South Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE TRAIKUTAKAS

turned downwards and added to the left of the vertical. The subscript th is shown by a double curve open on the left, see sthira, 1.6 and sthiti, 1.12. The sign for the jihvāmūlīya occurs in 1.1 and that for the upadhmānīya occurs in 11. 4, 5, 6 and 14. The numerical symbols for 200, 40, 10, 5 and 1 occur in 1.18.

The language is Sanskrit and except for two benedictive and imprecatory verses at the end, the record is in prose throughout. In copying the formal part of the grant from previous records, the official draftsman has forgotten to change the genders of some adjectival expressions to make them conform to the feminine name of the donated village. As regards orthography, it may be noted that the anusvāra is in most cases correctly replaced by a class nasal, but in vanśā, 1.5 and vanśya, 1.12 it is wrongly changed to the guttural nasal. The consonant following r is doubled in such cases as karmma-, 1.1, sarvva,- 1.3 dirggha, 1.13 and that preceding y is doubled in –anuddhyātō, 1.1 and rāj-āpatthya, 1.10.

The plates were issued by the illustrious Mahārāja Vyāghrasēna (of the dynasty) of the Traikūtakas from the victorious Aniruddhapura. The king is described as the servant of the feet of Bhagavat (i.e., Vishnu) and the lord of the Aparānta and other countries. Aparānta is North Konkan, the strip of land between the sea and the Western Ghats. It is, therefore, interesting to read in line 6 that the king had stationed an army of many great warriors to guard the sea as well as forts and towns.

The object of the inscription is to record the grant, by Vyāghrasēna, of the village Purōhitapallikā in the Iksharakī āhāra to the Brāhmana Nāgaśarman of the Bharadvāja gōtra. The grant was made for the increase of the religious merit of the donor and his parents. The writer of the grant was the Mahāsāndhivigrahika Karka and the dūtaka, Hālāhala.

The date is expressed in numerical symbols only in 1.18 as the fifteenth tithi of the bright (fortnight) of Kārttika of the year 241. Mahārāja Vyāghrasēna of the present plates who was a devotee of Vishnu is clearly identical with the Paramavaishnava Vyāghrasēna whose silver coins have been found at Kāzad in the Indāpur Taluka of the Poona District1 and other places2 in Western India. From these coins which resemble those of Dahrasēna, we learn that he was the son of Mahārāja Dahrasēna. The date of the present plates, therefore, must, like that of the Pārdī plates, be referred to the Kalachuri era. According to the epoch of 248-249 A.C., it would correspond, for the expired3 year 249, to the 14th October 490 A.C. It does not admit of verification.

As for the localities mentioned in the present plates, Aparānta, Ariake of Ptolemy and the Periplus, is, as already remarked, identical with North Konkan. As the Traikūtakas were ruling over Aparānta, Trikūta, their home land, must have been situated in the west. It is noteworthy in this connection that Kālidāsa places Trikūta in Aparānta and the lexicographer Kēśava gives Sahyādri as a synonym for Trikūta.⁴ The victorious Aniruddhapura was probably the Traikūtaka capital as no word like vāsaka (camp) is attached to it. As Dr. Hultzsch has pointed out, it is probably identical with
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¹J. B. B. R.A.S., Vol. XXIII, p. 2. For the latter part of the name which Rev. R. Scott read as gana, see above, p. 23, n. 4.
²J.R.A.S. (1905), pp. 801 ff.
³If the year 249 is applied as current, the date would correspond to the 25th October 489 A.C. As the Kalachuri year began on Karttika śu. di. I, the date of the present plates (Kārttika śu. di. 15) cannot in any case fall in 491 A.C., as supposed by Hultzsch.
⁴Cf. Sahyāchalas=tu Mūrddhādris=Trikūtas=Trikakuch=cha sah. Kalpadrukōśa (Gaekwad’s Oriental Series), Vol. 1, p. 342. For the exact location of Trikūta, see below, No. 31, 1. 38.