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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
INCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF TRIPURI The inscription contains seven lines and covers a space about 2’ broad by 1’ high. It is in a state of good preservation. The letters are deeply engraved, but not well-formed. Their size varies from .8” to 1.4.” The characters are Nāgarī. The only form which calls for notice is that of r which has a triangle instead of a loop on the left of its vertical; see, e.g., Mahārājā-, 1. I. The language is incorrect Sanskrit. We may notice, for instance, the wrong elision of the case-affix in –sādhana, 1. 5, jati, 1. 6, etc., and of the feminine affix in –Āmikādēva (for Āmikādēvi) in 1. 4 as well as the incorrect participial forms udharitah for uddhāritā in 1.6 and karāpitā for kāritā, 11.4-5. In respect of orthography we find that the sign for v is used to denote b in –vamdhana-, 1. 4, Kausāmvi-, 1.5 ; j is used for y in Kali-juga, 1.3, the dental s for the palatal ś in Kausāmvi and the lingual sh for kh in lishitani 1.6. The inscription refers itself to the reign of the illustrious Narasimhadēva, the Mahārājādhirāja of Dāhāla, who is evidently identical with the homonymous Kalachuri king who ruled at Tripurī. Its object is to record that the Rānaka, the illustrious Chhīhula, the son of the illustrious Jālhana, the Mahārānaka of the Pipalāma fort caused the Shatashadikā-ghāt to be constructed and (a temple of) the goddess Ambikāto be built near the road leading to it. He is thereby said to have freed (from the bondage of worldly existence) the whole tribe of the Rautiās (Rāuts) dwelling in Kauśāmbī.1 This seems to suggest that he had himself originally hailed from that place. The record finally mentions the names of the writer and of the artisans who executed the work.
The inscription opens with the date, Samvat 1216, the first (tithi) of the bright fortnight of Bhādrapada, Sunday. As we know that Narasimhadēva was ruling in the Kalachuri year 909, the date of the present inscription must be referred to some other era. The only era which would suit present case is the Vikrama era. As Dr. Kielhorn has shown, the first tithi of the bright fortnight of Bhādrapada in the northern expired (or southern current) Vikrama year 1216 ended I. h. 25m. after mean sunrise and was, therefore, current at sunrise on Sunday as required, the corresponding Christian date being the 16th August 1159 A. C. Of the geographical names mentioned in the present inscription Dāhāla or Dāhala, which the lexicographers give as a synonym of Chēdi, denoted generally the country between the Gangā and the Narmadā,2 corresponding to the modern Baghēlkhand. Kauśāmbī had already been identified with the village Kōsam, 28 miles west by south from Allahabad, Shatashadikā-ghāt may have been the ancient name of the Alha-Ghāt. Pipalāmadurga cannot be identified.
1, The text has clearly Kausāmvi-nikāya. Pānini, III, 3, 41 gives nikāya in the sense of ‘habitation’,
‘dwelling’, and the Siddhāntakaumudī gives Kāśī-nikāyah as an illustration.
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