North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CHANDELLAS OF JEJAKABHUKTI

The characters belong to the Nāgarī alphabet. The language is Sanskrit ; and, except for one verse in the beginning and three in the end, the whole record is in prose. It shows the usual orthographical peculiarities, such as (a) often putting the dental for the palatal sibilant, as in subha, l. 19, and the palatal for the dental, as in prśāda, l. 14 ; (b) the reduplication of a class-consonant following r, e.g., in nirmmala-, l. 8 ; and (c) the use of the sign for v to denote b as well. The influence of the local pronunciation of n for ṇ is seen in the spellings of bhrājishṇa. in 1. 2. gṛihṇāti in l. 18 and puṇya in l. 18, but not in the same word in ll. 12 and 13. We may also note that the word ujjvala is wrongly spelt with a single j in l. l.

The engraver, whose name is not mentioned, is also responsible for a few mistakes, e.g., those of the omission of limbs of certain letters and of the signs of anusvāra, visarga and the superscript r, all of which have been corrected in the text, below. It is also doubtful whether all these were engraved lightly and may not have come out clearly on the impression from which Hiralal prepared the transcript.

It is a royal charter issued by Vīravarman of the Chandēlla Dynasty. The object of it is to record the grant, by Vīravarman, the sole lord of Kāliñjara, of the village Ṭumuṭumā, situated in the territorial division (vishaya) Ḍāhī, from (his camp at) Vilāsapura, in favour of the Rāüta Abhi, son of the Rāüta Haripāla, grandson of the Rāüta Devashamū of the Kāśyapa gotra and of the family of Chandrēśvara (ll. 12-3). The donee is stated to have performed a deed of valour in the struggle1 with Dabhyuhaḍavarman, and the donation was made in recognition of the meritorious service rendered by him. He does not appear to have been a Brāhmaṇa, for, as Hiralal has rightly pointed out, his pravaras are not mentioned and as is also indicated by the family-name Chandrēśvara and his title Rāüta. But it appears rather curious that despite all this, the purpose of the grant is stated to be the promotion of the religious merit and fame of the king himself and of this parents (l. 13).

The grant is dated, in l. 12, in Monday, the 8th tithi of the bright fortnight of Āśvina in the year 1311, expressed in the decimal figures only. The year, of course, must be referred to the Vikrama era, and the corresponding Christian date, as calculated by Hiralal himself while editing the record, is the 21st of September, 1254 A.C.² The date is quite regular for Chaitrādi expired, or Kārtikādi current year. But as current years are cited very exceptionally, I am inclined to take it as the former.³

The arrangement of the contents of the record is similar to what we see in many other Chandēlla charters. Opening with the usual verse eulogising the house, it gives the genealogy of the donor, the details of the grant followed by the address to the inhabitants of the donated village, the date and the purpose of the grant, and finally, the benedictory and imprecatory verses.

The genealogical portion (ll. 3-7) mentions the Paramabhaṭṭāraka, Mahārājādhirāja and Paramēśvara Madanavarman, his successor the P.M.P. Paramardin, his successor the P.M.P. Trailōkyavarman and the latter’s successor the P.M.P. Vīravarman, who was the sole lord of Kāliñjara. The succession of the first three of these names is well known ; and we also know from the Ajaygaḍh stone inscription of Vīravarman himself, dated V.S. 1317,⁴ that he was the son of Trailōkyavarman whom he succeeded. The present record, however, which is the only plate-grant of the king known so far, furnishes the earliest date for him.

While dealing with the Garrā plate inscriptions,⁵ we have seen that the remarks of V. A. Smith as to the end of the Chandēlla dynasty as one of the important powers of North India, with the death of Paramardin in 1203 A.C., is baseless in view of the fact that the epithet Kālañjarādhipati is applied to his successor Trailōkyavarman ; and since the same epithet is again borne by the latter’s son and successor Vīravarman in the present grant, the conclusion is irresistible that Vīravarman had under his sway the whole of the region controlled by his father ; and the evidence of the present inscription also goes to indicate that he had extended his kingdom up to the Sindh on the west, as we shall see while identifying the places mentioned
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¹ The word used here is saṁgrāma, involving the whole village, and thus the battle appears to have been severe.
² Ep. Ind., Vol. XX, p. 132.
³ For an analogous example, see Kielhorn’s remarks in Ep. Ind., Vol. V, p. 115.
⁴ Below, No. 145.
⁵ Above, No. 141.