Epigraphia Indica Vol 34

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

Page 96

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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXXIV mentioned by Patañjali and took it to be the old name of Nagari near Chitorgarh.: The Mahabhärata, while describing Nakula's expedition in Western India, states that, after subjugating Dasarna, the Pandava hero conquered the Sibis, Trigartas, Ambashţhas, Mālavas, Panchakarpatas and Madhyama köyas. These Mädhyamakēyas are no doubt the people of Madhyamika, although the reference is probably to an age when the Sibis were not in occupation of the city. Varāhamihira's Brihatsamhitā, composed about the first half of the 6th century, places the Mädhyamikas in the central region of India. This shows that Madhyamika, i.e., modern Nagari, continued to flourish at least till about the middle of the 6th century A. D. This is also supported by the mention of Madhyamă, i.e. Madhyamikā, in the second of the two inscriptions under study as a province under the charge of a governor under a king of Western India, who flourished about the first half of the 6th century.
As indicated above, a certain Varaha is mentioned in line 4 probably as the grandfather of the hero of the eulogy, who appears to have been the governor of Dabapura and Madhyama. As we have seen above, the Mandasor inscription of Yasõdharman Vishnuvardhana, dated 532 A. D., refers to a certain Varāhadāsa of the Naigama family, who was the father or father's elder brother or grandfather of the Rajasthaniya Abhayadatta whose brother's son Dharmadosha succeeded him in the governorship and was serving Yasödharman Vishņuvardhana in 532 A. D. If our Varāha was identical with this Varābadása,' the Rajasthaniya mentioned in the inscription under study also belonged to the same family as the Rajasthaniyas Abhayadatta and Dharmadosha. This is not improbable in view of the fact that official positions were often held in ancient India successively by the members of the same family. The area under the rule of Abhayadatta is stated to have been, in a wide sense, bounded by the Vindhya, the Rēvă or Narmadā, the Päriyätra or the Western Vindhyas together with the Aravali range, and the Arabian Sea, and the same region may have been indicated in the second of our inscriptions as the districts of Dasapura and Madhyamă. We cannot also ignore the exceptionally close similarity of the characters of the second of the present records, as shown above, with one of the Mandasor inscriptions of Yasodharman Vishnuvardhana. In any case, the facts discussed above would suggest that our records belong to the reign of one of the Aulikara kings, if not of Yasodharman Vishņuvardhana himself.
Inscription B seems to indicate, as suggested above, that the Aulikara viceroy of Dasapura (Mandasor) was also ruling over Madhyama (modern Nagarī). It is of course difficult to say whether Vishnudatta's son governed the Mandasor-Nagari region earlier than Abhayadatta or later than Dharmadosha, although it is better to regard him as a successor of Dharmadõsha as otherwise he may have been mentioned in the Mandasor inscription. In this connection, it may be pointed out that a certain chief named Gauri was ruling over the region of Chhöţi-Sādri, near Neemuch, about 40 miles south of Nagari, a8 & subordinate of Adityavardhana who appears to have been a member of the Aulikara family of Dasapura and ruled towards the end of the 5th century A. D.10 But his relations with the Rājasthāniya of the area cannot be determined.
1 Ind. Ant., Vol. VII, p. 266. For the antiquity of Nagart, see above, Vol. XXII, pp. 198 f. • Sabhäparvan, Chap. 8, verses 7-8; of. critical ed., II, 29, 6-7. Cf. above, Vol. XXXIII, p. 208 and note 5.
Chapter XIV, verse 2. In a story about Chaulukya Kumarapala (a 1144-73 A.D.), Madhyamapurt is located three kroos away from Chitrakåta-durga (Jinavijaya-muni, Kumarapalacharitrasanigraha, pp. 5, 47).
.CII, Vol. III, pp. 150 ff.
If Varaha of our record was identical with Varihadisa of the Mandasor inscription, Varihadiss must have been different from Ravikirti whose sons are all mentioned in the epigraph.
. It may be noted that Vishộudatta's name ending in datla is similar to the names of Shashthidatts and Abhayadatta of the Nrigama family.
Cf. the case of the ministers of the Datta family of South Koala (18Q, Vol. XX, pp. 78 f.). 10 Above, Vol. XXX, pp. 120-32; Vol. XXXIII, pp. 206 ff.