILA TAL INSCRIPTION, V.8. 1043 Verse 28 gives details of the date (Sunday, Yugüdi, etc.) on which the consecration of this temple, or the installation of the images of the said deities, took place. The date is then repeated in prose, being the 3rd day of the bright fortnight of the month of Vaitākha in Sarvat 1043. The details correspond to the 3rd April 987 A.D., the tritiya tithi having begun on the same day at 19. Verse 29 imparts the sad news that the builder of this temple, Nandana, after having made endowments for the maintenance of proper worship of the installed deities, breathed his last at the holy place, called Saukara, on the banks of the sacred river Bhagirathi.
Verses 30-33 give the family history of the donor, Nandana. Verse 30 tells us that he had a wife, called Rõhini, while, from verses 31-32, we learn that they had six sons whose names were Sajjana, Silluka, Yase, Sõhila, Pushkara and Sarkara. These six brothers, we are told in verse 33, caused the present prasasti to be composed, written, engraved and set up at the temple erected by their father. Verse 34 prays for the long life of the temple.
The next three stanzas (verses 35-37) speak of the composer of the prasasti, poet Vimalamati, who, we are told, was a learned Brāhmaṇa of the Vätsya family, the son of Durlabharāja and the grandson of one who is stated to be the fifth from Bāna and a resident of a place called Rohtaka. Vimalamati, who was an ardent devotee of Vishnu and evidently bore the surnames Bhujagaripu and Kēšavārka, is further stated to have written the eulogy, writing here meaning the writing in ink on the stone slab, dressed for receiving the text, for the guidance of the engraver. A look at the facsimile of the inscription will show that Vimalamati was as skilled in caligraphy as he was proficient in composing Sanskrit poetry. The engraving of the prasasti was done by Vāhila, son of Vabari, a skilful mason of the Kshatriya caste and a resident of Dhulāvāsa.
The chakra-bandha in the centre of the inscription contains two additional stanzas (verses 3940) and is called kavi-näma-garbha 'one hiding in it the name of the poet'. How it contains the poet's name concealed in it is explained further on. The arrangement of the two verses, which are of invocatory import, along the edge of the circle and in the triangles, so intersecting as to form a star within the circle, redounds to the credit of both the composer and the engraver.
As noticed above, verse 3 refers both to the Sun-god and to the ruling monarch. The actual word used for the latter is loka-ntipa, which we may tender by popular king', as obviously this is not the proper name of the king. We may take it to be an expression of the sāka-pārtkiva type : loka-priyah risipah loka-nsipah,' a king who is dear to the people'. In verse 4, the chief town of the said king is called Mālav-ākhya. The reference obviously is to the capital of Malava, which at the time was Ujjayini. The description of the town, given in verses 4-8, can very well apply to that famous city of ancient Indis ; for, it is comparable to its description given by poets like Kálidāsa. The king referred to therefore seems to have been Väkpati Muñja (973-95 A.D.) of the Paramära dynasty."
Cf., for instance, verses 32 ff. of Kalidasa's Meghadata.
Dr. D. C. Sircar suggests to me that verses 3-4 refer to a chiof named Lökarkja who was ruling from Malaya. nagara to be identified with Nagar, the findspot of the inscription. In his opinion, Loks may have been a soion of .. the ancient Malava clan, coins of the Malavas being found in large numbers at Nagar. Shri Guleri, who also identifies Malava-dagars with the present Nagar, thinks that the king's name is not mentioned in verse 3.
