North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CHANDELLAS OF JEJAKABHUKTI

The language of the inscription is Sanskrit ; and with the exception of one verse at the beginning and six in the end, the whole record is in prose. The verses are not numbered. As to orthography, we note almost the same peculiarities as in the contemporary inscriptions, viz., (1) the use of the sign of v to denote b, in vādhā, l. 25 ; (2) the reduplication of a class-consonant following r, e.g., in karmma-, but not in varnṇa-, both in l. 35 ; (3) occasionally putting the palatal for the dental sibilant, cf, -śahaśra-, l. 12 ; (4) mostly the use of the sign of anusvāra, even wrongly at the end of a stich ; (5) sometimes leaving the final consonant unmarked ; (6) the use of the pṛishṭha-mātrā ; and (6) wrong spellings as in samvatsara-, l. 12 etc., and wrong sandhi, e.g., in vikrayamvā, l. 25. Besides these, we also note the confusion between a pṛishṭa-mātrā and a daṇḍa, and occasionally the influence of local elements, e.g., in Nandiṇī- and Nandāvaṇa-, both in l. 8, where we find the lingual nasal instead of the dental. As in the Sēmrā grant, the daṇḍa is put to separate the names of the pravaras in l. 17.

The object of the inscription is to record the grant, by the illustrious Chandēlla king Paramardin, of the village Nandinī situated in the territorial division (vishaya) Nandāvana, in order to increase the merit and fame of his parents and himself (ll. 16-21). The donee was the Brāhmaṇa-General Madapāla, the son of Ṭhakkura Mahēśvara, grandson of Ṭhakkura Bhōṇapāla (Bhuvanapāla) and the great-grandson of Ṭhakkura Tihuṇapāla (Tribhuvanapāla). He was a student of the Chhāndōgya śākhā and his gōtra was Kṛishṇātrēya, with the three pravaras Ātrēya, Ārchananasa and Śyāvaśva. He had migrated from the bhaṭṭāgrahāra (a village granted to learned Brāhmaṇas) of the name of Naugāva. The gift was made, as expressed both in figures and words in ll. 12-14, on Sunday, the full-moon day of the bright half of Śrāvaṇa when there was an eclipse, in the (Vikrama) year 1228. The date, as calculated by Kielhorn, corresponds for the Chaitrādi Vikrama year 1228 expired, to Sunday, the 18th July, 1171 A.C. when there was a lunar eclipse visible in India, 20 h. 54 m. after mean sunrise.¹ The charter was written by the learned Kāyastha Pṛithvīdhara, by the order of the king (Paramardin) and was engraved by the artisan Pālhaṇa, the son of Rajapāla (vv. 6-7). The engraver can evidently be identified with the homonymous brazier (pittalahāra) as mentioned in the Sēmrā grant engraved by him ; and the writer too is the same person who drafted it and also the one that follows.

The inscription begins with a verse in the anushṭubh metre in honour of the Chandrātrēya (Chandēlla) race, and referring to its earliest heroes Jayaśakti and Vijayaśakti, it provides us with the genealogy of the kings born in it for three generations, viz., the Paramabhaṭṭāraka. Mahārājādhirāja and Paramēśvara, the illustrious Pṛithvīvarman, his successor, the P.M.P., the illustrious Madanavarman and the latter’s successor, the P.M.P., the illustrious Paramardidēva who is mentioned also as the great lord of Kālañjara and an ardent devotee of Mahēśvara, or Śiva, (ll. 3-7). All this portion is mutatis mutandis identical with the corresponding portion of the Sēmrā grant and thus we cannot glean from it any new historical information. The chief portion of the document begins in l. 8, stating that while residing at Vilāsapura, Paramardidēva donated the village Nandinī, falling in the territorial division Nandāvana, to the Brāhmaṇa¬-General Madanapāla, whose ancestry is given above. The details of the grant and the conditions pertaining to it are stated in ll. 21-27, where there is nothing particularly noteworthy. Following this, we have four imprecatory and benedictory verses in ll. 27-32 ; and the next two stanzas (ll. 34-35) state the names respectively of the writer and the engraver of the royal charter, bringing the inscription to a close.

Of the geographical names mentioned in the inscription, Kālañjara (l. 6) is, of course, the well-known fort in the Bāndā District, as seen above ; and the village Nandinī or Nandinī (l. 9) has with some probability been identified by V. Smith, with the village of Nandandēō or Nandadēō, lying about 16 kms, south-west of Ichchhāvar,2 the find-spot of the plates. The territorial division Nandāvaṇa or Nandāvana (l. 8), in which the gift-village was situated, may be taken to represent the region around it though a name corresponding to it cannot now be traced in its neighbourhood. This division may have extended up to the Jamnā in the north. Vilāsapura, from which place the grant was issued (l. 12), seems to be the same, as already suggested,³ as modern Pachhār, about 20 kms, to the north-east of Jhānsī in Uttar Pradesh.

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¹ Ind. Ant., Vol. XXV, p. 205. Also see I. N. I., No. 351.
² J. A. S. B., Vol. LXVI, Pt. I, p. 155.
³ Ind, Ant., Vol. XVI, p. 44.