North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CHANDELLAS OF JEJAKABHUKTI

such a way as to be easily confounded with the sign for medial ā or ē, and these strokes also are often put to separate the names as in ll. 20-21. Sandhis are violated in showing the gōtras etc., in ll. 16-17 and, on the other hand, the visarga at the end of v. 11 is changed to r in view of the following i.

The record belongs to the king Madanavarman of the Chandēlla Dynasty and the lord of Kālañjara and gives the details of some of plots of land granted by him to learned Brāhmaṇas from his camp at Parēyī-grāma. The date is mentioned to be Tuesday, the fifth of the darh half of Chaitra in the (Vikrama) year 1192 on the Vishuvat saṁkrānti. The date, as calculated by Dr. Sircar, corresponds to 24th of March, 1136 A.C., if the month is regarded amānta.^[1] The charter was drafted by the dharmalēkhin (writer of legal documents) Sūḍha of the Vāstavya family, by the order of king ( v.12) and he also wrote it on the plates. It was engraved by Ulhaṇa^[2] who belonged to the brazier (rītikāra) family (v.13).

Opening with an auspicious symbol followed by the customary verse in praise of the Chandrātrēya (Chandēlla) family, the record mentions the name of the Parama-bhaṭṭāraka, Mahārājādhirāja and Paramēśvara, the illustrious Madanavarman, the lord of Kālañjara, who meditated on the feet of the illustrious P.M.P. Pṛithvīvarman who, in his turn, had meditated on the feet the P.M.P., the illustrious Kīrttivarman. This portion of the text is copied verbatim from the Augāsī great issued only a couple of years before. Then we have two new stanzas lavishing praise on the donor, the first of which states that the creator with his ripe knowledge and incessant practice endowed Madanavarman with good qualities such as handsomeness, profundity, might, wisdom and truthfulness, and the second that his liberality put the wish-filling trees on the golden mountain with their bent tops appearing as if they turned their faces to the ground due to shame. Then begins the formal part of the record which states that from his camp at the aforementioned Parēyī-grāma the king bestowed 2¼ pādas of land in Valahauḍā-grāma in the vishaya of Mahisiṇēha on the Brāhmaṇa. Paṇḍita Sōmēśarman of the Kautsa gōtra, with the three pravaras Āṅgirasa, Ambarīsha and Yauvanāśva. He is stated to be the son of the Ṭhakkura Śrī-Śrīpāla, grandson of the Dvivēda Sahāraṇa and great-grandson of the Avasathin Dēvaṭa(?)^[3] and his family hailed from the Bhaṭṭagrahāra of Pāṭaliputra.

This portion of the charter is following by the donation of two other plots of land, by the king, in favour of one each of the two Brāhmaṇas, in lieu of those which they had in their possession. This change was made apparently for the sake of convenience. The first of these two Brāhmaṇas was Dīkshita Nārāyaṇaśarman of the Gautama gōtra with the Gautama, Āṅgirasa and Āyāsya pravaras. He was the son of Dīkshita Dēvēndra, grandson of Dīkshita Vāmana svāmin and great-grandson of Dīkshita Kēśava, and his family had hailed from the Bhaṭṭāgrahāra of Paṇikabhadra. It is stated that instead of the land he possessed in the villages of Pipalahā in the Tintiri-pattalā, Vasauhā in the Kōlavā-pattalā, Goulā in the Vāndiuri-pattalā, Dādarī in the Navaraṭha-pattalā and Dēnavaḍā in the Mahisiṇēha-pattalā, the king granted him four pādas of land in exchange for Astavāla-grāma in Tintiri-pattalā as well as his land in Valahauḍā-grāma in Mahisiṇēha-pattalā and Ḍāvaha (or Ḍavēha)-gramā in Nandāvaṇa (or Nandavēṇa)^[4]-pattalā which he had received respectively from Nādūka (or Nādūki ?), the priest attached to the queen Lakhamīdēvī, and Sōmēka, son of Ṭhakkura Śrī-Śripala.

The third donee was the Brāhmaṇa Sahajūśarman who was a brother of Sōmēśarman, mentioned above, as we know from his details given in the charter. He received 1¾ pādas of land in exchange of that which he possessed in the Pipalahā-gramā in the Tintiri-pattala and
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^[1] Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXII, p. 119. The year was Kārttikadi expired.
^[2] This person also engraved the Augāsī charter of the same king. In that great the second akshara of the name is distinctly lha, as also read by Kielhorn who edited it. In the present inscription, however, ha is clear and the upper part of what precedes it is bent to the right, showing that it was intended to be l and not the medial ē-sign as taken by Sircar who read the name Ūhēṇa. The name can be read definitely by a comparison of these letters in both the plates.
^[3] For the reading of the third letter of the name, see n. in the text, below.
^[4] In view of the fact that this name is distinct as Nandāvaṇa in the Ichchhāvar grant, we must take it to be correct and not the one in the brackets, the confusion being caused by the vertical stroke which is detached from both the aksharas before and after it. This inscription contains a number of errors of this type.