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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA No. 15─ JAVAKHEDA PLATES OF AMOGHAVARSHA I, SAKA 342 (3 Plates) D. R. BHAT, DHUIJA Javakhēḍa is a small village in the Shahada Taluk of the West Khandesh District, Bombay. It is situated on the bank of the Gōmī, a tributary of the Tāpti. The Gōmī, also called Gōmatī, has its origin in Madhya Bharat and meets the Tāptī near Prakasha where the Department of Archaeology recently conducted excavations. The copper-plate grant was discovered while digging a pit for the repairs of a public road in February 1953. I came to know of the discovery in May 1954. On making enquiries, I learnt that the plates were with Shri Bhuskute, a P. W. D. contractor of Dhulia. He very graciously handed them over to me. The Rajwade Sanshodhan Mandal, Dhulia, is very thankful to him for his kindness. The inscription, like most other Rāshṭrakūṭa grants, is written on three plates. The outer sides of the first and last plates of the set are blank. The inner sides of these plates and both sides of the middle plate are inscribed. Each plate is nearly 11½″ long and 8½″ high. The breadth of the plates in the middle is slightly less than at the borders. The middle plate is nearly ¼″ thick and the outer plates are slightly thinner. The plates were strung on a ring passing through a hole (roughly ⅞″ in diameter) near the left edge of each plate. The ring is nearly 4½″ in diameter and is made of a round bar ⅝″ thick in the middle and ½″ near the extremities which are soldered to the seal. The seal bears a representation of the goddess Lakshmī.[1] The goddess is squatting on a lotus and has a swan on each lap under her arms. It appears that the goddess in her right hand behind the bird holds a chowry and in her left a ladle or a paraśu. On the right and left respectively near the head of the goddess are seen the sun and the moon. The image is finely executed in relief in a circle 1½″ in diameter. This appears to be the first seal of the Malkhed Rāshṭrakūṭas bearing an image other than that of Garuḍa or Śiva.[1]
The characters resemble those of other Rāshṭrakūṭa records of the ninth century as the Vāṇi Diṇḍōri plates of Gōvinda III, dated Śaka 730.[2] They are well engraved. The preservation of the writing is satisfactory with the exception of 7 or 8 letters in the first line on the obverse of the second plate. The language is Sanskrit. The text of the record contains some grammatical and orthographical errors. The twenty stanzas engraved on the inner side of the first plate and the obverse of the second are also found in the Radhanpur plates of Gōvinda III, dated Śaka 731.[3] These are followed by five verses in praise of Amōghavarsha and the details of the grant and the date of issue in a passage in prose on the reverse of the second plate. The grant was made by the Rāshṭrakūṭa king Amōghavarsha I at the request of one Bhaṭṭārikā (noble lady) Asagavvā[4] on Friday the 8th of the bright half of Āshāḍha of the Śaka year 742 expired (current 743), which corresponds to the 22nd of June, 820 A.D., on the occasion of the Dakshiṇāyana-saṅkrānti. The king made the grant when he was residing at Śrī-Nisvapuraka to a Brāhmaṇa named Jōgaḍḍi-bhaṭṭa who was the son of Rēvaḍḍi-bhaṭṭa and belonged to the _________________________________________________
[1] [The representation on the seal is clearly of Garuḍa as on the seals of other charters of the family. He has
a kirīṭa on this head and a serpent in each of his two hands. Above his outspread wings is a flywhisk in the proper
right and an aṅkuśa in the proper left.─ Ed.]
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