Annual Reports

INTRODUCTION

  The Kailain plate of Śrīdhāraṇarāta (C. P. No. 5) secured from the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta, through already published (I. H. Q., Vol. XXIII, p. 221 ff), is worth noticing here as it is an important record revealing the existence of a hitherto unknown royal family of Samataṭa. The grant, issued from Dēvaparvata, records the royal gift of lands in the vishayas of Guptīnāṭana and Paṭalāyikā for expenses of worship and offerings to Buddha, for the maintenance of the Ārya-saṅgha engaged in Buddhist liturgy and for the performance of the pañcha-mahāyajña by Brāhmaṇas. Jīvadhāraṇarāta, father of Śrīdhāraṇarāta, has been identified with Jīvadhāraṇa mentioned as a contemporary of Sāmanta Lōkanātha of the Tipperah plate dated in the year 344, apparently of the Gupta era. Another inscription equally interesting, and received from the same source, is No. 3 found at Tipperah and issued by the Buddhist king Bhavadēva of Dēvaparvata, son of Ānandadēva and grandson of Vīradēva. It records the gift of lands in Vēṇḍamatī in Vāhakakhaṇḍa of Pēranāṭaṇa-vishaya to the Ratnatraya in Vēṇḍamatī-vihārikā by the king on the representation of Mahāsāmantādhipati Nandadhara. The seal of the grant bears the legend Abhinava-Mṛigāṅka, evidently an epithet or surname of the king. see Journ. As. Soc., Letters, Vol. XVII, pp. 83-94.

  From the Director of Kannada Research, Dharwar, was secured for examination an interesting set of copper plates discovered at Mudhōḷ in the Karnāṭak are of the Bombay State (No. 7). The set consists of only two plates with ring and seal. Its characters belonging to the Southern class evince archaic features with small box-heads as in some early Kadamba copper-plate records. The record is in Sanskrit and it registers a grant of land in Maḷakēṭaka to god Vārāhīdēvasvāmin by king Pūgavarman alias Raṇashṭātura, the eldest son of Pṛithivīvallabha-Mahārāja who is said to have performed the Agnishṭōma, Agnichayana, Vājapēya and Aśvamēdha sacrifices. The dynasty to which the king belonged is not known, nor is the record dated. But on palaeographic considerations it may be assigned to the middle of the 6th century A.C.

   A charter of the Pallava king Narasiṁhavarman II (No. 56) was received for examination from the Director, Śrī Veṅkaṭēśvara Oriental Institute, Tirupati. The document is in Sanskrit language, engraved in well developed characters of the early Telugu-Kannaḍa alphabet and registers a royal grant of the village Rēyūru situated to the north of Asidhārāpura in Mēl-Muṇḍarāshṭra to the learned Brāhmaṇa Kumāra Maṇḍaśarman of Rāthītara-gōtra and Āpastamba-sūtra and a resident of Kuravaśrī. The details of the date of the grant, viz., 12th year Vaiśākha, Paurṇamāsī, lunar eclipse, would yield 711 A.C. as the date of the charter. The king is described as the son of Paramēśvaravarman and grandson of Mahēndravarman and bears the epithets Paramabhāgavata, Paramamāhēś vara and Paramabrahmaṇya. The executor of the grant was Nandakurra Nṛipēśvara. This is the only copper-plate grant known of this king. The seal of the plates bears a well executed bull, the Pallava emblem. The record is published in Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXIX, pages 89 ff.

   Copper-plate No. 17 discovered in the village of Sangalooda in the Akola District, Madhya Pradesh, is another important charter in the year’s collection. It belongs to the early Rāshṭrakūṭa dynasty of Vidarbha (Berar) and consists of three plates held together by a ring bearing a seal containing the legend Śrī Ju(Yu)[ddhā]suraḥ. The charter, issued by king Nannarāja alias Yuddhāsura from his capital Padmanagara in the Śaka year 615, Kārttika, śu. di Paurṇa māsī, records grant of lands in the villages Umbarikā and Vaṭapuraka to Hara gaṇa-Dvivēdin, a son of Bhūtagaṇa-bhaṭṭa, grandson of Varmmullaka-Chatur vēdin of Vārula-gōtra, Kauśika-pravara and Taittirīya-charaṇa, who was a resident of Tagara and was running a feeding house (anivārita-annasattra). The king’s genealogy is traced as follows : Durgarāja of the Rāshṭrakūṭa family, his son Gōvindarāja, a victor in many battles, his son Svāmikarāja, his son Nannarāja alias Yuddhāsura who is described as paramabrahmaṇya and paramabhāgavata. The Tiwarkhēḍ plates and the Multāi plates of Nannarāja also contain the same genealogy as the one given in the present grant. The first of these two charters is dated Śaka 553 and the second Śaka 631. The disparity in the dates of the two records purporting to belong to one and the same king gave room for doubting the correctness of either or both of these dates. The discovery of the present charter whose date falls close to that of the Multāi plates and whose text also is identical up to the mention of Nannarāja with that of the same plates, would attest to the correctness of the date of the Multāi plates,