Annual Reports

INTRODUCTION

charter citing the year 97 is thus later than the Parlakimeḍi plates by 6 years. The writer of the record is stated to be Ādityamañchi, son of Vinayachandra. It may be of interest to note that the latter figures as the writer of all the hitherto known earlier records of this king.

  A later grant of the same dynasty, received for examination from the Maharaja of Kalahandi, is No. 22 which belongs to the reign of Anantavarman Vajrahasta. It is dates in the year 383 of the Gaṅga era and mentions the king, the donor of the grant, as the son of Mahārāja Bhūpēndravarman. The engraver of the record is Sarvadēva. The Chīḍivalasa plates of Dēvēndravarman (J A H RS, Vol. II, p. 146 ff. ; J. As. Soc., Letters, Vol. XVIII, pp. 77 ff.), dated the Gaṅga year 397, also mention Bhūpēndravarman alias Mārasiṁha as the father of Dēvēndravarman. The proximity of the dates of the two grants, viz., years 383 and 397 of the Gaṅga era, would show that Vajrahasta of the record under review was another son of Bhūpēndravarman and probably preceded on the throne Dēvendravarman of the Chīḍivalasa plates. That Śarvadēva, the engraver of the plates under review continued to serve Dēvēndravarman is evident from the Chīḍivalasa plates in which also he figures as the engraver.

   No. 7 discovered at Niddham in the Srikakulam District is another set of plates of the Eastern Gaṅga dynasty. It belongs to king Rājarāja Dēvēndravarman and is dated in the Śaka year 995 counted by the chronogram śaranidhi-nanda. The inscription registers a grant of land in Māṭṭura-grāma in Saṁvā-vishaya to Nārāyaṇa who is described as the son of Vuddhamā, a vēśyā and the wife of [A]yitama-nāyaka born of a vipra. This is the second record of Rājarāja Dēvēndravarman and is earlier by three years than the only other grant (C.P. No. 4 of 1918-19) of this king. But for the different dates and the objects of the grants both the records have almost identical texts. Both mention the dates of the coronation of king Vajrahasta and his son, the donor, Dēvēndravarman Rājarāja, by the chronograms viyad-ṛitu-nidhi (Śaka 960) and nayanaabjagarbha-nidhi (Śaka 992) respectively. While the details for the former date, viz. Vṛishabha śu. 3, Sunday, Rohiṇī are irregular (cf. Bhandarkar’s List, No. 1090), those for the latter, namely Jyēshṭha śu. 8, Thrusday, Uttaraphalgunī regularly correspond to 1070 A.D., May 20, Thursday, ∙35 ; f.d.n. ∙05.

   No. 4 belongs to the Sōmavaṁśī king Śivagupta (Mahāśivagupta), son of Harshadēva, and records an endowment of the village Vaidyapadraka in Ōṇībhōga to god Īśānēśvara-bhaṭṭāraka of Khadirapadratala, granted at the instance of Śūlapāṇi-bhagavatpāda, a disciple of Pramathāchārya of Pañchayajñatapōvana in Dvaitavana. Himself a devout worshipper of Śiva, this king is known for his catholicity from his Mallar plates which record the grant of a village by him to the Buddhist monks of the Taradaṁsaka monastery ( Ep. Ind., Vol. XXIII, pp. 113 ff.). Like the Mallar and the Bardula plates of this king, the present record also does not furnish a definite date to fix the exact period of the monarch ; but in recording the occasion of the grant as the full moon tithi on the 30th day of Kārttika in the 57th regnal year of the king, it confirms the suggestion that the reckoning was pūrṇimānta. Of the geographical names occuring in the record, the gift village Vaidyapadraka may be identified with the modern village Baidpali in the Bargarh Tahsil, Sambalpur District, Orissa, and Khadirapadratala, where the temple of Śiva was situated, with Khairpali about two miles from the Ong or Ang river in the Barasambar Zamindari. The name of the latter occurs as Khadirapadra in The Sonepur plates of Mahābhavagupta Janamējaya (Ep. Ind., Vol XXIII, p. 249.).

   Of the six copper-plate grants (Nos. 16-21) received from Mr. P. Acharya, Superintendent of Research and Museum, Government of Orissa, Bhubaneswar, No. 19 belongs to the Sōmavaṁśī king Mahāśivagupta I Yayāti. The charter, which is in Sanskrit engraved in East Indian alphabet, is dated in the 8th year of the king’s reign and records the grant of a piece of rent-free land in the northern part of the village of Talakajja in Sanūlā-vishaya of Kōsala. The donee is Kāmadēva of the Kāśyapa gōtra, son of Narasiṁha and grandson of Harsha and a resident of Jalajaḍḍa in Kōsala. The inscription ends with four verses, of which the second states that Svabhāvatuṅga, a king of the Lunar dynasty (Sōma-kula) ruled Kōsala and subdued the Chaidyas or Chēdis, i.e. the Kalachuris. The third verse, though corrupt, seems to describe Svabhāvatuṅga’s success against one Bhaṭṭa Peḍi who was probably a military officer of the Chēdi king and, in the course of his expedition into the Sōmavaṁśī kingdom, carried away a number of women. The last verse adds that Svabhāvatuṅga’s son fought with the Chaidya