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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA the king to the religious establishment (maṭha) founded by Lōkaṇa Nāyaka, a Sahavāsi Brāhmaṇa, in the premises of the Mahālakshmī temple, for carrying on the worship of the god Umā-Mahēśvara, a form of Amṛitēśvara (Śiva), for maintaining the granary the maṭha, for keeping it in good repair, for feeding the Brāhmaṇas, and for similar other purpose. The inscription opens with an invocation to the boar incarnation of Vishṇu. Then comes the genealogy of the Śilāhāra dynasty which commences with the Vidyādhara Jīmūtavāhana, its mythical founder, and is brought down to Bhōja II. Most of the verses containing this description are identical with those occurring in the Kaśēḷi plates[1] of the same ruler, dated Śaka 1116, except verses 6, 13 and 14 which are new in the present inscription. Unfortunately these verses are too much damaged to yield any coherent sense. Verse 6, devoted to the praise of Bhōja I, son of Mārasiṁha, contains the names Gōvinda and Kōṅgaja. As gathered from the Kolhāpur plates[2] of Gaṇḍarāditya, these persons appear to be some petty chiefs defeated by Bhōja I. Verses 13 and 14 seem to contain the praise of Bhōja II and do not appear to be important historically. The importance of the present inscription lies in the fact that this is an early dated inscription of the Śilāhāra ruler Bhōja II. An earlier inscription of this ruler, dated Śaka 1101, is said to have been found near Kōṭitīrtha, a sacred tank in the precincts of Kolhāpur ; and Major Graham in his Statistical Account of the Principality of Kolhapur, pp. 382 ff., gives a kind of a facsimile of this inscription, but its original cannot be traced now.
The maṭha founded by Lōkaṇa Nāyaka, referred to in the present inscription, is already known from the town-hall inscription of Bhōja II,3 dated Śaka 1112. Its mention here carries the date of its existence further back to Śaka 1104. It is interesting to observe that the residents of the maṭha are practically the same as are mentioned in the town-hall inscription, except Janārdana Bhaṭṭa who appears to have succeeded Lakshmīdhara. The Sahavāsi Brāhmaṇas, mentioned in these and other inscriptions, claim to have arrived in the south from Ahichchhatra and Kāshmīr. They seem to have been a fairly well settled community in the Deccan and Karṇāṭak as can be gathered from the references to them in several mediaeval inscriptions of this period.[4] Even now Kolhāpur retains a large population of this class Brāhmaṇas who are engaged mostly in trading and banking activities. The following geographical names occur in the present inscription : Tagarapura (line 18), Valavāḍa (line 19), Kollāpura (line 21), Paṇaturage-golla (line 26) and Seleyavāḍa (line 26). Of these the first three are often mentioned in the inscriptions of the Śilāhāras of Kolhāpur. Tagarapura is modern Tēr in the Hyderabad State ; Valavāḍa which was the seat of the permanent residence (sthira śibira) of the Śilāhāras is taken to be identical with the site of modern Rādhānagarī near Kolhāpur ; and Kollāpura is undoubtedly modern Kolhāpur. Paṇaturage, which appears to be the name of a tract (golla), may be identified with the village Paṇutrā, 14 miles S. W. W. of Kolhāpur, situated on the bank of the river Dhāmṇi. Seleyavāḍa is probably modern Sheḷoshi, about 7½ miles further S. W. of Paṇutrā, on the bank of the same river.[5] The change from Paṇaturage to Paṇutrā appears to be natural as suggested by the change from Ājirage to Ājre. Paṇaturage would thus have some form like Paṇutare and this is exactly the form in which the name occurs in certain _________________________________________________
[1] Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, Vol. III, p. 393 and the Annual Report of the Bhārata Itihāsa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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