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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA The characters and Proto-Bengali of the 11th century A.D. The most notable letter from the point of view of palæography is r which still retains its hooked form and is not yet a complete triangle. In the plate of Sāmalavarman, edited below, as well as in the Belāva plate of Bhōjavarman, r is a complete and well-formed triangle. The language is Sanskrit. The history of the Varman kings of Vaṅga was for the first time placed on a sure footing by the discovery and publication of the Belāva plate of Bhōjavarman, although Harivarmadēva was known to scholars from the Bhubaneswar inscription[1] of his minister, Bhaṭṭa Bhavadēva. The family traced its descent from the Moon and belonged to the Yādava clan, which had made Siṁhapura its home. This city has been variously located ; but none of the suggestions can be regarded as conclusive in the absence of any definite pointer. Nevertheless its identification with Siṁhapura in Kaliṅga may be accepted for all practical purposes.[2] When the armies of Rājēndra Chōḷa led an expedition against Bengal about 1023-24 A.D.,[3] they found on the throne of East Bengali (Vaṅgāla) a king called Gōvindachandra apparently belonging to the Chandra dynasty of Vikramapura. This is corroborated by a statement in the life of Dīpaṅkara-Śrījñāna-Atiśa, complied by the late Mr. Sarat Chandra Dās from Tibetan sources.[4] According to this work, Dīpaṅkara was a contemporary of the king Bhū-indra-chandra of Baṅgāla. The adult life of Dīpaṅkara, as gathered from this source, seems to have fallen between 1000 and 1022 A. D. ; and it may be assumed that Bhū-indra-chandra was the ruler of Baṅgāla during this period. The Tibetans seem to have rendered the name Gōvindachandra as Gō-indra-chandra, and substituting bhū for its equivalent gō, we get the modified Tibetan appellation Bhū-indra-chandra. Hence the reign of Gōvindachandra in Vaṅgāla is to be referred to the first quarter of the 11th century A.D. But, in the next quarter, we find the Varmans established in the same kingdom and issuing copper-plate grants from the same capital, as is evidenced by the Belāva plate and by the two copper-plates edited below. Thus the Chandras appear to have been supplanted in Vaṅga by the Varmans not long after the Chōḷa raids in 1023-24 A.D.
As indicated above, we learn from the Belāva plate that the Yādavas of the lunar race settled at Siṁhapura and that the Varman family of Yādava lineage rose to prominence during the time of Jātavarman who is credited with many achievements. He is said to have frustrated the might of Gōvardhana who appears to be the same as Gōvardhana of Kauśāmbī, mentioned in the Rāmacharita as an ally of Rāmapāla. Kauśāmbī, was the tract east of the Bhāgīrathī and south of modern Calcutta.[5] The Varman kingdom thus spread up to the Bhāgīrathī on the west, while on its east was the Meghnā. Jātavarman became a paramount sovereign. Jāta’s son was Sāmala, born of Vīraśrī. Sāmala married Trilōkyasundarī alias Mālavyadēvī who was the daughter of Jagaddēva, son of Paramāra Udayāditya, king of Mālwā and rival of Kalachuri Karṇa. Sāmala’s son was Bhōja, in whose 5th regnal year the Belāva grant was issued. From verse 14 of this grant it would appear that the king was probably a minor at the time, and that an invasion from an enemy was apprehended. It may be noted here that Harivarman does not find mention in this record, though he is clearly hinted at in the statement that Vīraśrī and Hari many times manifested themselves in person in this dynasty (verse 3). Harivarman is known to have enjoyed a fairly long reign. Two dated manuscripts of the reign of this king are known. One[6] of them, at present preserved in the V. R. Museum of _____________________________________________
[1] Above, Vol. VI, pp. 198 ff.
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