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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
SUPPLEMENTARY INSCRIPTIONS the donation made by him, of the village Varahī lying in the vishaya (territorial division) of Paṭisā, to some Brāhmaṇas, from his stay at the fort of Jayapura, which is Ajayagaḍh itself, as we have so often seen. The date of the record, as mentioned in line 7 in numerical figures only, is the eleventh of the bright half of Chaitra of the Vikrama year 1283, on a Wednesday, the date regularly corresponds to 11th March, 1226 A.C., for the expired Vikrama year, when the tithi was current at mean sunrise. The orthographical peculiarities to be noted are : (1) b has been written by the sign for v, as in kuṭumvi, l. 5 ; (2) the letter following r is often reduplicated, e.g., in durggē, l. 7, but not in nirgama, l. 10 ; (3) occasionally we find the use of the palatal for the dental sibilant ; see vasundharā in l. 4 ; and (4) the mātrā of ē is marked by a vertical before the letter and not above. Signs of the anusvāra and the visarga are often omitted in the process of engraving. Another feature of the epigraph is that the names occurring in the grant portion are separated by the daṇḍa, the use of which is sometimes so close to a letter as to look as an ā-mātrā or a pṛishṭha-mātrā. In this respect, the grant shares the peculiarities of the Sēmrā grant of Paramardin, edited above.
This is the third grant of the Chandēlla king Trailōkyavarman, brought to light for the first time, as already stated above, the other two grants of him being the two Gaḍhā plate inscriptions and the Sāgar inscription.[1] Beginning with the symbol for Siddham, which is followed by the auspicious word Svasti and the off-quotted two verses generally to be found at the commencement of a Chandēlla grant, the inscription gives the genealogy of the house, beginning from Madanavarman, who was succeeded by Paramardin, who, in his turn, was succeeded by Trailōkyavarman, the donor or the present grant. All the three rulers are mentioned as sovereign lords, and the additional title of Kālañjar-ādhipati (supreme lords of Kālañjara) is applied to Trailōkyavarman. The relationship existing between these rulers is already known from the other records of the house. Thereafter, is named the village Varāhi, with the vishaya as mentioned above, followed by the names of the Brāhmaṇa donees, with the names of father and grand-father of each, the gōtras they belonged to, and the shares donated to them each, as given in the appendix that follows. Then we find the usual terms of the gift ; and, with two of the concluding verses followed by the sign-manual of the king, the inscription is closed. The historical significance of the inscription lies in its date. The latest known date of Trailōkyavarman is V.S. 1269 or 1212 A.C., supplied by the fragmentary stone inscription found at Ajayagaḍh ; and the earliest known date of his son, Vīravarman, who succeeded him is V.S. 1311 or 1254 A.C. when he issued the Charkhārī grant.[2] Trailōkyavarman is also known to have occupied the throne after V.S. 1258 or 1201 A.C., the latest known date of his father Paramardin. The present grant, which supplies for him the year 1226 A.C., shows that he ruled at least up to this year, when he was succeeded by his son Viravarman. It is worthy of note that the first-mentioned person of the donees was called Gautama. It is therefore likely, that along with some others, he may have settled at the gift-village. It is also likely that some of his descendants later on came to Nāgōd, which is not far from the village, and may have become the religious preceptor of the house which ruled over the territory. And in view of this assumption, it is likely that the plate was his ancestral property and he adopted the surname Gautama.[3]
As for the localities mentioned in the inscription, Jayapura (l. 7) is of course Ajayagaḍh,
as we have so often seen. It is interesting to note that this stronghold of the Chandēllas is
about 50 kms. north by west of Nāgōd, the findspot of the inscription. Paṭisā, the donated
village (l. 5), is probably represented by its modern name Paṭihā, with the last consonant s changed to h, as we generally find in Prākṛita. The place lies about 16 kms. west of Nāgod,
[1] Above, Nos. 141-142. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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