North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CHANDELLAS OF JEJAKABHUKTI

anniversary of his mother Bhuvanadēvī (ll. 8-9). The purpose of the grant was also to increase the merit and fame of the king himself and his parents and the donee was the Brāhmaṇa Abhimanyu, the son of Bhaṭṭa Ēllā and grandson of Jasadhara (Yaśōdhara), hailing from Bhaṭṭa-grāma known as Ṭakāri. His gōtra was Bhāradvāja with the three pravaras, viz., Āṅgirasa, Bārhaspatya and Bhāradvāja, and he was a Yajurvēdin, versed in all the Vēdas and the Vēdāṅgas,¹ and was devoted to the six duties adjoined on Brāhmaṇas² (ll. 10-13).

Lines 13-16 specify the details of the gift village and all express the full right of the donee and his successors over it. And with the usual benedictory and imprecatory stanzas (vv. 3-7), the document ends, desiring bliss and good fortune and with the sign-manual ‘Śrīmad-Devavarmmadēvaḥ’.

This is the earliest known record of the house to give us the names of the three kings who ruled at Kālañjar, in close succession, viz., Vidyādhara, Vijayapāla and Dēvavarman. The Khajurāhō inscription of Dhaṅgadēva, V.S. 1011, supplies the names of Harshadēva, Yaśōvarman and Dhaṅga, in succession ; and the names of two intermediate princes, viz.,, Dhaṅga’s son Gaṇḍadēva, and the latter’s son Vidyādhara, are known from some later records of the house, e.g., the Mahōbā stone inscription of Kīrttivarman and the Mau stone inscription of Madanavarman, both of which are fragmentary and bear no date. Thus all these records taken together enable us to establish a line of succession of the Chandēlla kings from Harsha to Dēvavarman. The present record also informs us that Vijayapāla’s queen was Bhuvanadēvī.

The word ,i>vāhalā (l. 12) is of lexicographical interest. While editing this inscription in the Ind. Ant., referred to above, Kielhorn translated it by the word ‘water-course’ and quoted epigraphical references in support of his views. M. Williams, however, showed the meaning of this word to be ‘a stream’ and rightly remarked that ‘it has not yet been met with in any published text’. It appears to me to be a Prakrit or local word, from the root vah, to flow, as we find two other words in their Prakrit form, viz., Ēllā and Jasadhara, respectively the father and grandfather of the donee, in this record.

The date of the document does not yield satisfactory equivalent for v. 1107 mentioned is it. Making calculations for four years, i.e., for 1105, 1106, 1107 and 1108, Kielhorn concluded that the only year in which the third day of the dark half of Vaiśākha, as mentioned in it, was associated with Monday, is V.S. 1105, and in the other three years the day differed.³ Elsewhere he observed that the details work out properly for the immediately following year which was V.S. 1108 or 1052 A.C. ; and accordingly the day was Monday, 20th April. He rejects his calculation of the date which is equivalent to Monday, 1st April, 1051 A.C., probably because, as noted by himself, the desired tithi (tṛitīyā) commenced 6 h. 4 m. after mean sunrise and also that either Monday was joined with the (third) tithi, or the year 1107 has been put erroneously for 1108. But as far as I think, it is less likely to take the year wrong. It may also be remarked here that on Monday, 1st April, 1051, tṛitīyā was current in the afternoon, which is preferred to the forenoon for performing a śrāddha. Thus this seems to be the desired day.

Of the localities mentioned in the inscription, Kālañjara and Takāri have already been identified, respectively with the well-known fort and Tarkārikā of the Nānyaur grant of Dhaṅga- dēva. ,Rājapura suggests its identification with the modern Rājapurā which is about 40 kms. west-north-west of Chhatarpur, the headquarters of a district of the same name in the Bundel- khand region of Madhya Pradesh. This identification appears to be probable in view of another, viz. of Raṇamau with the modern Mhow, which is about 16 kms. north-west of Chhatarpur and about 32 kms. north-east of Rājpurā. Both these identifications are suggested in view of the fact that these places are situated in the same region as Jaitpur-Panwārī, the headquarters of the tahsīl in which the present plate was discovered. I am, however, unable to locate Kaṭhahau, the donated village, and Suha(kha)vāsa where the king was encamped when he issued the grant.

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¹ These are Śikshā, chhandas, nirukta vyākaraṇa, kalpa and jyōtisha.
² See M. S., X, 75. The donee of the present grant was evidently the grandson of Yaśōdhara, the donee of the Nānyaura grant of Dhaṅgadēva, in which the name figures in its Sanskrit form. For, besides the fact that the gōtra and the pravaras of both were the same, their families are also mentioned as hailing from the same place.
³ Ind. Ant., Vol. XVI, pp. 201-02.
⁴ Ibid., Vol. XIX, p. 364, No. 178. In his I. N. I., No. 129, D. R. Bhandarkar takes the English equi- valents an 1st April, 1051 A.C.