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DECEMBER, 1927)
INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF MAHARAJA SURAPALADEVA
225
INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF MAHARAJA SURAPALADEVA,
DATED [VIKRAMA- SAMVAT, 1212.
BY R. R. HALDER. Tas inscription was found by Rai Bahadur Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha, Curator of the Rajputana Museum, Ajmer, at Thâkarda, during his tour in the Dungarpur State, and is described in the Annual Report of the Museum for 1915-16. I edit the text from an ink impression kindly placed at my disposal by him.
The inscription contains ten lines of writing, which covers a space of 11 in. 9 in. The average size of the letters is about in. Some inverted letters also seem to have been engraved later on in the right lower corner.
The character is Nagari of the twelfth century A.D. The letter i in Ma-idhena (1. 10) shows its earlier form. The mātrās of u, û and ê are written in different ways; as in - Súnu-(1.3), putrô- (1. 4), -púruvam (1.8), -dévêna (1. 7) and kédará (l. 9). Also, dha is written in two ways as in abhidhana (line 2) and Sridhara (1. 10), and so also va in ravi- (1. l) and - jivina (1. 6).
The language is Sanskrit with a few mistakes, which are corrected in the footnotes accompanying the text.
In respect of orthography, the following may be noted - (1) Anusvara is used for na and na for na in Anamngapala (1. 7). (2) , for & in Siddhesvara (1. 7). Rules of sandhi are not observed in ll. 5, 7, 8, etc.
This inscription is of the time of Maharaja Surapaladêva, the son and successor of Vijayapåladêva, whose inscription dated Samvat 1190 1133 (A.D.) was found at Ingnoda (about 180 miles from the find-spot of this inscription) in the territory of the Junior Råjå of Devâs in Central India. It is dated the 1st day of the bright half of Bhadrapada, Samvat 1212, corresponding to 31st July 1155 A.D., and records a grant of a land by Mahârâjaputra (Prince) Anangapaladêva to the temple of the god Siddhêsvara. The names of the princes mentioned in the Ingnodå inscription are also mentioned in this, but the epithets Mahlrâjâdhiraja,' Paramësvara' and 'Paramabhattâraka' are not followeu in this. However, it appears from these two inscriptions that they were probably, though not necessarily, inde. pendent kings at first, and ruled over certain parts of Rajputana and Central India.
The family to which they belonged is not mentioned in either of the inscriptions. This leads to the difficulty in assigning a place to them among the ruling dynasties of the twelfth century A.D. R. B. Gaurishankar H. Ojha, at first, included them among the Kachhavaha rulers of Gwalior, but later on changed his opinion and remarked in the Annual Report of the Museum, that possibly they were the descendants of the Pratihara kings of Kanauj and ruled over parts of Central India and Rajputana after the kingdom of Kanauj had passed into the hands of the Gahadwal king Chandradêva at the end of the eleventh century A.D.
This latter view of his seems to me better; for it may be known that, after the end of the Imperial Pratihâra dynasty of Kanauj, the scions of the family continued to rule for sometime in the territories where their masters had placed them, as can be inferred from the discovery of an inscription, dated Samvat 1277 (A.D. 1220) of the Pratihara Malayavarmå at Kuretha in the Gwalior State. So, it is possible that, like Malayavarma, these princes had also ruled in the territories where their inscriptions are found. This could happen only if they governed either as independent kings, or as subordinates to the Parmâra rulers of Mâlwa,
1 Ind. Ant., vol. VI, p. 53.
3 Mathanadēva, son of Maharajadhiraja Sâvat of the Pratihêrs gotra bore the titles Maharajadhirkja, Paramdávara,' but he was foudatory of the Pratihara king Kahitipaladeva (Mahipala) [p. Ind., vol. III, p. 265.) Soe also Ep. Ind., vol. I, p. 169 ff. * Supplementary notes to Tod Rajasthana (in Hindi), by R. B.G. H. Ojha, p. 372.
Ind. Ant., vol. XLVII, p. 242, n. 4. See also the Annual Report of the Rajputana Museum, Ajmer, 1918-19, p. 2,4 (6) V. The names of the princes of this record also agree with those of the later Pratibaras of Kanauj.
