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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA (V). Between the year 149, the date of the Talcher plate of Śivakara (III), and the year 180, the date of the Ganjam plate of Daṇḍimahādēvī, we get four rulers, viz., wives of Kusumahāra and Lalitahāra, Śāntikara (III) and Śubhākara (V). Each ruled for about 8 years on average. This quick succession corroborates the suggestion of a civil war. The most uncompromising point of difference between the two genealogies given above lies in that, while in the present plates Kusumahāra (II), i.e., Śubhākara (IV), and Lalitahāra, i.e., Śivakara III, are said to have died childless, in the copper-plate grants of Dharmamahādēvī and Daṇḍimahādēvī, Śivakara (III) is said to have had two sons, viz., Śāntikara (III) and Śubhākara (V). This difference can be reconciled if it is assumed that Śāntikara (III) and Śubhākara (V) were sons of Śivakara (III) by a second wife of his, the legitimacy of their birth being either not acknowledged by the queen of Śubhākara (IV) and by at least one of the queens of Śivakara (III), or was deliberately ignored. However, there can be no satisfactory solution to this mystery until further discoveries throw more light on the later history of the Bhauma-Kara dynasty. Some scholars refer the dates in the Bhauma-Kara plates to the Harsha era. The date of the present plates calculated according to that era will be 764 A. C. But on palaeographic consideration this date will be rather too early. As already noted, the present plates can not be assigned to a date earlier than the 9th century. Similarly, if the Neulpur plate[1] is referred to the Harsha era and the numerical figures in it be read as 54, the date of the plate will be 660 A.C. The forms of the signs of medial vowels in this record, as also of some letters like s, n, bh, etc., are more developed as compared with those of the Ganjam plate of Mādhavarāja of G. E. 300. As such the plate can be assigned to the beginning of the 8th century at the earliest. R. D. Banerji assigned it to the latter half of the 8th century on paleographic considerations. Thus the date arrived at by referring the plate to the Harsha era seems too early for it. Hence we may examine the possibility of referring the dates in the Bhauma-Kara records to a later period.
From the Neulpur grant of Śubhākara (I) we know that he was ruling over Northern Tōsalā. The same region was governed by Sōmadatta on behalf of Śaśāṅka, the celebrated king of Karṇasuvarṇa. Since the plates[2] of Sōmadatta and Bhānudatta are assignable to a date earlier than the Neulpur plate, it may be presumed that the Bhauma-Kara rule in Northern Tōsalā and Daṇḍabhukti was established subsequent to the rule of Sōmadatta or Bhānudatta. In order to ascertain the time of the establishment of the Bhauma-Kara rule in Northern Tōsalā we have to find out the probable date of the end of the rule of the Datta family in that area. Sōmadatta was a feudatory under Śaśāṅka. He or his successor, if there was any, must have remained in the feudatory status till the death of Śaśāṅka who is presumed to have maintained his empire to the last. We do not know for certain when Śaśāṅka’s death took place ; but, from certain references to his anti-Buddhist actions in Magadha as found in Hieuen Tsang’s account, it is believed that Śaśāṅka died shortly before the year 637 A. C.3 So up to that date, or thereabouts, the Bhauma-Kara rule had not been established in Northern Tōsalā. After Śaśāṅka’s death Bhāskaravarman and Harsha conquered his dominions in and outside Bengal. Harsha led an expedition against Kōṅgōda in 642 A. C. On his way to Kōṅgōda, he would not have left the Northern Tōsalā and Daṇḍabhukti regions unconquered. The rule of Sōmadatta or Bhānudatta in the Northern Tōsalā-Daṇḍabhukti region might have come to an end in this way. Whether Harsha appointed the Bhauma-Karas as his agents in that region or they acquired the kingdom with their might following Harsha’s departure cannot be determined. But it seems fairly certain __________________________________________________________
[1] Above, Vol. XV, p. 1 ff. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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