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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1908.
THE HISTORY AND COINAGE OF THE CHANDEL (CHANDELLA) DYNASTY OF BUNDELKHAND (JEJAKABHU KTI)
FROM 831 TO 1208 A, D.
BY VINCENT A. SMITH, M.A., I.C.S. (RETD.) The Chandel, or Chandolla history, antiquities, and coinage have received considerable attention from the Archeologioal Survey. Some inscriptions of the dynasty had been roughly edited in early volumes of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1837 and subsequent years, but the subject never was treated systematically until the cold season of 1864-5 when Sir Alexander Cunningham risited Mahobi, Khajuraho, and other localities in Bandelkhand, and published the results of his investigations in Volume II of the Reports of the Archaeological Surrey (Simla, 1871). This volume gives fairly full descriptions of the ruins, a slight notice of the coinage, and the first attempt at a connected history of the Chandella dynasty. But the errors in detail are numerous.
In 1871-2, Cunningham's assistant, Mr. J. D. Beglar, went over the same ground, and was permitted to print bis crade observations as Volame VII of the Reporte. Mr. Beglar's disquisitions are full of grotesque blanders and absurdities of all kinds, although a few grains of valuable fact may be picked out of the mass of rubbish. Volame IX of the Reports, written by Cunningham, gives the tradition that the fort of Singaurgarh was built by Raja Belô Chandel, and some other minor particulars bearing on Chandel history. Volume X, describing tours made by Cunningham througlı Bundelkhand and Malw in the years 1874-5 and 1876-7 (Calcutta, 1880), contains a revised list of the Chandella dynasty, and a formal description of the coinage, illustrated by a plate, as well as sundry miscellaneous information. Like most of Cunningham's work, it is disfigured by inaccuracies of detail. Volume XSI (Calcutta, 1885) describing tours made by Cunningham through Rêwâ, Bandelkhand, Malwâ, and Gwalior in the years 1883-4 and 1884-5, gives revised lists of the Chandella kings and of the inscriptions of their period, with much general information of value. But even in this volume there is room for correction.
In the Progress Report of the Archaological Survey of Western India for the year ending 30th June, 1904 ( Bombay, N.D.), Mr. Cousens makes some observations on the Khajuraho temples, supplementary to and in correction of Cunningham's accounts (p. 16 ); while Mr. D. R. Bhandarkar (p. 47 ) notices some minor un published inscriptions, and corrects Professor Kielhorn's reading of the date in the record on the pedestal of the Khajuraho image of Hanuman.
The reproductions and editions of the inscriptions in the various publications of the Archæological Survey being all deficient in accuracy, the late Professor Kielhorn undertook the formidable task of bringing out scholarly editions of all the Chandella records of which he could procure trustworthy facsimiles. With some help from Drs. Hultzsch and Cartellieri he accomplished this task in various volumes of the Indian Antiquary and Epigraphia Indica, and was, consequently, able to inclade an authentic list of the Chandella dynasty in the Supplement' to his * List of Inscriptions of Northern India' and the Synchronistic Tables' recently published in Epigraphia Indica, Vol. VIII. References to the invaluable labours of Professor Kielhorn and his co-adjutors are given in detail in the List of Chandella Inscriptions included in this essay.
For six years (1874-80) the author of this paper was employed in revenue settlement work in the Hamirpur District, which includes Mahoba. His duties required him to inspect with the utmost minuteness the land of a large part of the district, and to compile full descriptive notes, village by village. Although, of course, the main purpose of the inspection was the valuation of the soil and rental, the opportunity was seized to put on pecord a multitude of local traditions and historical details, which were prefixed in the case of each village to the fiscal observations. The inspection
1 Chandal in the spoken Hindi form of the name, which becomes Chandella in Sanskrit. The variants Chandrala and Chandndfreya which occur in certain inscriptions have been invented to support the myth of the descent of the olan from the moon (Chandra).
* Cunningham's Reports of the Archeological Survey are gited as Rep.
