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No. 23_NOTE ON INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF CHAULUKYA KARNA,
V.S. 1354
D. C. SIRCAR and G. BHATTACHARYA, Ootacamund
(Received on 5. 8. 1959)
Dr. C. C. Das Gupta has published this inscription above, pp. 151 ff. The record, which is fixed in the wall of a temple at the village of Dēsān or Bhavnath in the Beloda Taluk of the Sabarkantha District, Bombay State, was trascribed in the Buddhiprakāša, 1910, under the name 'Muralidhar Temple Inscription, and was also noticed in the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1935-36, p. 98.
The inscription is very important and its contents require to be properly analysed. This is the only known inscription of the time of the Chaulukya-Väghēlā king Karpa II (popularly known as Ghēlö or Ghalaro, i.e. 'the insane' or 'the insane prince ') who was ousted from the throne of Gujarat by Alauddin Khilji (1296-1316 A.D.), the Sultan of Delhi. According to Mērutunga's Vichara freni, Karna II ruled from V.S. 1353 (1296-97 A.D.) to 1360 (1303-04 A.D.) while Abul Fazl's Ain-i-Akbari assigns to him a reign period of 6 years 10 months and 15 days." The inscription under study, dated in V.8. 1354, was thus engraved in the second regnal year of the Chaulukya-Vägbēla king. Karna II was defeated and ousted by the Muslims from his throne in 1299 A.D. but was finally and completely overthrown in 1304 A.D.
The inscription is a prasasti composed in thirtythree stanzas in different metres by & poet named Sangrāms. But the author's style is rather poor. The rules of grammar have been ignored in many cases. Often he uses expressions and introduces ideas which are not quite satisfactory in the context (cf. verses 11, 18). Sometimes he repeats the same fact in several consecutive stanzas (cf. verses 19-21, 26-28) while elsewhere he forgets to state the reason why & family was introduced in the eulogy (cf. verses 16-21).
The epigraph begins with the Siddham symbol followed by the pranava. Next, after & passage in prose recording obeisance to Guņēša, come four stanzas (verses 1-4) in lines 1-3 in adoration of the Sun-god. This is in consonance with the object of the record, which, as will be seen below, is the construction of a temple for the said deity.
Verse 5 of our record introduces a chief named Anāka who is described as a scion of the Chaulukya family and as the ruler of Surashtra, i.e. Kathiawar. Anāka is the same as Ana or Arnorāja, the son of Dhavala, as known from some records. The next stanza (verse 6) of the insoription mentions Anāka's son Lavapaprasāda who is sometimes called Lūņigadēva. Verses 7-8 speak of Vira or Viradhavala, son of Lavanaprasāda, and of Pratāpamalla, son of Viradhavala. No royal title is assigned to Pratāpamalla who did not reign.
1 Soo A. K. Majumdar, Chaulukyas of Gujarat, p. 468. *Cf. Ray, DHNI, p. 1043.
Cf. Majumdar, op. cit., p. 189. • Ray, op. cit., p. 1027. * See abovo, Vol. V, App. p. 36, No. 249; Bhavnagar Inscriptions, p. 228, line 5.
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