North Indian Inscriptions

PAITHAN PLATES OF GOVINDA III.

¼” .— The language in Sanskṛit. Down to the middle of line 42 the inscription is in verse, and five benedictive and imprecatory verses occur in lines 68-73 ; the rest is in prose. The number of verses at the beginning is 28. Of these, verses 1-19 occur in the same order, but with some various readings and partly damaged, in the Kâvî grant of Gôvinda IV. (Ind. Ant. Vol. V. p. 145), which also contains verse 26, beginning with rakshatâ yêna in line 39 of the present inscription , and verse 28, beginning with tên=edam in line 41. Of the remaining seven verses, verses 23-25, beginning with tasy=âpy=abhûd in line 35, are found, in a less correct form, in the Kâpaḍvaṇaj grant of Kṛishṇa II. (Ep. Ind. Vol. I. p. 54). Accordingly, the verses which are peculiar to this inscription are only four, viz. verses 20-22, beginning with śrî-Kâñchîpati in line 30, and verse 27, beginning with a[yam=â]rât in line 40. As regards lexicography and grammar, attention may be drawn to the word prâtirâjya, which in line 31 is used as a masculine noun, evidently in the sense of pratirâja, ‘a hostile king,’ and to the redundant suffix ka¹ in âchchhidymânaka in line 67, as well as in the ordinary yathâsaṁva(ba)dhyamânaka in line 44.— The orthography calls for few remarks. The letter b is throughout denoted by the sign for v ; the dental sibilant is occasionally employed instead of the palatal, e.g. in asêsha, line 34, and satêshu, line 60 ; and the vowel ṛi is used instead of the syllable ri in kanakâdṛir, line 9, kṛiyâ, line 62, and śṛiyam, line 72.² Besides, we may notice the employment of the guttural nasal instead of anusvâra in the word siṅha in line 3, the use of the avagraha to denote the elision of a in line 30, and the spelling of the words upalachchhita for upalakshita in line 57, pratipâlaitavya for pratipâlayitavya in line 66, and âdnayâ (?) for âjñayâ in line 73.

......The inscription is one of the Râshṭrakûṭa Gôvindrâja III. or, as he is described in lines 42-44, the Paramabhaṭṭâraka Mahârâjâdhirâja Paramêśvara Pṛithvîvallabha Prabhûtavarsha Śrî-vallabha-narêndradêva, who meditated on the feet of the Parambhaṭṭâraka Mahârâjadhirâja Paramêśvara, the illustrious Dhârâvarshadêva, i.e. his father Dhruvarâja Nirupama. In the introductory metrical portion the genealogy of Gôvindarâja III. is given, beginning with Gôvindarâja I., exactly as in other inscriptions of the same dynasty (Gôvindarâja I. ; his son Karkarâja ; his son Indrarâja II. ; his son Dantidurga Vallabharâja ; Karkarâja’s son Kṛishṇarâja Śubhatuṅga Akâlavarsha ; his son Gôvindarâja II. Vallabha ; his younger brother Dhruvarâja Nirupama ; and his son Gôvindarâja III.) ; and what is new in this inscription are only the verses in lines 30-34, which relate to the circumstances under which Gôvindaraja II. was succeeded by his brother. After having stated in line 29 that Gôvindarâja’s younger brother was Dhruvarâja, our inscription goes on somewhat like this :—

......“Although that brother (Gôvindarâja) of his had fetched in large numbers those hostile kings even, the ruler of Mâlava and others, who were joined by the lord of Kâñchî, the Gaṅga, and him of Vêṅgi, his (i.e., Dhruvarâja’s) mind underwent to change in regard to him, when afterwards he (Dhruvarâja) had possessed himself of his ruby-ornaments and his store of gold. When even after his (i.e., Dhruvarâja’s) conciliatory overtures Vallabha (Gôvindarâja) did not make peace, then (Dhruvarâja) speedily defeated him in a battle offered by the brother, and he afterwards drove away the eastern and northern opponents, and obtained the whole sovereignty . . . . . .”

......Some other inscriptions only state in general terms that Gôvindarâja II. was superseded by his younger brother Dhruvarâja, while the Dêôli grant³ of Kṛishṇarâja III. records that “sensual pleasures made Gôvindarâja careless of the kingdom, and that, entrusting fully the universal sovereignty to his younger brother, Nirupama, he allowed his position as sovereign to become loose.” From the present inscription it would rather appear that Dhruvarâja
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......¹ See Dr. Fleet’s Gupta Inscriptions, p. 69.
......² In the proper name Rishi in line 48, assuming the reading to be correct, ri is used instead of ṛi.
......³ See Journal, Bombay Branch, R. A. S., Vol. XVIII. p. 239.