South Indian Inscriptions

INCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF TRIPURI

rendered bright by stainless and round pearls,^¹ so did that lord of princes beget the Kalachuri family, which is purified by kings of spotless conduct.

(V.7) In that family was a king, the foremost among those (who are) eminent for political wisdom, who purified Tripurī as Indra does his city, –– Yuvarājadēva (II), who destroyed the lords of princes blinded by arrogance as a young lion kills the leading scent elephants infuriated by rut.

(V.8) The chief ministers of the lord of the earth placed on the throne his son Kōkalla (II), a lion-like prince, the advance of whose four-membered army was checked (only) by (its) encountering the multitude of waves of the four oceans.

(V.9) That lord having gone far away,² his fame appears like a woman separated from her husband ; (for) throwing away the white sandal paste, she derides moon-light and detests pearl necklaces.³.

(V.10) His offspring was Gāngēyadēva, a thunderbolt falling on the heads of (his) enemies, the lord of the fortune of heroes, whose chest was broad like an emerald tablet, and who, having smiling eyes, surpassed with both his arms the length if a city-bolt.

(V.11) He (was) the crest-jewel of heroic princes; he (became) famous by the title of Vikramāditya; wishing suddenly to run away from whom (the lord of) Kuntala ceased to wield his spear.⁴

(V.12) When, fond of residing at the foot of the (holy) banyan tree at Prayāga, he attained salvation there together with his hundred wives, his son Karņadēva worshipped the quarters with (the offerings of) the pearls from the frontal globes of the best of enemies’ elephants cleft by his sword.

(V.13) What more (need we say about him) than that here at Kāśī the (temple) Karņamēru⁵ proclaims his great fame, which is like the circle of waves of the milk-ocean––
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¹ There is a play on the word vritta meaning (I) round and (2) conduct.
² I.e., having gone to the other world.
³ The intended sense is that the fame of the king was brighter than all these. A woman separated from her husband abstains from all decoration and suffers pangs of love in moon-light.
⁴ Hiralal translated the second half of this verse as follows: ‘Wishing to run away from whom with disheveled hair (the king o f Kuntala) who was deprived of his country came to possess it again.’ In a note added to this, he remarked, ‘The meaning of the second line of the verse is very obscure . The writer evidently plays on the word kuntala and has brought about what is called virōdhābhāsa when he says akuntalah kuntalatām babhāra,’ i.e., a hairless person bore hairiness (an apparent contradiction). The eulogist evidently seems to convey that Gāngēyadēva was so noble that he restored the Kuntala country to the king who was defeated and was running away with dishevelled hair (a second pun on the word akuntala)’, Ep. Ind., Vol. XII, p.215, n. 2. This interpretation was followed by R. D. Banerji in his Haibayas of Tripurī etc., p. 16, but it is incorrect. The mistake lies in the pada-chchhēda of the last quarter of the verse. We have to take the words as na Kuntalah (not a-kuntalah) kuntalatām va(ha)bhāra. There is evidentially a pun on the word kuntala here. The first word kuntalah means the king of the Kuntala country. Kuntalatā has to be explained in two ways (I) Kuntalasya bhāvah kuntalatā ‘the position of the king of the kuntala country’ and (2) kuntam lāti iti kuntalah; tasya bhāvah kuntalatā, ‘the state of one who wields a spear’. As regards the second explanation, see the derivation of kuśala given by Mammaţa in his Kāvyaprakāśa (ed.by Zalkikar, 1921), p.42. The second half of the verse apparently means. ‘Wishing to run away suddenly from whom, Kuntala ceased to be Kuntala. This involves contradiction, but it is only apparent, the figure being Virōdhābhāsa; for the words really mean ‘Wishing to run away suddenly from whom, the king of Kuntala ceased to wield his spear’, i.e., he gave up fighting with Gāngēyadēva and fled away. The verse is, therefore, intended to record a defeat of the king of Kuntala by Gāngēyadēva.
⁵ Mēru denotes a particular kind of temple, viz., hexagonal, with twelve stories, variegated windows and four entrances; Brihatsamhitā, lvi, 20. According to the Samarāngaņasūtradhāra, it has sixteen stories and four spires. For other details, see Samarāngaņasūtradhāra, ch. 55, vv.5-15 and ch 63, vv.4 and 5.