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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA CHATESVARA TEMPLE INSCRIPTION mahādānas, ‘ great gifs,’ enumerated and elaborately described in the Purāṇas.[1] In the case of the particular gift in question, the donor gives away in charity his own weight of precious metal and stones (gold, silver, ornaments, jewels, etc.). Historically, the allusions to the wars waged by Vishṇu on behalf of his master, Anaṅgabhīma III, are more important. They are, however, so vague that they do not add much to our knowledge. Verse 14, shorn of its hyperbole, means to convey that Vishṇu fought with a king of Tummāṇa and possibly harassed him. We know that Tummāṇa was the capital of a branch of the Haihayas of Mahākōśala, now represented by a small village called Tumāna ‘ in the Lāphā Zamindāri of the Bilāspur District in the Chattisgarh Division ’ of Madhya Pradesh.[2] We know also that these rulers came into conflict with the Gaṅgas of Utkala (Orissa). In fact, Ratnadēva II of the Haihaya line is known to have inflicted a defeat on the great Gaṅga monarch Anantavarman-Chōḍagaṅga, the great-grandfather of Anaṅgabhīma III.[3] It is, however, not known as to who the adversary of Vishṇu was. It may be argued that the author of the praśasti would have given us a more detailed and definitive information on the point, if the war were really a major one. Chakravartī infers from the poetic description that ‘ the fight took place in the groves on the banks of the Bhīmā river at the foot of the Vindhya hills ’.[4] It is true that the Vindhy-ādrēr=adhi-sīma bhīma-taṭinī-kuñjē of the original does lend itself to that sort of inference, yet it is open to various objections. In the first place, the word bhīma-taṭinī may not refer to a river of the name of Bhīmā, as we have taken it to mean. In fact, no river of this name is known to exist in the region concerned. The well-known Bhīmā of Bhīmarathī, a tributary of the Kṛishṇā river, is too far in the south. It is thus more probable that the compound bhīma-taṭinī-kuñjē is to be rendered by ‘ in the fearsome groves along rivers.’ The choice of the word bhīma in this context seems to have been dictated by the poet’s liking for alliteration. After all, the poet is describing the bewildered state of his hero’s adversary running about in all directions, and not the site of any battle.
The reference to Vishṇu’s encounter with a Muslim ruler in verse 15 is even more obscure. Chakravartī’s supposition that this ‘ refers probably to some inroads of Giyās-ud-dīn‘ Iwaz, the fourth Bengal ruler ’[5] locks corroboration. It is needless to dilate upon the faulty text and the free rendering of it presented by Vasu, resulting in misconceptions some of which have been shown above. As indicated above, the inscription is to be treated more as a piece of poetry than as a bit of history. TEXT[6] [Meters : V. 1 Śikhariṇī ; v. 2 Upajāti ; v. 3 Sragdharā ; v. 4 Mandākrāntā ; vv. 5─7, 10─17, 20 Śārdūlavikrīḍita ; vv. 8, 9, 21, 25 Vasantatilakā ; v. 18 Hariṇī ; v. 19 Pṛithvī ; v. 22 Vaṁśasthabila ; vv. 23, 24 Mālinī.]
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