Indian Antiquary Vol 62

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 116

104
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JUNE, 1933
however, certain historical facts stand out with prominence. The poem is evidently intended to celebrate Sindhurdja's victory over Vajrâñkusa, in which he was aided by a Vidyadhara prince and a Naga chieftain, and his matrimonial alliance with the latter. As Dr. Bühler surmised, "the Naga princess Sasiprabhå was not a snake goddess, but the daughter of a king or chief from the far spread race of Naga Kshatriyas."11 To this we might add that the Vidyadhara prince also is not a semi-divine being. He is evidently a Silahara king; for the Silâhâras trace their descent from Jimûtavahana, the mythical prince of the Vidyadharas. 18 Vajránkusa again is not a prince of demons, but a chief of aborigines, perhaps Gonds, whose capital, Ratnavati, must be looked for in the hilly regions not far from the Narmada, for we have a valuable hint for its location in the speech of the river goddess that it lay at a distance of fifty gavyúlis or 100 krosas, i.e., 150 to 200 English miles, from the place where Sindhuraja crossed the river. 19 After conjecturing the snake princess to be the daugh. ter of a Naga king of Rajpûtânâ or Central India, Bühler remarked "To venture further on this point is not advisable while we have no assistance from inscriptions."'20 I will now try to identify these kings from inscriptional evidence. From the direct references to Sindhurâja's victories in the Navasáhasánkacarita, which have been discussed above at the beginning of this article it is clear that this campaign of Sindhuraja must be placed late in his reign, probably towards the end of the first decade of the eleventh century; for he is described in this work as having already vanquished the kings of Kuntala, Kacch, Lata, Aparanta and Kosala, as well as a Hûna prince. The poet's description that he had to cross the Narmada on the way, shows that the country of Vajránkusa lay to the south of that river. Similarly the city Bhogavati of the snake king must be looked for in Patala, i.e., to the south of Malwa. We cannot, therefore, agree with Dr. Bühler who thought that he must be a chief of Rajputânå or Central India. Besides there is no mention of Naga chiefs in those regions in the records of the eleventh century, while we know from inscriptions that Naga princes were then reigning in two regions in the Central Provinces, viz., the Kawardha and Bastar States. From the Bora mdeo temple inscription" we learn that Gopaladeva was ruling in the region now known as the Kawardha State in 1088 A.D. Rai Bahadur Hiralal identifies him with the sixth ruler Gopaladeva of the Phaņi- or Någavamsa mentioned in the Mandava Mahal inscription at Chaurå.22 Sankhapala, the father of Sasiprabhâ, may have been meant to represent one of the ancestors of Gopaladeva. It is likely that he bore a name ending in pala, as we find several such names of the descendants of Gopåladeva recorded in the Mandava Mahal inscription. We know that Sanskrit poets were in the habit of coining names bearing some resemblance to those of their contemporaries who figure in their works.23 Besides the short distance of the Kawardha state from the slopes of the Vindhya Mountain, where Saśiprabhå had gone for sport, would make this hypothesis quite plausible. There are, however, some other considerations against this identification. No inscriptions of the ancestors of Gopaladeva have yet been discovered, and it is not known if any of them was powerful enough to make the matrimonial alliance with him advantageous to Sindhurâja from the political or strategic point of view. We know from the Navasálasdi kacarita that Sindhurâja had already overrun Kosala, which must be identified with Chattisgadh of modern times. Besides, Gopaladeva uses the Kalacuri era in his inscription, and it is likely that his ancestors
17 Ibid., p. 172. 18 Cf. The Bhandup Plates of Chhittarajadeva, E.I., XII, p. 250. 19 satisfa c t it maafa alifafafar far a a ataforvaa 11 LX, bl. 20 L.A., XXXVI, p. 172. 21 R. B. Hiralal, List of inscriptions in C. P. and Berar, 2nd ed., p. 174. 23 Ibid., p. 174.
28 See my article on Yuvarajadeva I of Tripuri' (Annals of the Bhandarkar Institute, XI, p. 370), where Jhave shown that the charactors Bhågurdyapa and Virapala in the Viddhaddlabhaid are intended to represent Bhakomitra and Bappuga, known from Kolacuri and Råetrakta jnecriptions.