North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CHANDELLAS OF JEJAKABHUKTI

It is a sectarian inscription ; and the object of it is to record the dedication of a statue, on the pedestal of which it is engraved, by Sādhu Sālhē, who was a son Pāhilla of the grahapati family and a grandson of śrēshṭhin Dēdu. Incidentally, the record also mentions Sālhē’s sons viz., Mahāgaṇa, Mahīchandra. Siri (Śrī) chandra. Jinachandra and Udayachandra. The image, as we are also told, was dedicated during the prosperous reign of the illustrious Madanavarmadēva; and through the record is silent in mentioning the name of the family of the king, he is evidently the Chandēlla ruler of that name, whose inscriptions we have from V.S. 1186 to 1220 or 1129 to 1163 A.C. This view is supported by the find of the inscription in a reign which is known to have been under him.

The date of the inscription is stated to be the fifth day of the bright half of Māgha (vasantapañchamī) of Saṁvat 1215, which, as a year of the Vikrama era, corresponds to (1157-58 A.C.),¹ and fits exactly into the reigning period of Madanavarman.

The chief interest of the inscription lies in its mention of the name Pāhilla and his genealogy for four generations. Dr. D. C. Sircar takes him to be probably identical with the homonymous Jaina minister under Kīrttivarman mentioned in the Darbat inscription dated in V.S. 1132 ;² and the present record which was inscribed eighty-three years subsequently and which mentions the dedication of an image by his son goes to confirm the probability. The name Pāhilla we have also met before in a Jaina temple inscription at Khajurāhō, dated V.S. 1011, where he is stated to have been a devout Jaina who was honoured by King Dhaṅga ;³ but we are unable to say anything about the relationship of both these persons though they appear to belong to the same family. The name of this family also occurs in an inscription from Khajurāhō itself.⁴

TEXT⁵

No. 125 ; No PLATE

MAU STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF MADANAVARMAN

( Fragmentary )

THE stone which contains this inscription is stated to have been found in 1813, “at the foot of a rocky hill in the vicinity of the town of Mau, also spelt as Mhau, in the Jhāṅsī District” of Uttar Pradesh. Lieutenant William Price, who discovered it, published a transcript and translation of the inscription in the Asiatic Researches, Vol. XII, pp. 357 ff., and
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¹ The date cannot be verified. For the Northern V year, current, it would correspond to Thursday, 17th January. 1157 and for the expired, to Tuesday, 7th January, 1158 A.C
² Above, No. 109. For Sircar’s suggestion, see I. H. Q., Vol. XXX. p. 185.
³ Above, No. 99, v. 1.

⁴ See Kielhorn’s article in Ep. Ind., Vol. I, No. VIII. This family is also mentioned in No. 122, above, in I. N. I., No. 99, and in a Kalachuri inscription of 1019 A.C., where the reading is Grahapatikulatilaka śrēshṭhin. The origin of the name cannot be satisfactorily explained. It signifies the sun, and not the moon, as taken by Mirashi, in C. I. I., Vol. IV. p. 235 and n, ll, where it is taken perhaps as a mistake for Gṛihapati in the sense of ‘a house-holder’, or, the ‘head of a village’. The word may also be connected with the modern surname Gahōī, members of which family now reside in parts of Bundelkhand,
⁵ From a rubbing supplied by the Chief Epigraphist.
⁶ Expressed a variant of the symbol.
⁷ The daṇḍas are redundant.
⁸ Between the double daṇḍas is engraved the figure of a horse to right, within a design.
⁹ Drop the daṇḍas separating the names and read .