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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA as Rāghava of the Varman side. We may here recall the statement in the third ślōka of the Belāva plate that Hari manifested himself in person many times in the Varman line. The first Hari was Kṛishṇa himself. The second Hari is Harivarman. The third Hari might be this Varman chief Rāghava who wielded all power during this period and whom it was necessary to eulogise in addition to the reigning king. Vijayasēna began his invasion of the Varman kingdom by his attack on Kauśāmbī, modern 24 Parganas District,[1] and its king Gōvardhana, who might have been a sāmanta of the Varmans. This involved the Varman kingdom in a disastrous war. Rāmapāla, though eulogised by Purushōttama, the author of the Belāva epigraph, probably dared not interfere, exhausted as he was by his recent struggle with the Kaivartas. The Varmans went down finally and Rāghava, the leader of the Varmans, became a prisoner in the hands of Vijayasēna. Thus fell the Varman kingdom before the onslaught of Vijayasēna, and the apparent silence of the Deopārā inscription regarding this great political change in Bengal is thus explained. The great was issued by Sāmalavarman, son of Jātavarman of the Varman dynasty of Vaṅga. The donee was Bhīmadēva. The gift appears to have been made to the temple of Prajñāramitā and other deities, founded by him. The ruined temple site referred to above, from the vicinity of which this fragment was recovered, appears to be the temple mentioned in the record. It is interesting to note that Sāmalavarman makes this donation to Buddhist shrine to please his patron deity Vishṇu.
I edit the inscription from the original fragment. The lost part of the propose portion in it could be easily supplied from the Belāva plate of Bhōjavarman. TEXT Obverse
_______________________________________________ [1] R. D. Banerji and N. G. Majumdar hold that this Kauśāmbī is identical with Kusumbā in the Rājshāhi District, ignoring the impossibility of the Varmans holding land north of the Ganges, inside the Pāla kingdom (cf. Inscriptions of Bengal, Vol. III, p. 19). [See above, p. 256, note 5.─Ed.] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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