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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA The present grant describes both Allaśakti and Jayaśakti as samadhigata-pañcha-mahā-śabda, i.e., as having attained the right to the five great sounds. They both were evidently subordinate chiefs, owing allegiance to the Chālukya Emperor of Bādāmi. Bhānuśakti, though described in a more grandiloquent style, probably enjoyed no better status.[1] As his grandson Allaśakti was flourishing in 653 and 656 A.C., Bhānuśakti may be referred to the first quarter of the seventh century A.C. He was probably placed in charge of Gujarat and Khandesh by Pulakēśin II after he had conquered these provinces from the Kalachuris. No records of the reigns of Bhānuśakti and Ādityaśakti have yet been discovered, but Allaśakti is known to have made three grants, two of which, recorded in the Kāsārē and Bagumrā plates, are dated in the Kalachuri era and one, viz., that in the Nāgad plates, in the Śaka era. The earliest of these, viz., that in the Kāsārē plates is dated K. 404 (653 A.C.) and registers the donation of some land in the village Pippalikhēṭa, modern Pimpalner in West Khandesh. The second, known as the Bagumrā plates, dated K. 406 (656 A.C.), registers the gift of the village Balisa, modern Wanesa near Tēn in South Gujarat. The third record, viz., the Nāgad plates, though issued from Kāyāvatāra, modern Kārwān in Gujarat, mentions the grant of a village in the vishaya of the Nāndīpuradvārī which is probably identical with Nandurbār in West Khandesh. This grant is dated in Śaka 577 (655-56 A.C.). These records show that Allaśakti continued to hold Gujarat and Khandesh at least till 656 A.C. Sometime thereafter, he seems to have lost Gujarat ; for the next date from that part of the country is K. 421 (671 A.C.), furnished by the Surat plates of Śryāśraya-Śīlāditya, which register the grant of the village Āsaṭṭigrāma, modern Astgaon, not far from Tēn. From the Mānōr plates,[2] recently published by Mr. Krishna Deva, we learn that Dharāśraya-Jayasiṁha, the younger brother of the Chālukya emperor Vikramāditya I, founded the Navsāri branch in 669-70 A.C. Thereafter, the rule of the Sēndrakas seems to have been confined to Khandesh. As shown below, the places mentioned in the present Mundakhēḍē plates can be satisfactorily located near the western border of that district.
It may be noted that Bhānuśakti, Allaśakti and Jayaśakti bore certain birudas which are usually associated with their Chālukya suzerains. One of these deserves special notice. Jayaśakti calls himself Vikramāditya in the present grant, dated 681 A.C. His suzerain was Vikramāditya I, who had died just in the preceding year (680 A.C.). As this is the only known grant of Jayaśakti, we do not know whether Jayaśakti had borne the biruda previously or whether he assumed it only after the death of Vikramāditya. The absence of any reference to the imperial family in the present grant lends colour to the latter view,[3] but we may note that similar birudas were assumed by other feudatories of the Early Chālukyas. The Mānōr plates, for instance, show that Maṅgalarasa, the son of Dharāśraya-Jayasiṁha, had assumed the biruda Vinayāditya before Śaka 613 (691 A.C.) during the reign of the Chālukya emperor Vinayāditya. The present grant does not, therefore, give any indication that Jayaśakti had thrown off the yoke of the Early Chālukyas. No descendants of Jayaśakti are known but, as I have suggested elsewhere[4], the Sinda kings who flourished in Khandesh in the 10th century A.C. may have belonged to the same lineage. Like the Sēndrakas, they also claimed to have descended from the lord of serpents. Later, a family called Nikumbha is known to have flourished in the Khandesh District. It is known from the _________________________________________________
[1] Chandorkar’s view that the Sēndrakas were independent kings who helped the Early Chālukyas to establish
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