South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

Mēkalā. Before we proceed to investigate the external evidence as to that, let us consider what information is furnished by the present inscription itself. As has been stated above, Bharatabala, the royal donor, belonged to the famous race of the Pāṇḍavas. From the preamble of the record we call the following genealogy of this dynasty :─ 1. Jayabala. 2. Vatsarāja or Vatsēśvara (son of 1). 3. Nāgabala (Mahārāja, s. of 2 from Drōṇabhaṭṭārikā). 4. Bharata or Bharatabala (alias Indra ? Mahārāja, 8. of 3 from Indrabhaṭṭārikā, married Lōkaprakāśā, a princess of Kōsalā).

The genealogical portion consists of eleven elaborate verses and some passages in prose, but contains very little of real historical value, except in a few details, the descriptions of the kings being mostly conventional. The opening verse speaks of Jayabala, as a highly celebrated king in Mēkalā, belonging to the house of the Pāṇḍavas, but does not prefix any such title as Mahārāja to his name. The next two stanzas describe his son Vatsarāja, extolling him, in a general way, for his prowess and virtues. He, too, does not carry any high title. Then comes a prose passage, followed by a verse, introducing Vatsarāja’s son Nāgabala. A similar prose passage and the next four verses, vv. 5-8, are devoted to the latter’s son Bharatabala, while the next following two verses speak of Bharatabala’s wife Lökaprakāśā. The eleventh verse evidently again refers to Bharatabala and also alludes to someone else, presently to be identified. The manner in which Nāgabala and his son Bharatabala are introduced is distinctly more dignified. The prose

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passage in each case has an identical text, except of course the name of the king’s mother, which in the case of Nāgabala is Dröṇabhaṭṭārikā and in that of Bharatabala is Indrabhaṭṭārikā. These two ladies were thus wives of Vatsarāja and Nāgabala respectively. Nāgabala and Bharatabala are each styled Mahārāja and described as a devout worshipper of Śiva, a great patron of the Brāhmaṇas, and paramagurudēvatādhidaivataviśēsha, that is ‘distinguished as a highly venerable personage, a deity and a supreme divinity’. Such epithets are known to signify paramount power.^[1] In the present instance, however, the grandiloquent epithet perhaps simply denotes a more exalted position, to which Nāgabala must have risen, as compared with the status of his father and grand father, Vatsarāja and Jayabala, who, judging from the fact that they have not had any regal titles attached to their names, must have been mere chiefs. Nāgabala and his son Bharatabala may have enjoyed a measure of independence, but that they were not absolutely independent rulers is proved by evidence external as well as internal, as will be shown below. In the one eulogistic verse devoted to Nāgabala, no definite exploit of his is mentioned. If the description contained therein is not altogether conventional, it may be taken to hint at the growing military power of Nāgabala, his army comprising a large number of horses and elephants. In the case of his son, Bharatabala, though the inscription is much more eloquent, yet the historical date it imparts about him are meagre. The fifth verse mentions him under the name of Indra,^[2] and compares him to Kārttikēya. The sixth praises his good qualities like heroism, majesty, benevolence and so forth, and also depicts him as a sacrificer, though no specific sacrifice has been attributed to him. The seventh and eighth represent him as a slayer of his enemies, likewise without specification. The ninth and tenth describe his consort, Lōkaprakāśā, who is stated to have been born in Kōsalā.

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^[1] The overlord is Sōmadatta’s Soro plates (B and C) is referred to asParamadaivatādhidaivata or Paramadaivata (see above, Vol. XXIII, p. 202). Mahārāja Sivarāja in his Pāṭiākellā plate refers to his suzerain Śambhuyaśas as Paramadēvatādhidaivata (see above, Vol. IX, p. 287, and Vol. XXIII, p. 200). In these instances the feudatory chief also prefixes to the name of his overlord the additional title of Paramabhaṭṭāraka, which is not found in the present record. In the Soro plate of Śambhuyaśas himself, he gives the epithet of Paramadaivata to his father (bappa), and calls himself only Mahārāja. The Soro and Pātiākollā inscriptions are later than the Bamhanī plates by more or less half a century.
^[2] See below p. 143, n. 7.