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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA in the Āmgāchhi plate of Vigrahapāla III, but also in the Manahali plate1 of Madanapāla (1144-62 A. C.),2 great-great-grandson of Vigrahapāla III. As no other copper-plate charter of the successors of Vigrahapāla III, in which the verses are expected to have been quoted, has as yet been discovered and as the text of verse 13 of our record could not be satisfactorily read either in the Āmgāchhi or in the Manahali plate, the charter under discussion offers the correct reading of the verse in question for the first time. The charter was issued from the jaya-skandhāvāra of Vilāsapura which was also the place of issue of the Bāṇgarh plate of Mahīpāla I and possibly of the Āmgāchhi plate of Vigrahapāla III. Its description (lines 22-26) is the same as in other Pāla charters including the Belwā plate of Mahīpāla I, edited above. Lines 26-27 introduces the Paramasaugata Paramēśvara Paramabhaṭṭāraka Māharājādhirāja śrīmad-Vigrahapāladēva as meditating on (or favoured by) the feet of the Mahārājādhirāja śrī-Nayapāladēva and as enjoying good health at the time of making the grant. The land granted comprised parts (arddha) of the village called Lōvanikāma which was then recently cultivated and was attached to the Puṇḍarikā maṇḍala (subdivision) within the Phāṇitavīthī vishaya (district) of the Puṇḍravardhana bhukti. Phāṇita was originally the name of a vīthi (subdivision) ; but later Phāṇita-vīthī came to be the name of a vishaya or district.3 It is said that Lōvanikāma was partitioned (ṛiju-khaṇḍīkṛita)and that one part measuring 1 kulya (i.e., kulyavāpa) 2 drōṇas (i.e., drōṇavāpas) 3¼ āḍhavāpas and 3½ udamānas was left out, while the other measuring 3 kulyas 7½ drōṇas and 11 udamānas was made the subject of the grant.
The list of officials and others associated with the gift land (lines 29-37) and that of the privileges to be enjoyed by the donee (lines 38-49) are the same as in other Pāla charters including the one edited above. The grant was made in the name of the lord Buddha-bhaṭṭāraka for the increase of the merit and fame of the king and his parents in favour of the Brāhmaṇa Jayānandadēvaśarman who belonged to the Bharadvāja gōtra having the Bhāradvāja, Āṅgirasa and Bārhaspatya pravaras and was the son of Śrīpatidēva, grandson of Hṛishīkēśadēva and great-grandson of Mitrakaradēva. The words śrī prefixed and śarman suffixed only to the name of Jayānandadēva appear to suggest that he was living while his ancestors were all dead and that śarman was already regarded as a distinctive Brahmanical name-suffix, although it was not an integral part of the family’s cognomen. The donee is said to have been a student of the Pippalāda śākhā and to have been reputed for his scholarship in mīmāṁsā, grammar and logic. He was an inhabitant of Vēllāvāgrāma, but his family hailed form Vahēḍāgrāma. His epithet śrī-Ananta-sabrahmachārin literally means that he was a co-student of a Brāhmaṇa named Ananta. It however seems to me that the reference is here not to a co-student of the donee but to his preceptor.4 The king’s request to the officials and others as well as to the future rulers of the locality and his order to the cultivators to offer the dues payable to the donee in due time come next in lines 44-46. The date (Samvat 11 Bhādra-dinē 19) is also given in line 46. The usual imprecatory and benedictory verses are quoted in lines 47-53. The two concluding stanzas in lines 53-54 speak of the dūtaka (executor) of the grant and the engraver of the plates. It is said that one Trilōchana was made the executor of the charter by king Vigrahapāla. The plates were engraved by the artisan Pṛithvīdēva who was a son of Haradēva hailing from the village of Tinnidī. Of the geographical names mentioned in the charter, Vilāsapura, whence the grant was issued, cannot be satisfactorily identified, although it was apparently situated on the Ganges. The _________________________________________________
[1] Gauḍalēkhamālā, pp. 147 ff. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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