South Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLY GURJARAS

the latter has assumed a nearly semi-circular shape¹’. Almost all the lost aksharas, except those at the end of 1.25 and the beginning of 1.26, can be supplied with the help of the recently discovered Prince of Wales Museum plates² of the same king. ‘The plate seems to have undergone very rough treatment, as it is full of indentations. A few letters of the 20th and 22nd lines have been incised with such violence that the punch has penetrated to the other side of the plate. At the back, some lines of illegible letters appear, as if the engraver had first begun his work there, but had afterwards abandoned his attempt. The plate is free from verdigris and oxidization.³â€™

As said before, this is the second plate of its set and contains, therefore, the latter half of the grant. The extant portion consists of twenty-six lines, all of which are inscribed on the same side. The average size of the letters is .²".

The characters belong to the western variety of the southern alphabets and resemble those of the Navsāri plates of Jayabhata III. The royal sign-manual is, however, in the northern characters. The only peculiarities that call for notice are the long mātrās denoting medial diphthongs ‘which curl over three or even four aksharas’, the curling stroke for medial ri in kri which is attached to the horizontal bar of k, instead of to its vertical, (see krishna-and –krita-, both in 1.4 and Krishn-ākayō, 1.20), and the unlooped n in ndh of gandha-, 1.10 and –panthā, 1.12. the sign for the jihvāmūlīya occurs in 1.22. The language is Sanskrit. Except for two verses embedded in the eulogistic portion and six benedictive and imprecatory ones at the end, the record is in prose throughout. The orthography shows the same peculiarities as in other records of the Early Gurjaras.

The extant portion of this grant begins abruptly with the eulogy of the donor, the illustrious Jayabhata who had attained the Pañchamahāśabda and was the lord of great sāmantas or feudatory chiefs. As already stated, the text of the eulogistic portion, so far as it goes, is identical with that of the Prince of Wales Museum plates. This Jayabhata is, therefore, Jayabhata IV of the Early Gurjara Dynasty. Much of the praise bestowed on him is conventional, but there is one important reference in v.z to his victory over the Tājjikas or Arabs in the city of the lord of Valabhī. It is said that by the sharp edge of his sword he put an end to their oppression of the people even as a cloud with its showers extinguishes fire which is troublesome to the people.⁴

The inscription records the grant, by Jayabhata IV, of a field measuring fifty nivartanas on the south-west boundary in the village Kēmajju situated in the Bharukachchha vishaya. In connection with the boundaries of the field, the record mentions the villages Chhīrakaha, Jambhā, Gōliavali and Sīhu. The object of the grant was to provide for the supply of the materials of worship and repairs to the temple of the god Āśramadēva in the village Kēmajju.

The grant was made on the occasion of the Sun’s entering the Karkata-rāśi, i.e., The sign of Cancer, on the 10th tithi of the bright fortnight of Āshādha⁵. The year was mentioned in words at the end of 1.24, but owing to the breaking away of the
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¹Ind. Ant., Vol. V, p. 110.
²No. 24, below.
³Ind. Ant., Vol. V, p. 110.
⁴This important reference has escaped the notice of all scholars who have subsequently written about this grant; for they adopted Dr. Bühler’s translation based on an incorrect reading of 11.6 and 7, viz., ‘who by the edge of his sword quieted in battle the impetuosity of the lord of Valabhī.’ Jayabhata was thus supposed to be an enemy of the contemporary Maitraka king, while, as a matter of fact, he was his friend and deliverer.
⁵The tithi is expressed in words in 1.15.