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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
PAITHAN PLATES OF GOVINDA III. revolted against and defeated his brother, even though the latter, to protect himself, had formed an alliance with kings who otherwise were hostile to the Râshṭrakûṭa family.1 ......The formal part of this inscription, also, does not differ materially from the corresponding portions of other Râshṭrakûṭa grants. It records (in lines 42-62) that the king, being en-camped near Pratishṭhâna, and having bathed in the river Gôdâvarî, on the occasion of a solar eclipse on the new-moon tithi of the dark half of Vaiśâkha in seven centuries of years, increased by sixteen, elapsed since the time of the Śaka king (i.e. in the Śaka year 716), granted the village of Limbârâmikâ, situated in the [Sârâ]kachchha village group of Twelve in the Pratishṭhâna bhukti, to a number of Brâhmaṇas, for keeping up the five great sacrifices and other purposes. The boundaries of this village were, to the east the village Samatîrthaka, to the south the river Gôdâvarî, to the west a locality named Brahmapurî, and to the north the arable land (?)2 of the village of Dhôna (?). The names and a description of the grantees are given in lines 47-54. There can be no doubt that their number originally was seven, but, as stated before, the inscription has here been seriously tampered with, for the purpose of reducing this number to four, and, perhaps, in order to substitute, at least in one case, another name for the one which was originally engraved. Of each of the grantees the inscription gave not only the father’s name and the gôtra and Vêdic school to which he belonged, but also the place of residence. But, with the exception of Pratishṭhâna which occurs in line 48, the names of these places are either altogether illegible, or so indistinct that they cannot be read with confidence. The gôtras mentioned are those of Vatsa, Pârâśara, Vaśishṭha, Saitêha (?), Hârîta (?), and Kâśyapa ; the Vêdic schools those of the Vâjins or Vâjasanêyins, Bahvṛichas, Taittirîyas, and Mâdhyaṁdinas.― Lines 63-72 contain the usual admonition to protect the donees in the enjoyment of this grant, and quote five of the customary benedictive and imprecatory verses ; and the concluding line 73 gives the names of the dûtaka and of the writer of the grant, both of which are so carelessly written that I am unable to say what they are.
......The date of the inscription― the new-moon tithi of the dark half of Vaiśâkha, of Śaka-Saṁvat 716― corresponds, for Śaka=Saṁvat 716 expired and the amânta Vaiśâkha, to the 4th May, A.D. 794, when there was a total eclipse of the sun which was visible in India, at 3 h. 48 m. after mean sunrise. It is, so far as I know, the earliest date from a genuine inscription of India proper which shows the amânta scheme of the lunar fortnights ; and it is ten years earlier than the oldest date3 which has been hitherto available for the reign of Gôvindarâja III. ......With the exception of Pratishṭhâna itself, I am unable to identify any of the places mentioned in this inscription. .TEXT.4 1 Ôṁ5 [||*] Sa6 vô=vyâd=Vêdhasâ dhâma yan-nâbhi-kamalaṁ kṛitaṁ | Haraś=cha
yasya kânt-êndu-kalayâ kam=alaṁkṛitaṁ || 7Âsîd=ni[sha?]- ......1 On Dhruvarâja see Dr. Fleet’s Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts, p. 33, and Dr. Bhandarkar’s Early
History of the Dekkan, p. 49.
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