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No. 16]
GRANTS OF GAYADATUNGA
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The Tungas ruled over the territory lying to the south of the chiefdom of the Sulkis of the Dhenkanal-Talcher area, who had their headquarters at Ködáloka (modern Köālu near Dhenkanal)." The rulers of the Tunga and Sulki families, who issued copper-plate grants, were ruling more or less contemporaneously, though the semi-independent rule of the Sulki rulers appears to have begun a few decades earlier than that of the Tungas. One of the earliest Sulki records is dated in year 103 of the Bhauma-Kara era, correspondmg to o. 934 A.D. Excepting the recently discovered Talcher plate of Gayadatunga which was issued from Jayapura-kötta, the other Tunga epigraphs, as indicated above, are stuted to have been issued from a city situated on the Mahāparvata hill which lies in the Cuttack District. The name of the city is, however, not mencioned in the records and it is difficult to say without further evidence whether it was Jayapura-kõtta that was situated on the Mahaparvata hill. In this connection, it may be noticed that the Nandas or Nandödbhavas of Orissa, two of whose records are dated in the Bhauma-Kara years 184 (c. 1015 A.D.) and 193 (1024 A.D.), had their headquarters at Jayapura which was probably founded by Jayananda the progenitor of that family and has been identified with a village of that name in the Dhenkanal District. Whether Gayadatunga temporarily subdued the Nandas and issued the charter in question from the capital of the latter cannot be determined in the present state of insufficient information.
The Tungas and many of their contemporaries, who were mostly semi-independent feudatories of the Bhauma-Karas, claimed to have been the lord of Gindrama'. The real significance of Gondrama is uncertain. But, in some cases, reference is made in the saine context to the 18 Gondramas' or 'all the Göndramas' (or 'the entire Göndrama'), the number 18 indicating 'all' in such cases. This reminds us of the reference in an early record to the Tosall country as including 'the 18 forest states' and of the Oriya '18 gada-jāta' implying collectively the former princely states of Orissa.
1. Talcher Plate, No. 1
This is a single plate having writing on both sides. The plate is between 6-7 and 7 inches in height and between 3-4 and 3.7 inches in breadth. The length of the plate is slightly more in the middle than at the borders while its breadth is a little more at the borders and legs in the middle. There is a projection (1.3 inches high and 1.1 inches broad) at the top of the plate and it is covered by a lump of copper meant to serve the purpose of the proper bronze seal. The legend in one line is stamped on the front of it. The reading is éri-Gayadatungasya though the letters are not clear. This crude seal is cheaper and simpler than the proper seals attached to the two other plates of Gayadatunga edited below as well as to the two charters of Vinitatunga referred to above.
There are altogether 38 lines of writing in the record, 19 on either of the faces. The characters belong to the Siddhamátrikā alphabet of Eastern India and the record may be assigned on palaeographical grounds to a date in the 10th century A.D. The inscription exhibits considerable carelessness on the part of the scribe and engraver. Some letters exhibit more than one form.
K has two forms, one of which resembles n in stiape (cf. räjanaka in line 10). V, the sign of which is used to indicate b as well, has likewise two forms, one of them resembling p (cf. nivadhva in line
Seo above, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 111-12. * Ibid., Vol. XXIX, p. 165 • Ibid., Vol. XXVIIT, p. 111 • Ibid., pp. 184, 186. • Ibid., Vol. XXVII, p. 330 • Loo oit.
