|
The Indian Analyst
|
|
South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA NANDSA YUPA INSCRIPTIONS Śrīsōma, the first letter being merely an honorific prefix. As, however, the reading of the this letter is very doubtful. I would prefer to restore it conjecturally as [Śrī ? ] sōma. It is very likely that this [Śrī ?] sōma is identical with Mahāsēnāpati Bhaṭṭisōma mentioned in inscription C below.
The name of the father of the king, Jayasōma, is clear in both the inscriptions (A, l. 5 and
B. l. 15). The grandfather’s name again is seriously damaged in both the inscriptions.
In inscription A the letters are partly blurred and partly damaged, and what we can read does not
make out a good sense. All told 11 letters are used in this connection. The first two letters are
fairly clear in both the records and they are Jaya. The last three letters are legible only in inscription A, and they are certainly varddhana. The three preceding letters, which have been completely peeled off in inscription B. can be seen in inscription A, but in a damaged condition.
The first of these letters looks like a pu but may also have been a pra ; the second letter undoubtedly
looks like rbhā, and the third one may appear to be a damaged ga or dha with a subscript. This
letter has a round back, which is always the case with the ga of this record and never with the dha.
I would amend rbhā into bhā and read the last six letters as Prabhāgravarddana. The preceding
five letters seem to have denoted an epithet of Prabhāgravarddhana which began with Jaya.
The sacrifice claims that he was a scion of the royal Mālava family (Mālava-rājarshi-vaṁśaprasūta.), which was as famous as the Ikshvāku family of Pauranic fame (A, l .5). The expression used in this connection is Ikshvāku-prathita-rājarshi-vaṁśē Mālava-vaṁśē prasūtasya, and it is possible to explain it as Ikshvākūṇām prathitē rājarshi-vaṁśē Mālava-vaṁśē prasūtasya, ‘ of one born in the Mālava family, which was a royal family of the famous Ikshvākus ’. This construction is, however, unnatural and involved and the expression Ikshvāku-prathita really means Ikshvākuvat-prathita and maintains that the Mālava royal family was as famous as that of the Ikshvākus, from which Śrī-Rāmachandra had sprung. The Mālavas had issued a very copious copper currency in this part of Rājputāna during the 2nd and 3rd centuries A. D. Bhapaṁyana, Magaja, Mapaya, Magajaśa, Magōja, etc., are some of the queer personal names occurringon these coins, and as they all look extremely un-Indian, it has been suggested by Smith that the Mālavas were probably a foreign tribe, which had not been yet completely Hinduised during the 3rd century A. D.[1] This suggestion will have now to be given up, for the present record, which is almost contemporaneous with the coins in question, clearly states that the Mālava stock was as respectable as that of the Ikshvākus. They were zealous champions of the Vedic sacrifices, and though Kshatriyas by caste, were adopting names like Jayasōma and Śrīsōma which showed a keen appreciation of the Brahmanical Vedic religion. The performance of the Ēkashashṭirātṛa-sattra does not support the theory of their foreign descent. It is true that the Pañchaviṁśa Brāhmaṇa informs us that this sattra was performed by Vrātyadēvas (XXIV, 18), but it does not state that, as a result, they ceased to be vrātyas and became pure gods. Had such been the case, it could have been argued that king [Śrī ?]-sōma performed this sattra to make himself a Hindu or Kshatriya of the bluest blood. Of course the names on the contemporary Mālava coins are foreign-looking. They may be either unintelligent attempts to _______________________________________________ [1] Smith, Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Museum, Vol. I, pp. 174-6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| > |
|
>
|
