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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA Vindhyakas, i.e., the Imperial Vākāṭakas, became kings of Andhradēśa which had become connected with the Vākāṭaka province of Mēkalā.”[1] Proceeding, the same author gives an identification of this province. “This Mēkalā I have identified as a province of ‘Sapta-Kōsalā,’ below the Maikal range of our maps, i.e., the British district of Raipur and the Indian State if Baster.”[2] Regarding the same, he elsewhere states :─ “The Province of Mēkalā evidently extended from the south of the present Maikal Range, in a straight line, covering the modern State of Bastar wherein begins the Andhra country.”[3] These are rather astounding conclusions : Andhra and Mēkalā being blended into one country, and the Pallavas and the Vākāṭakas becoming blood-relations ; and they will pass until any conclusive evidence to the contrary is forthcoming, like the charter under discussion. It may be pointed out that according to the said author, Mēkalā was still under a branch of the Vākāṭakas during Nārēndrasēna’s reign. “The system of the Vākāṭaka imperial organization,” says he, “was to have sons and other relations as rulers over different provinces.”[4] Evidently he hadthis in mind while, referring to the re-establishment of the empire of the Vākāṭakas, he said : “on the fall of the Gupta Empire, under Narēndrasēna, they once more become a sovereign power in the Berar-Maratha country including Kōṅkaṇa and up to Kuntala, in western Màlwā and Gujarat, and in Kōsalā and Mēkalā including Andhra.”[5] It goes without saying that if he had the present record before him, he would have said differently. Now we know that Bharatabala was not a kinsman of Narēndrasēna, but that the two came of different stocks, one being a Kshatriya and the other a Brāhmaṇa.
Finally, we may consider the designations of the various officials mentioned in the record. By Grāmakūṭa is meant ‘the headman of a village’. This term is frequently met with in inscriptions, particularly in those of the Rāshṭrakūṭas.[6] What Drōṇāgraka denotes is difficult to determine, as it is an unfamiliar word. There is, however, a word drōṇamukha which according to Sanskrit dictionaries means ‘the chief or the most beautiful one of 400 villages’. It is perhaps in this sense that the words drōṇamukha and drōṇamukhya are used in the Divyāvadāna.[7] It may readily be conceded that drōṇāgra means the same thing as drōṇamukha ; and by the addition of the suffix ka to that,we get the word Drōṇāgraka which possibly denotes ‘an officer in charge of a drōṇāgra or a drōṇamukha. In rank and importance he thus stands much higher than an ordinary Grāmakūṭa. The term Nāyaka signifies ‘a leader’ or ‘a military commander’. A Dēvavārika is, as the word indicates, perhaps ‘a superintendent of temples and holy places’. The word Gaṇḍaka in the present context possibly means ‘a warrior’. A Rāhasika is a ‘privy councillor ’. This office is mentioned in some other inscriptions under different forms such as Rahasya,8Rahasika,9 Rahasādhikata,10 Rahasyādhikṛita,11 etc. The order of the grant was issued by the king himself (savyam=ājñāpanā), that is to say, it was not conveyed by any state official acting as the king’s dūta. TEXT12 [Metres : vv. 1, 10, 11 Sragdharā ; v. 2 Vasantatilakā ; v. 3 Upajāti ; vv. 4, 9 Mālinī ; v. 5 Indravajrā; vv. 6. 7 Śārdūlavikrīḍita ; v. 8 Āryā ; vv. 12, 13, 14 Anushṭubh.] _____________________
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