South Indian Inscriptions

INCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF TRIPURI

arm was fought at Karkarēḍī. He is , therefore, identical with the homonymous prince of Karkarēḍi (modem Karkēri,28 m. north of Rewa) whose Rewa plate is plate is dated V. 1253 (1195 A.C). His elder brother Kirtivarman was a feudatory of the Kalachuri king Jayasiṁha and he himself in the aforementioned Rewa plate acknowledges the suzerainty of Vijayasiṁha. He seems, therefore, to have revolted against his liege-lord sometime during the period 1175 A.C.to 1193 A.C., but was defeated by Malayasiṁha and forced to acknowledge the supremacy of the Kalachuri king. Vikrama, the other adversary of Malayasiṁha, cannot be identified.

Verse 28 mentioned the queen Talhaṇadēvī who was probably a wife¹ of Malaya siṁha and had two sons, the elder of them being named Pṛithvīdhhara. The inscription then mentions several officers of Malayasiṁha. Garga, the son of Raņasiṁha: was his chief Record Office, while Harisiṁha, the son of Jagatsiṁha, was his excellent Councillor. The latter is said to have got tank excavated, to the description of which eight verses (34-41) are devoted. Malayasiṁha is said to have spent fifteen hundred taṅkakas stamped with the effigy of Bhagavat ( Buddha?) on this work. No such coins have yet been discovered.²

The pedigree of Vidyādhara, the Superintendent of the excavation of the tank, is next given in vv.43-46 In the Vāstavya family there was a person named Uddharaņa. His son was perhaps named Śridhara³. The son of the latter was the Thakkura Lakshmidhara, who was the father of Vidyādhara. Next is mentioned Purushōttama, the son of Valhaņa, who designed the tank. The genealogy of the poet Purushōttama, begins in verse 48. There was a learned Brāhmaņa named Rāmachandra, who performed all the five sacrifices. His son was Divākara. The latter’s son was Purushōttama, who composed the present praśasti. He belonged to the Krishŗhņatrēya gōtra and was a resident of Banaras. He describes himself as proficient in logic, the science of word and sense, Mimāmsā, Vedānta and Yōga and as devoted to the study of the Vēdas The mason who incised with present record was Ananta, the son of Galhaņa. After the inscription who closed with maṅgalaṁ mahā-śrīḥ, one more verse was added to describe the door keeper Ralhaṇa, the valiant son of Dalhana.

From the contents summarized above, it will be seen that Malayasiṁha and his ancestors were hereditary ministers and feudatory chiefs of the Kalachuri kings of Tripurī. Of the latter only Karņa, Gayākarṇa and Vijayasiṁha are mentioned in the present record, the names of Yaśḥakarṇa, Narasiṁha and Jayasiṁha being passed over. As Mr. Banerji has already observed, Jāṭa may have flourished towards the close of Karṇa’s reign, so that he was a contemporary of both Karṇa and Yaśḥakarṇa. Jāṭa’s son Yaśaḥpāla was a councillor of Gayākrņa. Padmasiṁha and Kirtisiṁha may have served Narasiṁha and Jaya siṁha. During the reign of Vijayasiṁha the office of the Home Minister seems to have been held by Chandrasiṁha, while Malayasiṁha was ruling over the territory round Rewa. It may, however, be noted that the name of Chandrasiṁha is not mentioned therein the Rewa stone inscriptions of Vijayasiṁha, the Chief Minister (Mahāmantrin) mentioned therein being Haripāla.
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¹Banerji took Talhaṇadēva to be the mothers of Malayasiṁha and altogether passed over pṛithvῑdhara and his brother mentioned in v. 28. Had Talhaṇadēvī been the mother of Malayasiṁha, she would have been introduced much earlier along with latter’s father Kirtisiṁha (vv.13-14).
²As the present inscription has been composed in a slip-shod manner, Bhagavan mudrayā in 1. 20 may be a mistake for, Bhagavatimudrayā. In that case the well-known coins of Gāṅgēyadēva, stamped with the effigy of Lakshmī, would be meant.
³See below, p.357, n.6.