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PARLA-KIMEDI GRANT OF INDRAVARMAN.
APRIL, 1887.]
If we limit ourselves to the area he controlled, perhaps the most notable of all the changes made by Chinghiz Khân was the breaking down of the feeling of nationality, and especially of tribal feeling, by wholesale transportations of whole peoples, with their chiefs, from one area to another. It was thus he consolidated a heterogeneous mass of clans into a nation of which the aristocracy was Mongol in blood. This aristocracy in certain cases ceased to be Mongol in speech and in other respects, and became absorbed in the mass of Turks which surrounded it. On the other hand, various Turkish clans in Mongolia were swallowed up and incorporated among the Mongols themselves. Thus we account for the presence in Mongolia, at this day, of several small clans of Nains, etc., of Turkish origin, but speaking Mongol; while the reverse has occurred in many districts elsewhere. The process of consolidation was, no doubt, greatly assisted by the community of habit,, religion, &c., even when language and separate tradition created barriers; and this was strengthened by the fact of Chinghiz Khân having been a Turk by origin, although ruling over Mongols. It was probably in consequence of this that the Turks in all parts of Asia, after a momentary resistance, collapsed and joined his army, which thus grew like a rolling snowball in the Alps. Each
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This inscription, which has not been proviously published in full, was first brought to notice by me in 1884, in this Journal, ante, Vol. XIII. p. 120. It is on some copper-plates which were found at Parla-Kimedi,' the chief town of a Zamindari or Estate of the same name near Chicacole (properly Śrikâkulam), in the Ganjam District of the Madras Presidency. I obtained the original plates, for examination, from the Government Central Museum at Madras, to which they were presented by Mr. W. Taylor."
The plates, of which the first and last are
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The Purlah Kimedy' of the Indian Atlas, Sheet No. 108. Lat. 18 46 N.; Long. 84° 8'-In Thornton's Gazetteer of India, the second component of the name is written both Kimedi' and 'Kimidi'. It has also been certified to me as Khimide'; but the aspirate in the
tribe he encountered when defeated fell into ranks behind him and joined in his triumpha march, just as the Hessians, Poles and Italians followed Napoleon, and as the Goths, Alans and Slavs followed Attila. The perpetual success of his arms was the most potent of consolidating forces; and, when he died, the many tribes he had conquered formed a strong nation, bound together by a fanatical loyalty to himself and his family.
In regard to wider issues, we are tempted to despair as we trace the careers of ruthless conquerors whom men make gods of, such as Alexander, Caesar, Attila, Chinghiz, Timur, Napoleon. And yet there is no lesson more firmly established perhaps by history than that the progress of civilization is not continuous. It passes through periods of stagnation and decay, when it needs a rude plough to tear up a virgin stratum, and rude hands to sow untainted seed; and it is a strange fact that, as the most bountiful harvests of summer are
SANSKRIT AND OLD-KANARESE INSCRIPTIONS. BY J. F. FLEET, Bo.C.S., M.R.A.S., C.I.E.
No. 169.-PARLA-KIMEDI PLATES OF THE MAHARAJA INDRAVARMAN.-THE YEAR 91. inscribed on one side only, are three in number, each measuring about 53" by 2". They are quite smooth; the edges of them being neither fashioned thicker nor raised into rims; but the inscription is in a state of perfect preservation almost throughout. The heads of the letters have in many places an imperfect and disjointed appearance, as if they had been partially worn away by rust; but this is due, wherever it occurs, to faulty execution on the part of the engraver, in omitting sometimes to complete the mátrás or horizontal topstrokes, and sometimes even to commence them
generally garnered after the severest winters, so do worn out and sophisticated communities need a very deep harrow to unlock their riches; and, the greater the desolation for the moment, and the longer the fields lie fallow, the more generous is the harvest. This is not an apology for "the Scourges of God;" it is an empirical lesson from history.
first syllable is hardly likely to be correct in the case of a Dravidian name.
See Sewell's Lists of Antiquities, Madras, Vol. II. p. 262 and note.
