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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA in the box-headed characters has been discovered in Chhattisgarh (old Mahā Kōsala), although during my visit to Śrīpura (Sirpur) I noticed more than half a dozen stone inscriptions, on pillars, plinth and pavement of the Gandhēśvara temple there. Almost all of them mention Mahā-Śivagupta and are decidedly of the same period. All are in the Kuṭila script, not one of them is incised in the box-headed characters. In a damaged temple at Pujārīpālī near Sariā, probably of the time of Mahā-Śivagupta, there is a small inscription on a stone slab in the Kuṭila script of the 7th century A. D. What I mean to say is that there is a total absence of the use of box-headed characters for records incised on stone slabs at Sirpur and Mallār, as also at Pujārīpālī about 5 miles from Lodhiā. As stated before, not a single stone inscription in Mahā-Kōsala is found to be incised in box-headed characters. The Rājim and Balodā plates of Mahā-Śiva-Tīvararāja (with Śrīpura as his capital), the Mallār plates, and our present Lodhiā plates of Mahā-Śivaguptarāja, the Thakurdiyā plates of Mahā-Pravararāja, which were issued from Śrīpura, and the other six sets of copper-plates issued from Śarabhapura by Mahā-Sudēvarāja and his paternal uncle Mahā-Jayarāja, are all incised in the box-headed characters and have been discovered from time to time in the Raipur, Bilaspur and Sambalpur Districts, which are within the Mahā-Kōsala kingdom of old. Our Mahākōsala Historical Society of Bālpour was able to discover two silver coins of king Prasannamātra, bearing his name in beautiful box-headed script on them, from somewhere in the Bilaspur District.
Was it that the box-headed script was exclusively meant for copper plates and silver coins or metals like these, during the reign of Mahā-Śiva-Tīvararāja and of his grand nephew Mahā-Śivaguptarāja Bālārjuna and of the Śarabhapura kings, Mahā-Pravararāja, Mahā-Sudēvarāja and their uncle Mahā-Jayarāja, whose capital town Śarabhapura is now untraceable and has not yet been identified ? As for the geographical names occurring in the present plates, Dvaitavana in the term Dvaitavanīya-śrīmat-pañcha-yajña-tapōvana,[1] attracts our attention most. It is a very familiar and favourite name in the Mahābhārata. During the exile of the Pāṇḍavas, when they dwelt in that forest, it is stated to have been flooded with Brāhmaṇas. This Dvaitavana was considered by all as a Free Land over which there was no sway of any monarch. It was an abode of ‘ penance-groves ’ and the Pañchayajña tapōvana was one of them. The place was so called because there was a lake called Dvaita, within its boundary. Dvaitavana, says the Mahābhārata, was close to a desert (Maru-bhūmi) and the river Sarasvatī flowed through it. It was not far from the Himālayas, lying between Taṅgaṇa on the north-east and Kurukshētra and Hastināpura on the south-east. It was from Dvaitavana that the Pāṇḍavas started on a pilgrimage as described in the Vanaparva of the Mahābhārata. The name of the bhōga or sub-division, wherein the donated village Vaidyapadraka was situated, is given as Ōṇī. To which particular place the bhōga refers, it is difficult to ascertain at present. Next comes Vaidyapadraka. This is indeed the present day Baidpāli village in the Borasambar Zamindārī under Gāisilāt Police Station in the Bargarh tahsīl of the Sambalpur District, Orissa. The place Pattana Khadirapadra-tala is no other than Khadiapadra which is mentioned in the Sonepur plates of Mahā-Bhavagupta (II) Janamējaya.[2] The present Khairpali village, about 2 miles from the Ang or Ong river in the Borasambar Zamindārī, formerly in the _______________________________________________
[1] Such tāpāvanas were attached to different vanas or forest regions, and we find mention of the Chandradvīpa-tapōvana referred to by Bhavabhūti in the Uttararāmacharita (Act IV). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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