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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA TWO PLATES OF DEVANANDADEVA little is known about the latter’s rule at the close of the ninth century there is no doubt that the era used in the Talmul plate of Dhruvānandadēva is the same as that employed in the records of the Bhauma-Karas.[1] The use of single plates for their charters and the design of their seal also appear to connect the Nanda kings with the family of the Bhauma-Karas. The family seems to have originally owed allegiance to the Bhauma-Karas and begun to rule more or less independently after the latter’s decline. Whether the Nanda or Nandōdbhava chiefs of Orissa actually claimed descent from the mighty Nandas of ancient Pāṭaliputra cannot be determined in the present state of our knowledge. There may have been a confusion, as Mr. Panigrahi suggests, between nanda and ānanda (the name-ending of the rulers of this family) just as in the case of the Bhaumas of Orissa, who had the name-ending kara and ākara and later styled their family as Kara. But this theory can hardly explain the name Nandōdbhava also applied to the Nanda family. Unless it is believed that Nandōdbhava was a name coined arbitrarily after Śailōdbhava, it is probably to be suggested that the Nandōdbhavas claimed descent from a certain person or family called Nanda. Considering the facts that the rule of the ancient Nandas in Orissa is actually suggested by the Hāthīgumphā inscription[2] and that the claim of descent from the ancient Nanda family is not unknown in Indian epigraphy[3], I do not consider it impossible that the Nandōdbhavas of Orissa claimed descent from the Nandas of Pāṭaliputra. Whether their claim was genuine or fabricated is of course different matter. It is also difficult to determine what relation these Nandas may have had with king Nanda-Prabhañjavarman of the Chicacole grant.[4]
An interesting passage in the description of king Vilāsatuṅga-Dēvānandadāva II found in this record as well as in the Baripada Museum plate is sitadhātumaya-gōdhā-śikharīkṛita-lōhitalōchan-āmbara-dhvaja. This is also applied to king Dhruvānanda in the Talmul plate. It shows that the banner of the Nanda kings was a piece of cloth with the emblem of lōhita-lōchana having an alligator (gōdhā) above, which was made of sitadhātu. The expression lōhita-lōchana may indicate a species of snakes ; but it is possible to interpret it as “ two eyes made of copper ”. The expression sitadhātu usually means ‘ chalk ’; but it can be so interpreted as to suggest that the alligator on the banner of the Nanda kings was made of silver. The inscription records the grant of a village made by king Vilāsatuṅga-Dēvānanda II in favour of a Brāhmaṇa. The name of the village is given as Palāmūnā. It was situated in the vishaya of Kahāśṛiṅga within the maṇḍala of Airāvaṭṭa. The done was the Brāhmaṇa Kuladēvapāla Bhaṭṭa son of Dēvapāla and grandson of Samarapāla Bhaṭṭa. He is said to have belonged to the Uluka gōtra and the Paryārīsi pravara. The word paryārisi seems to be a mistake for pañch-ārshēya, referring to the five pravaras attached to the gōtra. It should, however, be pointed out that the Gōtra-pravara-nibandhakadamba[5] recognises only three pravaras for the Uluka gōtra (viz., Udala, Dēvarāta and Viśvāmitra). The done or rather his family is further said to have originally hailed from Rāḍhā and was living at a place whose name ended with the word pura. This place may have been situated in the dominions of the Nandas ; but Rāḍhā was the name both of a country and of its capital about the present Burdwan District of West Bengal. So the donee was a Rāḍhīya Brāhmaṇa settled in Orissa. _______________________________________________
[1] The lū symbol in the date of the Talmul plate may actually indicate 100 instead of 200 as in the Orissa
Museum Plate of Daṇḍimahādēvī to be edited by me in this journal. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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