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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXXIV
the Brahmanical epigraphs of the place are usually in Sanskrit. The inscription under study is a Brahmanical record. The word purina occurring in line 2 seems to be formed on the analogy of grāmīna, kulina, etc.
The inscription begins with the auspicious word siddham followed by an adoration to the god Nārāyaṇa described as dēva-parama-deva (i.e. the Supreme God among the gods) and purāņapurusha (i.e. the Primordial Male), the epithets indicating the indentification of Nārāyana with Vishņu. This is the earliest epigraphic reference pointing clearly to the said identification.!
The following passage in lines 1-2 gives the date of the record as the 1st day of the 7th fortnight of the rainy season during the 30th year of Vāsishthiputra Vasushēna, the Abhira. The symbol for 30 is of the le type found in some inscriptions of the Kushāna age. The date seems to correspond to Kārttika-badi 1. The significance and importance of the year of the date will be discussed below.
The next sentence in lines 2-5 constitutes the main document and states, in the first place, that the lord rumbara-bhava Ashtabhujasvāmin was not removed from his place but was installed on the Sēta-giri by the following persons: (1) Mahāgrāmika Mahätalavara Mahädandanīyaka Sivaśēpa of the Peribidēha family or clan; (2) the Yorājis of Saájayapura ; (3) Saka Rudradāman of the city or country of Avanti ; and (4) Vishnurudrasivalānanda Sātakarni of the city or land of Vanavāsa. Of these people who were responsible for the installation of the deity, the name of Sivasēpa meaning the same thing as Sivalinga is interesting since the name is Saivite but the deity installed by him along with others was Vishņu as will be seen below. This person belonging to the Kausika götra and enjoying the designations Mahägrāmika (either a resident of Mahāgrāma or the head of a group of villages like the Rāshtrakūta of some later South Indian recorde), Mahātalavara (title of an official or subordinate chief often found in the Ikshvāku records from Nāgārjunikonda) and Mahädandanāyaka (a leader of forces), seems to have been & resident of the Nāgārjunikonda region. The designation of this scion of the otherwise unknown Pēribidēha family or clan reminds us of Mahāsēnāpati Mahātalavara Mahādandanāyaka Skandavisäkhaṇnaka of the Dhanaka family, who is mentioned in a Nāgārjunikonda inscription as the husband of a sister of the Ikshyāku king Virapurushadatta (about the third quarter of the third century A.D.). Sivasëpa seems to have been an officer of the Abhira king Vasushēna, even though originally he may have owed allegiance to the Ikshvākus. Among his associates who were foreigners, Saka Rudradāman bearing the name of two Saka rulers of Ujjayini (Rudradāman I ruling in the second and Rudradāman II in the third century) came from Avanti (i.e. the city of Ujjayini, or the country around it, i.e. West Malwa) and Vishnurudrasivalānanda Sātakarņi, whose name reminds us of Vishnukadachutukulānanda Satakarni of the inscriptions found at Banavasi, from Vanavāsa (modern Banavāsi in the North Kanara District or the land around it).
1 The god Nārāyana is mentioned in the Gunapadeya plates of Pallava Skandavarman (about the middle of the fourth century A.D.) while the Ghosundi-Hathibada inscriptions of about the second half of the first century B. C. appear to associate Sankarshana and Väsudēva (i.e. Vishnu) with what seems to be called & Narayana-udtika. See Select Inscriptions, pp. 91-92, 443-45.
Ojha, Bharatiya Prachinalipimala, Plate LXXII (b). . Cf. Tagare-mahāgrāma consisting of 24 pallis in an Early Kadamba inscription (The Successors of the Sala. vāhanas, p. 305). Since Mahägrāmika occurs as an epithet of the issuer of certain coins, the second alternative is more probable.
Above, Vol. XX, p. 18, Ayaka pillar inscription, No. B2. As regards the designations Mahasenapati and Mahādandanāyaka enjoyed by the same person, we may refer to the designations Patfasāhanadhipati (chief officer in charge of the army) and Senapati (leader of forces) often applied to the same officer in Yādava ingcriptions (Bomb. Gaz., V6. I, Part ii, pp. 520, 524). It is not known whether the various designations were actually applicable to an officer at the same time.
See The Successors of the Salavahanas, p. 220. A daughter of Virapurushadatta was married to & Mahdrdja of Vanavāsaka (ibid., p. 23). Since Sağjayapura mentioned below was apparently a city, it is more likely that Vanavāsa and Avanti indicate cities in the present oontext.
