South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

[temple of Śiva by Purushōttama, a minister plenipotentiary (Sarvādhikārin) of Pṛithvīdēva’s father and predecessor, Ratnadēva II, and the grant of some land in honour of the gods installed in the temple and to a Brāmhaṇa named Vāsudēva.

The record is dated in the year 900 (expressed in decimal figures only) of an unspecified era, without any further details such as month, fortnight, tithi and week-day. The date must evidently be referred to the Kalachuri era which was current in that period in Chhattisgarh. It falls in the reign of Pṛithvīdēva II whose known dates range from K. 8902^[1] to K. 915.^[2] Verse 35 mentions a solar eclipse, on the occasion of which Pṛithvīdēva II granted a village to the minister Purushōttama. No year is mentioned in connection with this eclipse, but supposing that it occurred in the same year in which the present record was put up, we get some data for verification. I have shown elsewhere ^[3] that the epoch which satisfactorily explains all later dates of the Kalachuri era is A. D. 247-48 and that the Kalachuri year began on the 1st tithi of the bright fortnight of the pūrṇimānta Kārttika. According to this epoch the year 900 mentioned in the present inscription will have to be taken as current ; for there was a solar eclipse in the current Kalachuri year 900 (corresponding to A.D. 1147-48), which occurred on the pūrṇimānta Vaiśākha amāvāsyā^[4] (20th April A.D. 1148), while in the expired Kalachuri year 900 (A.D. 1148-49) there was no solar eclipse at all. The date may therefore be said to be regular.^[5] This is one of the few later dates of the Kalachuri era, mentioning a current year. After four maṅgala ślōkas in praise of Śiva, his vāhana (the bull Nandī), the goddess of speech and Gaṇapati, the author states in one verse the importance of having a poetical record of one’s achievements. He then proceeds to state the pedigree of the ruling king Pṛithvīdēva II from his great-grandfather Pṛithvīdēva I who is called the lord of Tummāna.^[6] The description of this king as also of his son Jājalladēva I and grandson Ratnadēva II is mainly conventional. The only historical event referred to is the defeat which a king of Kaliṅga suffered for the first time at the hands of Ratnadēva II. The reference is evidently to the defeat which that Kalachuri king inflicted on the mighty Gaṅga king Anantavarman Chōḍagaṅga and which is mentioned in several records of his descendants.^[7]

With verse 14 begins the genealogy of Purushōttama who erected the temple of Śiva recorded in the present inscription. His ancestor Sōḍhadēva belonged to a Brāhmaṇa family which served the Kalachuri princes for several generations. Sōḍhadēva was appointed Minister by Pṛithvīdēva I (v. 15). His son was Nimbadēva. He and his wife Lakhamā (Lakshmī) are glorified in three verses (vv. 16-18). Their son was Purushōttama who was appointed to the post of Sarvādhikārin (Minister Plenipotentiary) by Ratnadēva II. He is eulogised in as many as eight verses. We are told that all kings having been subdued by the policy or prowess of this minister, the king Ratnadēva II was able to rule without any trouble.

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^[1] This date is furnished by the Daikoni plates still unpublished, of which a set of ink impressions has been kindly supplied to me by the Government Epigraphist.
^[2] This date occurs in the Ratanpur stone inscription of Brahmadēva. See Hiralal’s Inscriptions in C.P. and Berar, 2nd ed., p. 127.
^[3] See my article ‘ Epoch of the Kalachuri-Chēdi Era ’, above, Vol. XXIV, pp. 116 ff.
^[4] Another solar eclipse had occurred just before the commencement of that Kalachuri year, on the amāvāsyā of the pūrṇimānta Kārttika (26th October A.D. 1147).
^[5] The original epoch of the Kalachuri era was A.D. 248-49 which suits early dates of the era found in Gujarāt and Northern Mahārāshṭra as shown by me elsewhere (A.B.O.R.I., vol. XXVII, pp. 1 f.). That epoch does not suit later dates of the era and would not at all suit the date of the present inscription ; for according to that epoch the solar eclipse should have occurred in A. D. 1148-49 if the year 900 was current and in A.D. 1149-50 if it was expired. But in neither of these years was there any solar eclipse.
^[6] Tummāna was the earlier capital of the Kalachuris in Dakshiṇa Kōsala. That Pṛithvīdēva I was ruling at Tummāna is known from line 28 of his Amoda plates, above, Vol. XIX, p. 80.
^[7] See, e.g., the Ratanpur stone inscription of Pṛithvīdēva II, dated V. 1207, above, Vol. I. pp. 45 ff. ; the Mallār stone inscription of Jājalladēva II, dated K. 919, above, Vol. I, pp. 39 ff. ; the Pendrabandh plates of Pratapamalla, above, Vol. XXIII, pp. 1 ff., etc.