Gujjar inscriptions 4
[VIKRAMA-] SAMVAT-1016 Edited By F. KIELHORN, PH.D., LL.D., C.I.E.; GOTTINGEN.The stone which bears this inscription was found, about eighteen years ago, near the temple of Nilkantha Mahadeva, among the ruins of the city of Paranagar which are to the south of the village of Rajor or Rajorgadh, on a lofty range of hills in the Rajgadh district of the Alwar State in Rajputana, about 28 miles south-west of the town of Alwar; and it is now preserved at Alwar itself. The inscription was first published by the late Dr. Rajendralal Mitra, in the Proceedings of the Bengal Asiatic Society, 1879, p. 157 ff. from a transcript prepared by Pandit Bhavanda and his brothers, of Alwar; and it has again been printed in the Prachinalekhamala of the Kavyamala, Vol. I. p. 53 ff., from another copy supplied by the same gentlemen. I now re-edit the inscription from rubbings which have been procured for me by Dr. Fleet.The inscription contains 23 lines of writing which covers a space of about 1’/5” broad by 1’ 3-1/4” high, and is nearly throughout in a perfect state of preservation. The average size of the letters is about ½”.2 The characters are Nagari; they closely resemble those of the Harsha inscription of Vigraharaja, published with a photo-lithograph in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. II. P. 116 ff. The language is Sanskrit, and excepting four benedictive and imprecatory verse, here ascribed to Vyasa, in lines 18-20, and another verse in line 21, which gives the names of the composer, the writer and the engraver, the text is in prose. The inscription has been written and engraved very carefully. In respect of orthography, I need only note the employment of the letter a for both a and b, the doubling of t and d in the conjuncts tr and dr, and the occasional use of revenue-terms, the exact import of which is not apparent, and some other words of unknown or doubtful meaning (pravani, tatti, chouskd, etc.) occur in lines 6, 16 and 17, and 22 and 23.The inscription (in lines 1-3) refers itself to the reig of the Paramabhattaraka Maharajadhiraja Paramesvara, the illustrious Vijayapaladeva, who meditated on the feet of the Paramabhattaraka Maharajadhiraja Paramesvara, the illustrious Kshittipaladeva ; and is dated, in words and figures, on Saturday, the 13th of the bright half of Magha of the year 1016. On this day the Maharajadhiraja Paramesvara, the illustrious Mathanadeva, of the Gurjarapratihara lineage, and a son of the Maharajadhiraja, the illustrious Savats, residing at Rajyapura, (in lines 3-13) informs his officials, the Jamajaamikas3 and others, and the mahattaras, mahatamas, merchants, pravanis4 and other inhabitants of the village of Vyaghrapataka, pertaining to the Vamsapotaka bhoja which Mathanadeva held possession of, that on the occasion of the installation (of the image, or the consecration of the temple) of the god Lachchhukesvara Mahadeva (Siva), so named after his mother Lachchhuka, he has granted to the god (or his temple) the village of Vyaghrapataka,-‘up to its proper boundaries,Note: See Sir A. Cunningham’s Archaeological. Survey of India, Vol. XX. P. 124-126. I have no doubt that Major Powlett rightly believed Rajor or Rajorgadh (i.e. Rajyapura) to the old name of Paranagar; and it seems to me highly probable that ‘the holy temple of Nilkantha Mahadeva, which is the most famous place of pilgrimage in this part of the country,’ and which Sir A. Cunningham has assigned to the 10th century A.D., is the very temple that is referred to in the inscription here edited.The grass and pasture land, with its rows of trees, with its water, with the bhoja and mayuta1 income, with all customary and not customary, fixed and not fixed receipts, the shares of all sorts of grain, the khala-bhiksha,2 prasthaka, skandhaka, marganaka, the fines, ten offences,3 gifts, treasures and deposits, the aputrikadhana4 and nashtibharata, and together with all neighboring fields, cultivated by the Gurjaras,- for the purpose of defraying the expenses of bathing (the god) three times a day, of unguents, flowers, incense, naivedya offerings, lights and oil, of applying white-wash and red lead, of repairing what may become damaged or broken, of public shows and putting on the sacred thread, and of paying labourers, gardeners, etc.’ Lines 13-15 show that the administration of this grant, in the first instance, was entrusted to the holy ascetic Omkarasivacharya (a disciple of Rupasivacharya, who again was a disciple of Srikanthacharya), a member of the Sopuriya line or school (of devotees) started at Amardaka, and inmate of the Nityapramuditadeva matha at Rajyapura, which was connected with the Gopaladevitadagapali matha at Chhattrasiva.5 And the donor (in lines 13-17) exhorts his successors not to obstruct, but rather always to assist the ascetic’s disciples and disciples’ disciples in the management of the property6 for the benefit of the god (or his temple). Lines 18-20 quote four of the customary benedictive and imprecatory verses ; and the main part of the inscription ends, in line 21, with another verse, according to which this charter (sasana) was composed7 by Dedda, written by his son Suraprasada, and engraved by Hari.Lines 22-23 then record certain additional taxes or tolls, the proceeds of which were to be made over to the same deity (or temple) jointly with the god Vinayaka (Ganesa, whose image or shrine was) set up in the lower grounds8 adjoining four chapels on one side (of the temple of Lachchhukesvara). So far as I understand this passage, these taxes were three vimsopakas, as customary in the market, on every jhataka-kupaka of clarified butter and oil ; two vimsopakasIn the Indian Antiquary, Vol. XIX. P. 23, I have already had occasion to shew that the date of this inscription, for the expired Vikrama year 1016, corresponds to Saturday, the 14th January, A.D. 960. This date enables us to prove, with a fair amount of certainly, that the sovereign Vijayapaladeva, to whose reign the inscription professes to belong, was a king of Kanauj. In the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. II. P. 235, I have attempted to shew that the three kings Vijayapaladeva, Rajyapaladeva and Trilovhanapaladeva, who are mentioned in the Bengal Asiatic Society’s plate of Trilochanapala, edited by me in the Indian Antiquary, Vol. XVIII. P. 33 ff., were rulers of Kanauj; and as that plate, for Trilochanapaladeva, gives us a date corresponding to the 26th June, A.D. 1027, there would, so far as regards the two dates, be no objection (of the year A.D. 960). And such an identification is supported by the fact that the Vijayapaladeva of this inscription is here stated to have been preceded by Kshitipaladeva. For we know that a king of this name, also called Mahipala and Herambapala, was actually ruling at Kanauj in A.D. 917-18, forty-two years before the date of our inscription.3 It is true that, according to the large Siyadoni inscription,3 Kshitipaladeva of Kanauj in A.D. 948 had been succeeded (not by Vijayapaladeva, but) by Devapaladeva ; but this would seem to be no very formidable objection to the proposed identification. For it might either be said that Vijayapaladeva was a younger brother of Devapaladev, in which case the omission of the elder brother’s name from the present inscription would not be without precedent; or we might assume that Devapaladeva and Vijayapaladeva are two names of one and the same king, an assumption in favour of which it might be urged that each of the three predecessors of Devapaladeva—Bhoja, Mahendrapala, and Kshitipaladeva—also bore each at least one other name. For the present, then, I do identify the Kshitipaladeva and Vijayapaladeva of this inscription with the sovereigns of the same names, known to us from the Siyadoni inscription and the plate of Trilochanapala ; and consider the Maharajadhiraja Paramesvara Mathanadeva, who made the grant here recorded, to have been a feudatory or subordinate of the kings of Kanauj.4 Of this Mathanadeva and his predecessor Savata nothing is known to me from other inscription; and I have not fund elsewhere any mention of the Gurjara-pratihara clan or family, to which they are stated to have belonged.Of the localities mentioned, Rajyapura, apparently Mathanadeva’s capital, is of course Rajor or Rajorgadh, or rather Paranagar, close to the modern village of Rajor, where the inscription has been found; and the village of Vyaghrapataka is said to exist still, near Rajor, under the name of Baghor.6 The place Vamsapotaka, which gave the name to the bhoja or district to which the village belonged, I am unable to identify. Nor can I identify the places Amardaka and Chhattrasiva, which are mentioned in connection with the ascetics to whom the management of the grant was entrusted. Chhattrasiva ought to be looked for in .The neighborhood of Rajor; and the name Amardaka I have previously found in the word Amardakatirtha-natha, the name or an epithet of a Saiva ascetic who is mentioned in the inscription from Ranod (Narod), published by me in the Epigraphia In Indica, Vol. I. p. 351 ff.
[VIKRAMA-] SAMVAT-1016 Edited By F. KIELHORN, PH.D., LL.D., C.I.E.; GOTTINGEN.The stone which bears this inscription was found, about eighteen years ago, near the temple of Nilkantha Mahadeva, among the ruins of the city of Paranagar which are to the south of the village of Rajor or Rajorgadh, on a lofty range of hills in the Rajgadh district of the Alwar State in Rajputana, about 28 miles south-west of the town of Alwar; and it is now preserved at Alwar itself. The inscription was first published by the late Dr. Rajendralal Mitra, in the Proceedings of the Bengal Asiatic Society, 1879, p. 157 ff. from a transcript prepared by Pandit Bhavanda and his brothers, of Alwar; and it has again been printed in the Prachinalekhamala of the Kavyamala, Vol. I. p. 53 ff., from another copy supplied by the same gentlemen. I now re-edit the inscription from rubbings which have been procured for me by Dr. Fleet.The inscription contains 23 lines of writing which covers a space of about 1’/5” broad by 1’ 3-1/4” high, and is nearly throughout in a perfect state of preservation. The average size of the letters is about ½”.2 The characters are Nagari; they closely resemble those of the Harsha inscription of Vigraharaja, published with a photo-lithograph in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. II. P. 116 ff. The language is Sanskrit, and excepting four benedictive and imprecatory verse, here ascribed to Vyasa, in lines 18-20, and another verse in line 21, which gives the names of the composer, the writer and the engraver, the text is in prose. The inscription has been written and engraved very carefully. In respect of orthography, I need only note the employment of the letter a for both a and b, the doubling of t and d in the conjuncts tr and dr, and the occasional use of revenue-terms, the exact import of which is not apparent, and some other words of unknown or doubtful meaning (pravani, tatti, chouskd, etc.) occur in lines 6, 16 and 17, and 22 and 23.The inscription (in lines 1-3) refers itself to the reig of the Paramabhattaraka Maharajadhiraja Paramesvara, the illustrious Vijayapaladeva, who meditated on the feet of the Paramabhattaraka Maharajadhiraja Paramesvara, the illustrious Kshittipaladeva ; and is dated, in words and figures, on Saturday, the 13th of the bright half of Magha of the year 1016. On this day the Maharajadhiraja Paramesvara, the illustrious Mathanadeva, of the Gurjarapratihara lineage, and a son of the Maharajadhiraja, the illustrious Savats, residing at Rajyapura, (in lines 3-13) informs his officials, the Jamajaamikas3 and others, and the mahattaras, mahatamas, merchants, pravanis4 and other inhabitants of the village of Vyaghrapataka, pertaining to the Vamsapotaka bhoja which Mathanadeva held possession of, that on the occasion of the installation (of the image, or the consecration of the temple) of the god Lachchhukesvara Mahadeva (Siva), so named after his mother Lachchhuka, he has granted to the god (or his temple) the village of Vyaghrapataka,-‘up to its proper boundaries,Note: See Sir A. Cunningham’s Archaeological. Survey of India, Vol. XX. P. 124-126. I have no doubt that Major Powlett rightly believed Rajor or Rajorgadh (i.e. Rajyapura) to the old name of Paranagar; and it seems to me highly probable that ‘the holy temple of Nilkantha Mahadeva, which is the most famous place of pilgrimage in this part of the country,’ and which Sir A. Cunningham has assigned to the 10th century A.D., is the very temple that is referred to in the inscription here edited.The grass and pasture land, with its rows of trees, with its water, with the bhoja and mayuta1 income, with all customary and not customary, fixed and not fixed receipts, the shares of all sorts of grain, the khala-bhiksha,2 prasthaka, skandhaka, marganaka, the fines, ten offences,3 gifts, treasures and deposits, the aputrikadhana4 and nashtibharata, and together with all neighboring fields, cultivated by the Gurjaras,- for the purpose of defraying the expenses of bathing (the god) three times a day, of unguents, flowers, incense, naivedya offerings, lights and oil, of applying white-wash and red lead, of repairing what may become damaged or broken, of public shows and putting on the sacred thread, and of paying labourers, gardeners, etc.’ Lines 13-15 show that the administration of this grant, in the first instance, was entrusted to the holy ascetic Omkarasivacharya (a disciple of Rupasivacharya, who again was a disciple of Srikanthacharya), a member of the Sopuriya line or school (of devotees) started at Amardaka, and inmate of the Nityapramuditadeva matha at Rajyapura, which was connected with the Gopaladevitadagapali matha at Chhattrasiva.5 And the donor (in lines 13-17) exhorts his successors not to obstruct, but rather always to assist the ascetic’s disciples and disciples’ disciples in the management of the property6 for the benefit of the god (or his temple). Lines 18-20 quote four of the customary benedictive and imprecatory verses ; and the main part of the inscription ends, in line 21, with another verse, according to which this charter (sasana) was composed7 by Dedda, written by his son Suraprasada, and engraved by Hari.Lines 22-23 then record certain additional taxes or tolls, the proceeds of which were to be made over to the same deity (or temple) jointly with the god Vinayaka (Ganesa, whose image or shrine was) set up in the lower grounds8 adjoining four chapels on one side (of the temple of Lachchhukesvara). So far as I understand this passage, these taxes were three vimsopakas, as customary in the market, on every jhataka-kupaka of clarified butter and oil ; two vimsopakasIn the Indian Antiquary, Vol. XIX. P. 23, I have already had occasion to shew that the date of this inscription, for the expired Vikrama year 1016, corresponds to Saturday, the 14th January, A.D. 960. This date enables us to prove, with a fair amount of certainly, that the sovereign Vijayapaladeva, to whose reign the inscription professes to belong, was a king of Kanauj. In the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. II. P. 235, I have attempted to shew that the three kings Vijayapaladeva, Rajyapaladeva and Trilovhanapaladeva, who are mentioned in the Bengal Asiatic Society’s plate of Trilochanapala, edited by me in the Indian Antiquary, Vol. XVIII. P. 33 ff., were rulers of Kanauj; and as that plate, for Trilochanapaladeva, gives us a date corresponding to the 26th June, A.D. 1027, there would, so far as regards the two dates, be no objection (of the year A.D. 960). And such an identification is supported by the fact that the Vijayapaladeva of this inscription is here stated to have been preceded by Kshitipaladeva. For we know that a king of this name, also called Mahipala and Herambapala, was actually ruling at Kanauj in A.D. 917-18, forty-two years before the date of our inscription.3 It is true that, according to the large Siyadoni inscription,3 Kshitipaladeva of Kanauj in A.D. 948 had been succeeded (not by Vijayapaladeva, but) by Devapaladeva ; but this would seem to be no very formidable objection to the proposed identification. For it might either be said that Vijayapaladeva was a younger brother of Devapaladev, in which case the omission of the elder brother’s name from the present inscription would not be without precedent; or we might assume that Devapaladeva and Vijayapaladeva are two names of one and the same king, an assumption in favour of which it might be urged that each of the three predecessors of Devapaladeva—Bhoja, Mahendrapala, and Kshitipaladeva—also bore each at least one other name. For the present, then, I do identify the Kshitipaladeva and Vijayapaladeva of this inscription with the sovereigns of the same names, known to us from the Siyadoni inscription and the plate of Trilochanapala ; and consider the Maharajadhiraja Paramesvara Mathanadeva, who made the grant here recorded, to have been a feudatory or subordinate of the kings of Kanauj.4 Of this Mathanadeva and his predecessor Savata nothing is known to me from other inscription; and I have not fund elsewhere any mention of the Gurjara-pratihara clan or family, to which they are stated to have belonged.Of the localities mentioned, Rajyapura, apparently Mathanadeva’s capital, is of course Rajor or Rajorgadh, or rather Paranagar, close to the modern village of Rajor, where the inscription has been found; and the village of Vyaghrapataka is said to exist still, near Rajor, under the name of Baghor.6 The place Vamsapotaka, which gave the name to the bhoja or district to which the village belonged, I am unable to identify. Nor can I identify the places Amardaka and Chhattrasiva, which are mentioned in connection with the ascetics to whom the management of the grant was entrusted. Chhattrasiva ought to be looked for in .The neighborhood of Rajor; and the name Amardaka I have previously found in the word Amardakatirtha-natha, the name or an epithet of a Saiva ascetic who is mentioned in the inscription from Ranod (Narod), published by me in the Epigraphia In Indica, Vol. I. p. 351 ff.
No comments:
Post a Comment