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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA NOTE ON TWO PLATES OF TRIBHUVANAMAHADEVI FROM BAUD named Gōsvāminī and requested her to assume the reins of Government in the manner of that old ruling queen.[1] Mr. Misra identifies queen Tribhuvanamahādēvī who issued the Dhenkanal plate with the Bhauma-Kara queen of the same name mentioned in the inscriptions of the years 103, 145 and 149, referred to above. Mr. De on the other hand thinks that Tribhuvanamahādēvī of the Dhenkanal plate ruled in the year 160 immediately after Pṛithvīmahādēvī alias Tribhuvanamahādēvī who issued the Baud plates in the year 158. We are inclined to favour Mr. Misra’s identification as Mr. De’s suggestion appears to be doubtful in view of the following facts. In the first place, the fact that the feudatories cited the instance of an ancient ruling queen named Gōsvāminī to induce Tribhuvanamahādēvī of the Dhenkanal plate to ascend the throne suggests that she was the first ruling queen on the Bhauma-Kara throne. Had there been two other queens previously ruling in the family within less than half a century before her age and had one of them ruled immediately before herself, the reference to an earlier queen’s rule by way of illustration was certainly uncalled for and meaningless. Even if such an illustration was necessary at all to induce a third queen of the family to the throne, it is no doubt strange that the ruling queen who flourished immediately before should have been passed over in silence and the case of another reigning more than quarter of a century earlier would have been cited Secondly, according to Mr. De, Tribhuvanamahādēvī of the Dhenkanal plate was the wife of Śivakara III who issued his grants in the year 149. If she was thus the mother of Śāntikara III and Śubhākara V, it is only natural to expect a prominent mention of her name in the grants of queen Daṇḍimahādēvī who was the daughter of Śubhākara V. But her name is conspicuous by its absence in the later records of the family. This difficulty has been explained away by Mr. De who thinks that Tribhuvanamahādēvī of the Dhenkanal plate was a step-mother of Daṇḍimahādēvī’s father and that she, like Pṛithvīmahādēvī, did not recognise her step-sons’ title to the Bhauma-Kara throne. If such was the case, Tribhuvanamahādēvī of the Dhenkanal plate is expected to have been a partisan of Pṛithvīmahādēvī in her struggle with the lawful claimants of the throne and the non-mention of the latter’s name in her record becomes doubly inexplicable. Thirdly, the two known facts (1) that Tribhuvanamahādēvī, mother of Śubhākara III of the Hindol and Dharakota plates (dated 103), was born in the Nāga family and (2) that Tribhuvanamahādēvī alias Sindagaurī of the Dhenkanal plate was the daughter of Rājamalla of the southern country appear to suggest that the two were one and the same person. The name Sindagaurī (i.e., Sinda-Gaurī or Gaurī of the Sindas) shows that the issuer of the Dhenkanal plate was born in the Sinda family while it is well known that the Sindas who originally belonged to Karṇāṭaka claimed Nāga origin.[2] We are inclined to believe that Tribhuvanamahādēvī, who was the mother of Śubhākara III and has to be identified with the ruling queen of the Dhenkanal plate, was the daughter of a Sinda king bearing the name or biruda Rājamalla.[3] It has to be noticed that Pṛithvī-
Mr. S. C. De’s paper on the inscriptions in question has been published above.[2] We find it rather difficult to agree with some of Mr. De’s suggestions. In the following lines, some comments are offered especially on the most important of them, namely, the one concerning the identity and age of the Bhauma-Kara queen who issued the Dhenkanal plate.[3] In the Hindol[4] and Dharakota[5] plates of Śubhākara III, both dated in the year 103 of the Bhauma-Kara era, the said king is described as the son of Śāntikara I from Mahādēvī Tribhuvanamahādēvī who was śrīman-Nāg-ōdbhava-kula-lalāma-bhavā, i.e., ‘ born in the eminent family sprung from the illustrious Nāga.’ All the three Talcher plates[6] of the great-grandsons of this queen, viz., Śubhākara IV (one grant dated in the year 145, usually read as 141) and Śivakara III (two grants both dated in the year 149), clearly state that Tribhuvanamahādēvī ascended the Bhauma-Kara throne after the death of her son Kusumahāra or Siṁhakētu, i.e., Śubhākara III. The Talcher plate of Śubhākara IV further says that, when Tribhuvanamahādēvī’s naptā or grandson, named Lōṇabhāra alias Śāntikara II, became sufficiently aged, she abdicated the throne in his favour. The corresponding portion of the Talcher plates of Śivakara III, which seems to be corrupt in the original and more so in the published transcript, does not specify the relationship between Tribhuvanamahādēvī and her successor Gayāḍa II, i.e., Śāntikara II. The Dhenkanal plate, issued by Tribhuvanamahādēvī as a ruling queen, bears a date which looks like 100 but may also be read as 120.[7] The queen, whose other name is given in her record as Sindagaurī and who was the queen of Lalitahāra, is stated to have been the daughter of Rājamalladēva described as the ornament of the southern quarter (dakshiṇ-āśā-mukha-tilaka). It is further stated in the record that the queen ascended the Kara (i.e., Bhauma-Kara) throne after the circle of the Mahāsāmantas (feudatories) had pointed out to her the case of an ancient queen _________________________________________________
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