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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CHANDELLAS OF JEJAKABHUKTI NARWAR COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF VĪRASIṀHADĒVA As stated above, the provenance of the plate is not known, but it must have been discovered somewhere in the region around Narwar in the Shivpurī District of Madhya Pradesh. The preservation of the plate seems to have been satisfactory, as Hall found it completely legible. Its size and that of the letters incised on it, and also its weight, have not been recorded. The exact number of the lines too is not known, for Hall does not appear to have transcribed the record line by line. Judging from the specimens of letters published by him, the characters belong to the Nāgarī alphabet. The language is Sanskrit, and except for seven imprecatory verses towards the end, the record is all in prose. With reference to orthography, what we can be sure about is that ja is employed in place of ya at the end of l. 8 in the text given below, and that in the formal portion some of the names appear in their Prakrit form and also without proper case-endings. The inscription is one of the victorious, the illustrious Vīrasiṁhadēva who belonged to the Kachchhapaghāta house of Narwar, and its object is to record the donation of the village Babāḍō to certain Brāhmaṇas, by the king himself. The date of the grant is given in words only ; it is amāvāsyā of Kārttika in the year 1177 of an unspecified era, which, from the practice current in the age, has to be taken as that of the Vikrama era. The week-day was Sunday. Accordingly, the date regularly corresponds to 24th October, 1120 A.C., when there was a Sunday, as mentioned in the record and also a solar eclipse visible in India, which, though not mentioned in it, appears to have been intended.1
After a small sentence paying obeisance to Nārāyaṇa and the date as stated above, the inscription introduces Gaganasiṁhadēva of the Kachchhapaghāta house, who bore the titles of Mahārājādhirāja and Paramēśvara and ruled from the great fort of Nalapura. Gaganasiṁha’s successor was Śaradasiṁha (probably his son though not explicitly mentioned), with the additional title Paramabhaṭṭāraka ; and his chief queen was Lasha(kha)mādēvī, who gave birth to Vīrasiṁhadēva who bore the same title as his father whom he succeeded. Vīrasiṁhadēva is stated to have been a zealous devotee of Vishṇu and also compassionate to the indigent, helpless and poor, possessing a collection of virtues, devoted to his parents. He resembled Yudhishṭhira in truth-speaking, possessing supernatural strength as Bhīmasēna, foremost among the archers as Arjuna, resembling Karṇa in earning fame by liberality, possessed of self-respect as Duryōdhana, of matchless valour as a lion, and also one who had earned fame by controlling hostile elephants on the battle-field. This account is followed by the formal portion of the record. Among the dignitaries to
whom the royal order was addressed, there were the Brāhmaṇas, mahantas (mahattaras ?) and
the (residents of the) janapadas. The donation was made in order to increase the religious
merit of the king’s parents and the himself. The village named Babāḍō, as stated above, was
split up into eighteen parts which were donated. The following table is intended to show the
details of the donees and the share obtained by each of them : | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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