________________
. EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXXIV
Nandana, the pious builder of the temple, is stated to have belonged to the Dharkata caste. It may be pointed out that the Sakrai stone insoription of Vikrama Samvat 699, which likewise comes from the Jaipur region, mentions an association of bankers some of whom belonged to the same oaste. According to D. R. Bhandarkar, it has survived in the slightly altered form Dhākada, sub-division of the Osvāls. The opening words of verse 12 (tatr=ābhavad) indicate that this family of the bankers belonged to the Malava town. Saukara, the holy place, on the banks of the Bhāgirathi, where Nandana is stated to have expired, is obviously the same as Sükara-kshētra identified with Soron on the Ganges, 27 miles north-east of Itah in Uttar Pradesh. It was at this place that Vishņu in his incarnation as Varāhs (Boar) killed Hiraṇyāksha, as the Purāṇas have it. Svētadvipa, which is sacred to Mabávishnu and on which Nandana is said to have fixed his thoughts while on death-bed, is usually located somewhere in Asia Minor.
As regards the Brāhmaṇa teacher, Indrabarman, described in verses 9-11, it is not clear as to what his role in the present context was. Had he to do something with the building of the temple or was he connected with the Dharkata family as their priest? From the present tense used in his description, it may be inferred that he was alive at the time of the composition of the present prasasti.
A valuable piece of information that our inscription contains is the family history of its composer, the poet Vimalamati. He tells us that his grandfather was an austere Brāhmana, an inhabitant of a place called Rohőtaka, belonged to the Vataya varsa and, what is more important, was fifth in descent from Băna, who is apparently no other than the famous Bāņa-bhatta, the court poet of king Harshavardhana and the author of the Harshacharita, Kadambari, eto. From the Kadambari we know that its author belonged to the Vätsyāyana varsa which is the same as the Vātsya vamba to which Vimalamati belonged. Vimalamati has not disclosed the name of his grandfather, while giving all the other necessary details about him. He, however, gives his father's name as Durlabharaja whom he describes as a profound scholar.
If Vimalamati's grandfather was fifth in descent from Bäņa, he himself becomes seventh in that line. We know that Bana flourished in the first half of the 7th century A.D. According to the date of the present inscription, Vimalamati lived in the latter half of the 10th century A.D. This makes Vimalamati removed from Bana by about 3 centuries and a half. This long period spread over seven generations gives an average of about half a century to a generation, which is improbable though not impossible.
Rohōtaka, the ancestral home of Vimalamati's grandfather, may be identified with Rohtak, ancient Rauhitaka in the Panjab, 43 miles north-west of Delhi. Another place mentioned in the inscription, which requires to be correctly identified, is Dhaldväsa, from which Vāhila, the engraver of the prasasti, hailed.
The chakra-bandha, designated by the poet as kavi-näma-garbha, is an arrangement of verses into a pattern which contains the name of the poet concealed in it. In order to solve the puzzle, one has to read only the letters occurring on the junctions and intersections of the lines of the two triangles. Beginning from vi at the top and turning clock-wise into a spiral, we read Vimalamatisu kavi-kriti, '(this is the work of the good poet Vimalamati.' This answer to the riddle is extracted from the two verses contained in the bandha, the full text of which is given below at the end of the transcript of the inscription. Such bandhas or conundrums form part of what is known as chitrakävya or 'playful poetry.'
1 Above, Vol. XXVII, p. 29. 'N. L. Dey, Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India, p. 196.
. Dr. D. C. Biroar suggests to me that the name of Vimalamati's grandfather was Dbanta which word I have taken to be a mistake for danta.
