North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CHANDELLAS OF JEJAKABHUKTI

The inscription consist of eighteen lines of writing ; and the inscribed surface measures about 40cms in breadth and 26 cms. in height. About the middle of the first four lines, for writing is interrupted by a square of about 6 cms, showing in it the figure of the four-armed goddess Lakshmī, with lotuses in two of her raised hands. The writing is also likewise disturbed by a hole of the diameter of about 1 cm., in the central part of the last line, indicating that it was cut for a ring passing through it for holding the plate with another, which is not now forthcoming, as we shall see below in the concluding portion of this article. The engraving is neat and boldly executed, but some of the letters are misformed and also bear redundant chisel strokes, as we shall presently see.

The characters are Nāgarī of the latter part of the 12th century A.C., and bear a general resemblance to those of the Sēmrā plate record and some other of the same king. The letters ch, dh and v, and occasionally r also, are often alike in form, though dh occasionally appears with a horn on its left limb ; for example, compare the resemblance between ch and v in -vāchana, l. 12 ; between r and v in pravarāya, l. 11 ; and between dh and v in virōdhi-, l. 2. As a member of the conjunct consonant the letter ṇ continues to appears as 1 ; e.g., in –karṇṇikā, l. 9 ; confusion is occasionally caused in the formation of t and bh both looking almost alike ; e.g., bhaṭṭāraka in l. 2 looks like taṭṭāraka, and -varmma- in l. 3, as –tarmma-. The loop of the palatal ś is often altogether missing, as in Paramēśvara = śrī- at the beginning of l. 3, or is not completely formed, as it appears more than once in l. 1. Instances of omitting some letters, their strokes or limbs, particularly those above the top-marks, are to be seen in the engraving of svasti as svāsta in l. 1, in varsha engraved as vapa in l. 18, and in likhitē in l. 7, engraved as lēkhita. In marking the signs of anusvāras, the engraver has become most lethargic, sometimes in putting them as minute dots and in some other cases omitting them altogether.

The language of the record is Sanskrit ; and with the exception of one verse in the beginning and three in the end, it is all in prose. Orthographical peculiarities are almost the same as often noted above, e.g., (1) the use of v to denote b also ; cf. vahubhir-, l. 17 ; (2) the reduplication of a class-consonant after r ; e.g., in sarvva-, l. 13 ; the occasional confusion between the palatal and the dental sibilant, as in vaśundharā in l. 5 and varāsva- in l. 17 ; and (4) the use of the anusvāra in phalaṁ which is the last word of a verse in l. 18, but the wrong use of the consonant m in samviditaṁ and samvatsarē, respectively in ll. 7 and 9, Sandhi is violated while showing the name of the gift-village in l. 6 and the pravaras in l. 10; and the influence of local pronunciation is to be seen in Jōvanāsa for yauvanāśva in ll. 10-11 ; and the abbreviations ṭha and paṁ followed by a daṇḍa are also noteworthy.

The inscription is one of Paramardin of the Chandēlla (Chandrātrēya) Dynasty ruling at Kālañjara. The genealogical portion giving the names of his grandfather and great-grandfather along with that of his name is identical with that of the preceding grants of the king. The object of the present charter is to record the grant of a plot of land measuring ten lāvas¹ in the village Iṭalā situated in the Pāśuṇi vishaya, made by the Paramabhaṭṭāraka, Mahārājādhirāja and Paramēśvara, the illustrious Paramardidēva who is also stated to have been a devout worshipper of Śiva and the great lord of Kālañjara. The grant was made at the Maṇikarṇikāghaṭṭa, during the king’s stay at Vārāṇasī, obviously in course of a pilgrimage. We know that at the time the grant was issued, this holy city was the headquarters of the Gahaḍavāla kings, and we also know that Paramardin’s contemporary of the Gahaḍavāla throne was Jayachandra (c. 1170-93 A.C.), who is known to have helped the Chandēlla king in his encounter with the Chāhamāna Pṛithvīrāja III (c. 1177-92 A.C.)² This evidently shows that Paramardin carried on friendly relations with Jayachandra ; and in view of this, it is hardly possible to agree with Shri N. Bose who
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¹ The dictionary meaning of this word is ‘cutting, lopping or lopping off’, and in this sense we find its use in the classical literature, e.g., in R. V., XIII, v. 43. But it is unknown to inscriptions ; and in none of the Chandēlla records I find this word used. Thus the word may be taken here in its secondary meaning ‘a part’. If, on the other hand, it is presumed that the writer of the present inscription may have omitted the akshara ha before lā from the original draft, as we find in some other cases also, cf. vikē for vivēka in 1. 5, the expression would mean ‘ten halas of land’.
² H. C. Ray, D. H. N. I., Vol. II, p. 541.