North Indian Inscriptions

BHADANA GRANT OF APARAJITA.

Gôvindarâja Suvarṇavarsha ; 14, his paternal uncle, the (son of Jagattuṅga and) younger brother of Nityaṁvarsha, Vaddigadêva ; 15, Kṛshṇarâja ; 16, Khoṭṭigadêva ; and 17, Kakkala, a son of a prince Nirupama. It will be seen that this list agrees with the account given in Dr. Bhandarkar’s Early History of the Dekkan, p. 57, as amended by the same scholar in the Journ. Bo. As. Soc. Vol. XVIII. p. 240 ff. ; and the only points new to us are the name Durlabha for the first Amôghavarsha (No. 9), and the remarks that the second Amôghavarsha (No. 12) ruled for one year only.¹— This account of the Râshṭrakûṭas, in verse 13, closes with the statement that (when the grant here recorded was made) the last king Kakkala had been overthrown by (the Western Châlukya) Tailappa, as a light is extinguished by a fierce wind, and that of the once flourishing Raṭṭa rule there remained only the memory.

......Verses 14-24 then give the following genealogy of Aparâjita himself, already known to us from other inscriptions : the mythical beings Jîmûtakêtu and his son Jîmûtavâhana, ‘the ornament of the Śîlâra family ;’ Kapardin ; Pulaśakti ; his son Kapardin ; Vappuvanna ;² his son Jhañjha ; his brother Goggirâja ; his son Vajjaḍadêva ; and his son Aparâjita. What is new here, is, that Aparâjita, according to verse 20, also bore the name Mṛigâṅka.³

......After these verses, the proper object of the inscription is stated in prose, in lines 39-66 :— ‘After the down-fall of the Raṭṭa rule,⁴ consequent on the extinction of the Paramabhaṭṭâraka of the P. M. P., the glorious Khoṭṭigadêva, who in turn had meditated on the feet of the P. M. P., the glorious Kṛishṇarâjadêva, (kings) who formerly resided at the famous Mânyakhêṭaka,─ the Mahâsâmantâdhipati Mahâmaṇḍalêśvara, the glorious Aparâjitadêvarâja. who by virtue of his might has attained the pañchamahâśabda, and is adorned with such title as “the supreme lord of Tagarapura, the Śilâra prince, he who is begotten in the lineage of Jîmûtavâhana, who has a golden Garuḍa in his ensign, a great ocean of pride, a conqueror of mountains (?),⁵ & god of love among heroes,⁶ the possessor of innate knowledge,⁷ the frontal ornament of the Western Region, a sea of truth, a sun of fierce splendour, Śanivâravijaya,”⁸ etc., . . . . . informs all persons as they may be concerned, the future occupants of the village (to be mentioned below), feudatories, râjaputras and heads of towns, and the chief and common people of the three (principal) eastes, places of abode (sthâna), etc., that, . . . . . when the verse from the time of the Śaka king were nine hundred and nineteen, on the fourth lunar day of the dark half of Âshâḍha of the current year Hêmalamba, and when he, the glorious king (râjan), happened to be staying at the famous Sthânaka, he, on the auspicious occasion of the Dakshiṇâyana,─ (i.e. the) Karkaṭa-saṁkrânti,─ having poured water into the
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......¹ Besides, verse 11 may possibly an allusion to the imprisonment of Kṛishṇarâja (No. 15) by one of his adversaries ; see page 272 below, note 6.
......² It may be noticed that, by the strick wording of verse 17, the name Vappuvanna, which occurs in that verse, ought to be taken as another name of the second Kapardin, spoken of in verse 16. But the other inscriptions distinctly call Vappuvanna the son of the younger Kapardin.
......³ It seems impossible to take the word mṛigâṅkaḥ in verse 20 in any other sense.
......⁴ As this event had taken place twenty-four years before the present grant was issued, the manner in which the formal part of the inscription commences shews, how long certain forms of speech when they have once become customary may be retained, even after the occasion for them has ceased to exist. The later known inscriptions of the Śîlâra family contain no reference to the Râshṭrakûṭas.
......⁵ With malagala-gaṇḍa compare malaparoḷu-gaṇḍa, ‘the hero among the hill-chiefs’ ; Ind. Ant. Vol. XX. p. 304, note 8.— [Perhaps malagala is meant for malegaḷa, gen. plur. of male, ‘a hill.’— E. H.]
......⁶ With gaṇḍa-Kandarpa compare, e.g., Raṭṭa-Kandarpa, ib. Vol. XII. p. 256, and gaṇḍa-Mahêndra, ib. Vol. XX. p. 269.
......⁷ Sahaja-Vidyâdhara may also mean ‘by nature a Vidyâdhara ;’ compare sahaja-Makaradhvaja, ib. Vol.
XIX. p. 247, l. 90.
......⁸ With this title, for which I cannot offer any suitable explanation, compare Śanivâra-siddhi, page 208 above note 5.— [The birudas might mean ‘one who is victorious’ and ‘one who is successful (even) on (an unlucky day like) Saturday.’ Compare the curious surname Nidrârasâna-vijayin, page 71 above, note 1.— E. H.]