Epigraphia Indica Vol 34

Author(s): D C Sircar
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 52

No. 5]
TARACHANDI ROCK INSCRIPTION OF PRATAPADHAVALÀ, V.S. 1225 25
of verse 1 with reference to bhumitalam in the last foot of verse 2. Although this involves the defect called dur-änvaya, the interpretation seems to be the only satisfactory one. As already indicated above, the two stanzas form a yugmaka and have to be read together.
In the prose section, Mahānāyaka Pratapadhavala, the lord of Jāpila, is represented as making a statement regarding the actual facts to his descendants, such as sons, grandsons and others, to the effect that the people (loka)1 of Svarpahala secured a ku-tāmra or forged grant in respect of the villages of Kalahandi and Vadayila (or Baḍayila) from Deu, a servant of king Vijayachandra, the lord of Kanyakubja (modern Kanauj), after having bribed [Deu], that no reliance should be made in the said grant, that the [said] Brāhmaṇas (dvijāḥ) were greedy people (lampatah), that not even an iota of land belonged to them (i.e. the Brahmanas) and that they (i.e. the king's descendants) should know this fact and collect and enjoy whatever was due [from the two villages] as bhaga (i.e. the king's share of the produce in the village fields) and bhoga (i.e. the periodical offerings payable by the villagers to the king). The last line of the epigraph shows that the original of the document, now found engraved on the rock, was signed by Mahārājaputra Satrughna who was apparently a son of Pratapadhavala, even though the latter is called a Mahanayaka in our record and, as will be seen below, a Nayaka in his other epigraphs known to us.
The chief named Pratapadhavala, styled as Mahānāyaka and also as Mahārāja indirectly, had his capital at Japila which is the modern Japla (also called Japla-Dināra), a railway station on the Gomoh-Dehri-on-Sone line of the Eastern Railway, 25 miles from Dehri-on-Sone. The old city, on which the township of Husainābād was built in the late medieval period, lies about 2 miles from the Sone and commands a good view of the Rohtasgarh plateau on the other side of the river. The Pargana, to which it belongs and which is named after it, lies in the extreme north of the Palamau District of Bihar. Japla occurs in Shah Jahan's time among the Parganas forming the Jagir of the commander of Rohtasgarh and is also mentioned in Todar Mall's rent-roll in the Ain-i-Akbari.
It is possible to think that Pratapadhavala was a feudatory of the Gahaḍavala monarch Vijayachandra (c. 1155-70 A.D.) of Kanyakubja (Kanauj) although there is no indication on this point in his records including the one under study. We have elsewhere suggested that the Pala king Govindapala was ousted from the Gaya region and probably also killed by the Gahaḍavālas shortly after his 4th regnal year roughly corresponding to 1165 A.D. while there is epigraphic evidence indicating the inclusion of the said area in the dominions of Gahaḍavala Jayachchandra (c. 1170-93 A.D.), son and successor of Vijayachandra. It is difficult to determine whether Deu was the governor of the district around Tärächandi under Gähaḍavala Vijayachandra and under what circumstances the said district came into the possession of Pratapadhavala.
Pratapadhavala apparently ruled over the northern areas of the Palamau District together with the Sasaram-Rohtasgarh region of the Shahabad District and probably also the contiguous portion of the Gaya District of Bihar. Besides the present inscription from Tarachaṇḍī near Sasarām, several other epigraphs of the same ruler have been found in the Rohtasgarh area. These are the Tutla or Tutrahi falls inscription dated V.S. 1214, Jyeshtha-vadi 4, Saturday (19th April 1158 A.D.), the Phulwariya inscription dated V.S. 1225, Vaisakha-vadi 12, Thursday (27th March
1They are called vipra in line 1 and dvija in line 5.
*The Tutrahi or Tutla falls inscription is said to mention Satrughna as one of the sons of Pratapadhavala whom the Bandhughät epigraph is believed to describe as a maha-nripati, See Colebrooke, op. cit., pp. 291 and 293.
See L.S.S. O'Malley, Palamau (Bengal District Gazetteers), pp. 154-55.
Above, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 142-43; JBRS, Vol. XLI, Part 2, pp. 9-10.
Bhandarkar's List, No. 299.
Ibid., No. 338. The name is sometimes spelt as Phulwaria