South Indian Inscriptions

THE EARLY GURJARAS

as memorable as it was decisive; for, like the earlier one over Harsha, it is mentioned in many records of the Rāshtrakūtas as the most glorious achievement of their ememies, the Early Chālukyas.¹ The identification of Vajjada and the approximate date of this victory will be discussed later on.² Dadda III flourished from circa 665 A. C. to 690 A. C.

Dadda III’s son and successor Jayabhata III is known from two records.³ His Navsāri plates were issued from his camp at Kāyāvatāra (the modern Kārwān, about 15m. south of Baroda). They record the grant of the village Śamīpadraka near Kārwān on the occasion of a lunar eclipse in K. 456 (706 A. C.). The second set of plates, though discovered at Anjaneri near Nasik, registers the grant of a village near Nāndīpurī (Nāndōd in the farmer Rajpipla State) on the occasion of the sun’s entering the sign of Libra in K. 460 (710 A. C.). The plates were issued from Bharukachchha.

In both the grants we find the old racial name Gurjara of the family discarded, and the claim made instead that the royal family was descended from Karna, evidently the hero of the Bhārata war.⁴ Like his father, Jayabhata III was a Śaiva and won the pañchamahāśabda. His descendants give him a higher title Mahāsāmantādhipati ‘the lord of the great feudatories’, but it is not noticed in his own records. Jayabhata III probably flourished from circa 690 A. C. to 715 A. C.

The next prince Ahirōla, the son of Jayabhata III, is known only from the grants of his son Jayabhata IV. He had the same titles as his father, and was, like him, a devotee of Śiva. If the description given of him is not altogether conventional, he seems to have been a learned, pious and self-controlled prince. His reign was altogether uneventful and probably very short. He may be referred to the period 715-720 A. C

Ahirōla’s son and successor was Jayabhata IV. He is known from two copper- plate records.⁵ The earlier one which is fragmentary was discovered at Kāvī. It registers the grant of some land in favour of the god Āśramadēva installed at Kēmajju, not far from Kāvī in the Broach District. The grant was made on the occasion of the sun’s entering the sign of Cancer in K. 486 (736 A.C.). The second record, which was incised nearly three months and a half later in the same year, registers the grant of the village Mannātha in the same district to a Brāhmana of the Hētāvuka sub-caste.

The description of Jayabhata IV in both these records is given generally in conventional terms. Like his father, he was a Śaiva and Mahāsāmantādhipati. There is, however, one verse in a rather corrupt form which refers to an important historical event.⁶ We learn from it that Jayabhata, by the edge of his sword, forcibly vanquished in the city of the lord of Valabhi the Tājikas who oppressed all people. This verse which occurs in the Kāvī plate also had been known for a long time; but several letters of it were lost by the breaking off of its right and left upper edges. Bühler, who edited the Kāvī plate. had, therefore, no complete text of the verse before him. One of his readings was also incorrect. His translation, ‘who (i.e., Jayabhata) by the edge of his sword quieted in battle the impetuosity of the lord of Valabhī,’⁷ was responsible for the conclusion, drawn by him and others who followed him, that this Jayabhata inflicted a defeat on the contemporary ruler of Valabhī.
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¹ See e.g. the Anjanavati plates of Gōvinda III, Ep. Ind., Vol. XXIII, p. 14.
² See below, pp. lx ff.
³ The Kāvī plate dated K. 486 was for a long time ascribed to Jayabhata III, whose reign was supposed to have begun shortly before K. 456. But the Prince of Wales Museum plates (No. 24), recently discovered, show that it belongs to his grandson Jayabhata IV.
⁴ This is also noticed in the earlier Prince of Wales Museum plates of Dadda III (No. 121).
⁵ Nos. 23 and 24.
⁶ See below, pp. lxiv ff.
⁷ Ind. Ant., Vol. V, p. 115