North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CHANDELLAS OF JEJAKABHUKTI

Vidyadhara (in c. 1022 A.C.) the Chandēlla throne was occupied by rulers of lesser calibre. Bhōja, who outlived Vidyādhara, exerted his influence in the north as far as Ḍubkuṇḍ and Abhimanyu became subservient of him.¹ And though this is plausible, we have no definite statement in support of either of the theories and the simple praise as recorded in the present inscription cannot be taken so far as to support either of them.

It is interesting to note that Vikramasiṁha is called a Mahārājādhirāja in l. 55 of our inscription, which reports nothing else of historical importance about him This statement, taken in its true sense, would go to indicate that he was then enjoying the status of an independent ruler. And in view of this statement it appears possible that during the time when the Chandēlla Kīrtivarman was busy restoring the fame of his house, which had been temporarily eclipsed by the Kalachuris of Tripurī, as seen above, Vikramasiṁha may have succeeded in throwing off the Chandēlla yoke to whom his house had been paying obeisance. From the Dēogaḍh inscription of Vatsarāja, which is dated in 1098 A.C. and in the same year as of the present inscription, we know that some time previously the Chandēlla ruler’s all attention was occupied towards the Bētvā valley ;² and this may have given an opportunity to Vikramasiṁha to declare independence. It is not definitely known whether he became an ally of Bhōja, as Dr. Ganguly holds, and the very imperial title with which he is credited in our record, goes against the view of Dr. Ray who thinks that on this occasion this ruler became a feudatory of the Paramāra king.

To resume the story of the contents of the inscription, its second part (vv. 20-24) introduce two Jaina merchants of the names of Ṛishi and his brother Dāhaḍa, on whom the renowned Vikramasiṁha had conferred the rank of śrēshṭhin in his town. They were sons of Jayadēva by his wife Yaśōmatī and grandsons of Jāsūka, a devoted Jaina, who is stated to have been the head of a family or guild of merchants, migrated from the city of Jāyasa (v. 20), which cannot be identified for want of details.

The third part of the inscription (vv. 25-35) begins with an account of some Jaina sages, the first of whom was Guru Dēvasēna, an ornament of the Lāṭa-Vāgaṭa-gaṇa (v. 25). His son (disciple ?)³ was Kulabhūshaṇa (v. 26), and his son again was Durlabhasēna (v. 27), from whom sprang Śāntishēṇa, who, in an assembly held before the king Bhōjadēva, defeated hundreds of disputants who had assailed Ambarasēna and other learned persons (v. 28). Śāntishēṇa’s son was Vijayakīrti, who composed the present praśasti (v. 29) and who also induced Dāhaḍa and some other persons, by his religious teachings, to build the temple where the inscription was engraved (v. 30). Then the record proceeds to mention the names of those who contributed towards the construction of the temple. They are : the good Dāhaḍa (the same as mentioned above), Kūkēka, Sūrpaṭa, Dēvadhara, Mahīchandra, Lakshmaṇa, and some others who are not named (vv. 31-34), probably because their contributions were insignificant. Then we have a verse (35) which extols the temple in a poetic way.

The inscription then mentions the donations made to the temple and the sages by the Māhārājādhirāja Vikramasiṁha (ll. 54-60). He assigned (the tax of) one vimśōpaka (a coin) on each gōṇī (a measure of grain) which passed that side, donated a tract of land, situated in the village of Mahāchakra and capable of being sown with four gōṇīs of wheat, a garden with a well existing in the east of Rajakadraha, for the purpose of performing worship and for carrying on repairs to the temple whenever necessary, and providing oil^[4] for the lamps and also for anointing the bodies of holy men (muni-jana).

The inscription lastly makes the usual appeal to future rulers to continue the gifts made so long as the Sun and the moon shine ; and the last two lines (60-61), which are again separated by as inter-punctuation, as before, have a verse in anushṭubh, stating that the praśasti was written on the stone by Udayarāja and was engraved by the mason (śilākūṭa) Tīlhaṇa. And the docu-
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