South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

TWO SAILODBHAVA GRANTS FROM BANPUR

marāja and his son Dharmarāja Mānabhīta.^[1] Verse 3, omitted in the Parikud plates but found in the Cuttack Museum plates of Sainyabhīta Mādhavavarman II, introduces Mount Mahēndra which is intimately associated in literature with the Kaliṅga country. Verses 4-5 mentioning Pulindasēna as famous among the people of Kaliṅga and as a devotee of Lord Svayambhū (Śiva) and the following five verses (verses 6-10) speaking of the eponymous Śailōdbhava, his kulaja or descendant Araṇabhīta, his son Sainyabhīta (Mādhavavarman I), his descendant (possibly an adopted son^[2]) Ayaśōbhīta, and his son Sainyabhīta (Mādhavavarman II), are found in most of the later records of the family. Verse 11, which is omitted in the Parikud plates but is found in the versified introduction of the records of Sainyabhīta Mādhavavarman II, refers to the achievements of king Sainyabhīta Mādhavavarman II. Verse 12 speaks of the same king as Śrīnivāsa and attributes to him certain sacrifices including the Aśvamēdha. The horse-sacrifice must have been celebrated by the Śailōdbhava king, before the issue of the Puri plates of his thirteenth regnal year, to commemorate the throwing off of the Gauḍa yoke. Verses 13-20 describe the reigning monarch Ayaśōbhīta II Madhyamarāja and are all of them found in the Parikud plates and some of them also in the later records of the family. The text of the verses common only to the present charter and the Parikud plates is corrupt in both the records, although the text offered by the record under discussion is better and has helped in restoring the reading intended by the author. Verse 15 describes the king as a royal ascetic. The next verse (verse 16) compares him with the god Śambhu and says that he had discourses with departed saints coming from heaven at his call. Verse 17 says that the king, who was as fair as the moon owing to his fame pervading the earth,2 performed amazing tricks of archery. Verse 18 says how the jewel of Kōṅgōda (i.e., the king) became an equal of the son of Pṛithā (i.e., Arjuna) by piercing, from a distance, at a time four boards, each covered with two shields, with arrows discharged from two bows simultaneously by his two hands. Verse 19 describes how the king could run with two stout persons on his shoulders in emulation of the monkey hero Hanumat, famous in the story of the Rāmāyaṇa.

Of the names of geographical interest, the inscription mentions Mount Mahēndra, Kaliṅga, Kōṅgōda and Kōṅgōda-maṇḍala. The Mahēndra is no doubt represented by the present Mahēndragiri peak in the Srikakulam District. Kaliṅga, in a narrow sense, was the country around it. Kōṅgōda was the name of both the kingdom and the capital of the Śailōdbhavas. It was apparently regarded as a part of the Kaliṅga country. The city of Kōṅgōda stood on the river Sālimā which is the modern Sāliyā running past Bāṇpur, the findspot of our record. The heart of the Kōṅgōda country, i.e., the dominions of the Śailōdbhavas, thus lay about the border between the present Puri and Ganjam Districts of Orissa.

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^[1] The mention of Mādhavēndra in the Parikud and Nivinā plates was not explained by the scholars who edited those inscriptions. Pandit Rājaguru is apparently unaware of the fact that the verse in question is found in the records of three successive rulers of the Śailōdbhava family and not only in the charter under discussion.
^[2] Cf. Successors of the Sātavāhanas, pp. 400-1 ; New History of the Indian People, Vol. VI, p. 83. Note also that the epic hero Nala, son of Vīrasēna, is described in the Naishadhīya, V, 124, as Vīrasēna-kula-dīpa. There is, however, difference of opinion among scholars as to the genealogy of the Śailōdbhavas. For the son represented as a descendant of the father, see also the Rājataraṅgiṇī VIII, 1083 (Stein’s translation, Vol. II, p. 512), the Assam plates of Vallabhadēva, line 16 (above, Vol. V, p. 184), etc.
^[3] I do not agree with Pandit Rājaguru who thinks that śaśāṅka-dhavala, used in the description of king Ayaśōbhīta II Madhyamarāja, has to be regarded as one of his names. He further thinks that Mādhava issued his Ganjam grant in the Gupta year 300 (619-20 A.C.) when he was holding the office of Mahāsāmanta under his father Śaśāṅka alias Madhyamarāja. The suggestion is, however, against known facts of history and without any evidence in support of it.