Annual Reports

INTRODUCTION

ANNUAL REPORT ON INDIAN EPIGRAPHY FOR THE YEAR 1949-50

  During the year under review as many as 70 copper-plate records were received for examination and 415 stone inscriptions copied. These are given in Lists A and B and are briefly reviewed hereunder.

Copper Plates

  Photographs of five sets of plates were obtained in the Goa territory. Of these, two belong to the Bhōjas, a little known dynasty, two to the Kadambas of Goa and one to the Mauryas of Koṅkaṇ. Those of the Bhōjas were issued by king Pṛithivīmallavarman, one (No. 8) from a place called Vṛishibhiṇīkhēṭa in the 1st year of his reign and the other (No. 9) from Pṛithivīparvata in his 25th regnal year. The former registers the gift of the village Bhāgalapallikā in Kupalapakaṭa-āhāra to Mātvāryya, a Brāhmaṇa of the Agnivēśya gōtra, by the king at the request of his brother Śatrudamaṇa for the merit of his mother Chētasādēvī who is described as Nēllikabālikā. The other registers a gift of land in the village Malāra in Kupalākaṭa-dēśa to Dāmārya of the Bhāradvāja gōtra. By their palaeography these grants may be assigned to the 6-7th century A.C. Their rings and seals are not forthcoming (Ep. Ind., Vol. XXVI, pp. 338-339). No. 14 from Hire-Gutti in the Kumta taluk of the North Kanara District is yet another charter belonging to the same dynasty and it refers itself to the reign of king Aśaṁkitavarman, but bears no date. However, it may also be assigned on grounds of palaeography to about the 6-7th century A.C. It bears a seal which depicts an elephant, evidently the emblem of the dynasty and it records the gift of a village to a Buddhist vihāra (published in Epigraphia Indica, Volume XXVIII, pp. 70 ff). Charter No. 11 was issued by the Maurya king Anirjjitavarman from his victorious capital Kumāradvīpa. It registers a gift of land, a tank, garden and house-site to Hastyārya of Hārita-gōtra on the 10th day of the 7th fortnight of Hēmanta in the 29th year of the king’s reign. This method of recording the date in seasons and fortnights, coupled with the early script, would place the record in the 6th century A.C.

The two Kadamba records (Nos. 12 and 13) are discussed in the sequel.

   No. 2 from the Curator, Assam State Museum, Gauhati, said to have been discovered at Dubi, belongs to Bhāskaravarman, the celebrated Bhauma or Naraka king of Prāgjyōtisha and may be considered as an important acquisition of the year. This is the second grant so far known of this king, the first being his Nidhanpur plates (Ep. Ind., Vol. XII, pp. 73 ff.), and it supplies valuable information regarding the early career of the monarch. It is stated that after the death of his father Susthitavarman, while his elder brother Supratishṭhitavarman was on the throne, the brothers had to fight a sanguinary battle against the Gauḍas who invaded their kingdom, defeated them and took them captives but, after a time, repatriated them (ibid., Vol. XXX, No. 47).

   No. 1, also from the Curator, Assam State Museum, found at Parvatiya, belongs to king Vanamālavarmadēva of the Mlēchchha-Sālastambha family of Prāgjyōtisha and is again the only extant copper-plate grant known of this king, his other record hitherto known (J. A. S. B., Vol. IX, 1840, pp. 766 f.) being now lost. The present inscription is helpful in that it enables us to correct a number of mistakes that have crept into the history of this family. The capital of the kings of this family, usually believed to have been Hārūppēśvara, is given in the present record as Haḍapēśvara. This record has since been published in Epigraphia Indica, Volume XXIX, pp. 145 ff.