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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA district according to an inscription of 1173 A.D. Chandra of the inscription under study appears to have been a similar Sub-divisional Officer of the Bhīlsā region. He was apparently a devotee of the Sun-god of Bhīlsā and got a eulogy of the deity composed by the poet Chhittapa who may have been an inhabitant of the same area. The inscription ends with the akshara chha placed between double daṇḍas. This chha is really one of the many variants of the Siddham symbol.[1] While at the beginning of records the symbol appears in several forms (variations of a sign resembling the modern Oriya 1 or 2 as reproduced in Ojha’s Prāchīnalipimālā, Plate LXXIX, with the occasional addition, in the former variety, of a cipher below or at the right), at their end it is usually found in the form of chha or tha or a symbol standing midway between the forms of these two aksharas.[2] The importance of the inscription lies in the mention of the poet Chhittapa, who enjoyed the title Mahākavichakravartin, as the author of the khaṇḍakāvya in praise of the Sun-god, quoted in the record. A number of stanzas of a poet named Chhittapa are found in the Sanskrit anthologies and some other works. But no complete work of the poet has so far been discovered. The pratīkas of all the stanzas attributed to Chhittapa have been quoted in alphabetical order by F. W. Thomas in the excellent introduction of his edition of the Kavīndravachanasamuchchaya.[3] Unfortunately there was a confusion about the poet’s name which is sometimes quoted also as Chittapa, Chhittipa, Chhinnama and Chhitrama. Moreover stanzas attributed to this poet in some sources are assigned in others to ‘ an unknown author ’ (kasy=āpi) or to various authors such as Siṁhadatta, Navakara, Dakshiṇātya, Akālajalada and Hanumat or to such works as the Bhōjaprabhandha. Six stanzas of Chhittapa are quoted in the Sarasvatīkaṇṭhābharaṇa of the Paramāra king Bhōja (circa 1010-55 A.D.), one in the Kavīndravachanasamuchchaya compiled before the end of the twelfth century, and forty-nine in the Saduktikarṇāmṛita compiled by Śrīdharadāsa at the court of king Lakshmaṇa sēna of Bengal in 1205-06 A.D. Poet Chhittapa therefore could not have flourished much later than the middle of the eleventh century. The following stanza of the poet, quoted in the Saduktikarṇāmṛita (III, 36), throws further light on his age :
Vālamīkēḥ katamō=si kas=tvam=athavā Vyāsasya yēn=aisha bhōḥ ślāghyaḥ syāt=tava Bhōja-bhūpati-bhuja-stambha-stutāv=udyamaḥ | paṅguḥ parvatam=ārurukshasi-vidhu-sparśaṁ karēṇ=ēhasē dōrbhyāṁ sāgaram=uttitīrshasi yadi brūmaḥ kim=atr=ōttaram || This shows that Chhittapa was a contemporary and probably a court poet of a king named Bhōja who has been identified with the celebrated Paramāra monarch of that name. Thomas rightly says, “ The rather numerous citations in the Sarasvatīkaṇṭhābharaṇa are, therefore, by a contemporary”. His ascription of Chhittapa to the tenth century is, however, apparently due to oversight, as the poet must have flourished in the eleventh century when his contemporary and patron, Paramāra Bhōja, ruled. The title of Mahākavichakravartin may have been conferred on Paṇḍita Chhittapa by the same king. Possibly Chhittapa was an eminent poet at Bhōja’s court. The Bhīlsā region is known to have formed a part of the dominions of the Paramāras. Chhittapa’s friend, Daṇḍanayaka Chandra, therefore seems to have been an officer in the employment of Paramāra Bhōja. _____________________________________________________
[1] Cf. above. Vol. XVII, p. 352 ; Proc. IHC, 1939, pp. 471 ff.
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