South Indian Inscriptions

INCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF TRIPURI

colour-marks indicative of their non-windowhood slipped as it were from their foreheads.’ This is, of course, too vague a description to indicate an actual conflict with the Gurjara king, but unless it is altogether meaningless, it suggests that Karņa’s relations with the contemporary Gurjara king were already strained as early as 1048-49 A.C.

The second part of the record commences with verse 34, which states that the twice- born caste undertook the work of a minister to augment the mantra-śakti (power of good counsel) of kings who were possessed of the other two powers, viz., the utsāha-śakti (personal energy ) and prabhu-śakti (power derived from their royal position). We next get an account of the Kāyastha caste. There was a great sage (mun-īndra) named Kāchara who derived his holy birth from the three-eyed god Śiva. He made the town Kulāñchā an ornament of the three worlds. A person of the fourth caste (turīya-janman) respectfully propitiated him on the bank of the heavenly river (i.e., Gangā). The next verse, which is partly mutilated, seems to describe the boon granted by the sage, apparently to the Śūdra who had been serving him, that he would have a son of well-known and righteous deeds, who, having his head sanctified by the dust of earthly gods (i.e., Brāhmaņas), would become almost like the councillor of the lord of heaven (i.e., Bŗihaspati). The sage next declared that his caste would thereafter be known by the name of Kāyastha, since he had innumerable merits in his kāya (body). Verse 39, which is only partially preserved, refers to the birth of a son (apparently to the Śūdra), from whom sprang the caste of the Kāyasthas. We are next told that in his race were born wise, grateful, virtuous and meritorious diplomats who gave security from fear to all beings. Verse 41 describes a personage of matchless prowess, who was distinguished among the rest as the Kaustubha is among all the gems produced from the milky ocean, but unfortunately his name is lost in the damaged portion.¹ Verse 43 also mentions a person whose name, again, is illegible, but who was apparently an object of veneration to the illustrious king Lakshmaņarāja as Vishņu is to the three worlds. This personage seems to have been eulogized in the next two verses (44 and 45). The preserved portion of verse 46 states that Sōmēśvara who dedicated himself to the welfare of the people was born from the aforementioned personage. The next verse sems to have described some achievements of his through intelligence and personal prowess. From line 26 the record has unfortunately been too much mutilated to yield any useful information. We have, consequently, lost even the names of the descendants of Sōmēśvara, of whom the last one mentioned in the present inscription seems to have been a minister of Karņa. From the description of the white splendor of a temple in verse 54, that it was, as it were, due to the laughter of Śiva, who rejoiced to have such an excellent abode, it seems that it was a temple of Śiva, at which the present inscription was put up. This surmise receives confirmation from the opening verses which eulogize Śiva, as well as from the statement in v. 58 that the person who caused the temple of the enemy of Smara (i.e., Śiva) to be constructed himself composed the present praśasti.

As already observed, the present inscription, if it had been in a state of good preservation, would have proved valuable for the history of the Kāyastha caste. Even as it is, it clearly shows that the Kāyasthas had crystallized into a caste in the beginning of the eleventh century A.C.; but we have still earlier records which unmistakably prove the existence of the caste two centuries earlier.² The fanciful derivation of the caste-name Kāyastha given
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¹His name ended in kara and may have been Prabhākara.
²In his article ‘The Nāgar Brāhmaņas and the Bengal Kāyasthas’ (Ind. Ant., Vol. LXI, P. 48) D. R. Bhandarkar has drawn attention to the Sanjān plates of Amōghavarsha I (871 A. C.) and the Gurmhā plates of Jayādityadēva II (870 A. C.) as the earliest records mentioning the Kāyastha caste.