South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

follows the passage viprāṇāṁ vēda-śāstra-dhvani-janita (ll.2-3) which appears to be an incomplete adjectival phrase, qualifying the same city, the concluding part of it having been omitted. Then the reigning monarch willing to make a grant of land is abruptly introduced as paramabhaṭṭāraka^[1]-Nanda-mahārāja-rāṇaka-Śrī-Dēvānandadēvaḥ kuśalī, although the usual epithets of this king and the metrical description of himself and his ancestors found in other records are absent. It seems that a big section of the original charter, possibly containing a number of verses, has been omitted here. Reference is next made to the officers and others relating to the Karaḍāśṛiṅgaya vishaya attached to the Ērāvaṭṭa maṇḍala which is no other than the Airāvaṭṭa known from other records of the family. But without even completing the list of officials and furnishing a verb to the sentence, the engraver then offers us, strangely enough, portions of some verses. It is not improbable that these verses belong to the introduction of a second charter of the same king. In lines 7-8 there appears to be the concluding part of the first verse in which a king has been described as sad-vikramē Śūdrakaḥ. It is possible to suggest that this ruler was no other than Jayānanda, founder of the Nanda dynasty of Orissa. The second verse begins in line 8 with the passage tasmād=ēva Vilāsataṅga-naraº and shows that this stanza dealt with king Vilāsatuṅga, who was the son of the king described in the first verse. From the inscriptions of the family we know that Jayānanda was succeeded by his son Parānanda who was followed by his son Śivānanda. As this Śivānanda is actually mentioned in a following verse, it is possible to suggest that it is his father Parānanda who has been called Vilāsatuṅga in the record under discussion, although other inscriptions of the family apply the biruda Vilāsatuṅga only to the grandsons of Śivānanda. The verse describing Vilāsatuṅga (possibly the same as Parānanda), which could not be engraved in its entirety and bears many mistakes in the engraved portions, seems to end with the charaṇa : kshmāpāl-ānata-mauli-ratna-nikara-pradyōtit-āṅghri-dvayaḥ in lines 10-11. In line 15 the last charaṇa of verse 4 of the original record, marked as such, which describes Śivānanda, runs : śūrōbhānur=iv=āparaḥ prakaṭitaḥ Śrīmān Śivānandakaḥ. The next verse, which is marked as verse 5 of the original record (line 18), begins with the words sūnus=tasya and apparently dealt with Śivānanda’s son Dēvānanda.

Lines 18-19 bear only a small part of a verse, marked as the sixth. In it the name of Dēvānanda is actually mentioned. The following verse is represented only by the first four syllables of the first charaṇa at the end of line 19. In line 20 the reigning monarch is again introduced, without any of the royal titles, simply as śrī-Dēvānandadēvaḥ kuśalī. There is little doubt that a large number of words of the original document has been omitted between line 19 and line 20 of the present record. Reference is next made (lines 20-21) to the village called Ḍōlōsha-ra-grāma situated in the Kalēḍa khaṇḍa which formed a part of the Ērāvaṭṭa maṇḍala. This seems to have been the village granted by the king. Line 21-23 refer to a person who belonged to the Dālbhya gōtra and was the grandson of Śihara and the great grandson of Viṭhu. This may have been the donee of the grant. His own name and that of his father cannot be satisfactorily determined ; but the word tṛiṇōka in line 23 may actually stand for Trilōka which may be suggested to have been the original donee’s name. Next follow portions of the customary list of officers. It has to be pointed out that the list of officers should have come earlier. Possibly two lines of the original have been transposed here. This list is followed abruptly by the expression chatura-simā-parja no doubt standing for chatuḥ-sīmā-paryantaḥ usually qualifying the word grāmaḥ in indicating the gift village. The charter ends here.

Considering the nature of the document, it is not possible to say definitely whether the king named Dēvānanda mentioned in line 4 as well as in line 20, apparently as the issuer of a charter, was Śivānanda’s son Dēvänanda (I) or Śivānanda’s grandson Vilāsatuṅga Dēvānanda (II). The

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^[1] Cf. paramabhaṭṭāraka-samadhigatapañchamahāśabda-mahāsāmantādhipati found in other records of the family.