North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CHANDELLAS OF JEJAKABHUKTI

BHĀRAT KALĀ BHAVAN PLATE OF PARAMARDIDĒVA

suggests that the Vārāṇasī region formed a part of Paramardin’s kingdom about the time of the record.¹

The date of the inscription is quoted in words and repeated in figures, in ll. 9-10. It is Saturday, the 14th of the bright half of Phālguna, (Vikrama) year 1247, which, as calculated by Dr. Sircar,² regularly corresponds to 9th February, 1191 A.C.

As seen above, the genealogical portion of the present grant is a copy of Paramardin’s grant of V.S. 1239;³ and the variation is only in the formal portion of the grant, i.e., the details of the donations made. Even the donee in both the cases is the same, Padmadharaśarman, though his name figures in its Prakrit form in the earlier grant ; and his father’s name is written with a slight change in spelling. It is therefore not necessary to repeat here all that has been stated above, while editing the foregoing document. It has, however, to be observed here that in the present charter we do find the name of the writer and of the engraver,⁴ after or before the imprecatory and the benedictory verses, as in that of which it is a copy and as we find in almost all the other grants of the king ; in view of this it is possible to hold with Dr. Sircar who has remarked in course of editing this grant in the volume of the Ep. Ind. referred to above, that the writing was continued on another plate which is now lost and which would have borne inscription of the sign-manual of the king together with a reference to these two persons. The hole in the lower surface of the plate, which was meant evidently for a ring to hold it with another, also lends support to this view.

As for the localities mentioned in the inscription, Kālañjara (l. 4) and Vārāṇasī (l. 8) are well-known. Pāśuṇivishaya (l. 9), where the gift-land existed, appears to have been the region in the valley of the Paisani river which flows in the eastern Part of the Bāndā District and joins the Yamunā. And in view of this, the village Iṭalā in which the land was situated (l. 6) suggest its identification with the modern village Ekdalā (Lat. 25º 43’ N., Long. 81º 6’ E), lying about 25 kms. north-west of the confluence of these two rivers and about 30 kms. east-southeast of Angāsī, the find-spot of one of the grants of Madanavarman.⁵ Pāṭalipura, which is mentioned here as a bhaṭtāgrahāra from which the donee Padmadharaśarman is stated to have hailed (l. 10), is obviously the same locality figuring in another grant of Paramardin, as already seen.⁶

TEXT⁷

[Metre : Verses 1-4 Anushṭubh]

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¹ See N. S. Bose, Hist. of the Candēllas, pp. 96 ff. D. C. Sircar has discussed this problem in detail in the Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXII, p. 126, and elsewhere also. The fragmentary Mau inscription of Madanavarman (No. 125) has a clear statement regarding the friendly relations between this king and Kāśirāja, and his contemporary Gāhaḍavāla kings were Gōvindachandra (1114–54 A.C.) and his son Vijayachandra (1154-70 A.C.) ; thus it is hardly possible to conceive that during the very next generation and within about 20 years of Vijayachandra’s death, the situation may have changed. Similarly Dr. Ganguly’s assumption based on the slender statement on Nayachandra’s Rambhāmañjarī that “Madanavarman was then at war with the king of Kāśī”, appears to be hardly acceptable. For Ganguly’s conclusion see Hist. and Cult. of the Ind. People (Bhāratīya Vidyā-Bhavan), Vol. V. p. 53.
² See Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXII, p. 126.
³ Above, No. 134.
⁴ As the present charter contains the same type of errors, e.g., of occasionally omitting limbs of letters etc., it appears likely that it was probably engraved by Pālhaṇa who engraved some other grants of Paramardin.
⁵ Above, No. 118.
⁶ No. 134, above.
⁷ From the original plates and impressions.
⁸ Expressed by a symbol. In the following word the curve of the mātrā of ti is not formed and the vertical of the same is placed close to the preceding letter so as to read the whole as svāsta.
⁹ This letter is disfigured by a redundant chisel stroke.