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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA the Sāndhivigrahika (minister for peace and war) named Buddhadatta wrote the document probably under the instruction of the said Kṛitavarman. The plates are said to have been engraved by śrī-sāmanta Dhavalāka. The engraving of plates is known to have been usually entrusted to inferior officials. It is therefore difficult to determine whether śrī-sāmanta here indicates an official of inferior rank or whether the plates were engraved under the supervision of the Sāmanta (feudatory ruler) Dhavalāka. The document was endowed with a seal (lāñchhita) by Śivāditya. In some records[1] of the family, we have the passage lāñchhitaṁ mahārājakīya-mudray=ēti. The last line of the charter contains the date as already discussed above. The Bhañja ruler Śatrubhañja who issued the charter under discussion has been identified[2] with the king of the same name, who was the father of Raṇabhañja and issued the Kumurukela[3] and Sonpur plates[4] from Dhṛitipura. As in our record Śatrubhañja Maṅgalarāja is described as the son of Śilābhañja, grandson of Mallagambhīra and great-grandson of Yathāsukha while the records of the earlier Bhañjas of Khiñjali-maṇḍala, who had their capital at Dhṛitipura, represent Śatrubhañja as the son of Śilābhañja alias Āṅgaḍḍi, there is nothing absurd in the identification on the face of it.
If, the above identification is to be accepted, it is fairly easy to determine the approximate date of the charter under discussion. As has been suggested elsewhere,[5] Raṇabhañja was probably the son-in-law of the Kadamba chief Niyārṇama or Niyārṇava who was the grandfather of Dharmakhēḍi, issuer of the Mandasa plates[6] of Śaka 917[7] (995 A.D.) and the Santa-Bommali plates[8] of the Gaṅga year 520 (1016-18 A.D.). Consequently Niyārṇava as well as his son-in-law Raṇabhañja and the latter’s father Śatrubhañja can be roughly assigned to the middle of the tenth century. Thus the present charter issued by Śatrubhañja may be tentatively ascribed to the above period. It should, however, be pointed out that the identification of Śatrubhañja, issuer of the charter under discussion, with the homonymous ruler of Khiñjali-mandala who had his capital at Dhṛitipura is far from satisfactory. The inscriptions[9] of Raṇabhañja, also issued from the city of Dhṛitipura, have been found in the old Sonpur (like those of his father) and Baud States, These two kings are usually described in their records as the lords of Khiñjali-maṇḍala and sometimes of Ubhaya-Khiñjali-maṇḍala (i.e. the two maṇḍalas both styled Khiñjali). The charters[10] of Raṇabhañja’s son Nēṭṭabhañja alias Kalyāṇakalaśa and of his descendants were, however, issued from the city of Vañjulvaka and have been usually found in the Ganjam District. It would thus appear that these Bhañjas were driven from the north to the Ganjam region shortly after Raṇabhañja’s rule.[11] It is therefore doubtful whether this record found in the Ganjam District could have been issued by Raṇabhañja’s father. It should be noticed that our inscription refers neither to Khiñjali-maṇḍala nor to Dhṛitipura or Vañjulaka. In the second place, the verses at the beginning of our charter are found only in the introduction of the grants issued by the successors of Raṇabhañja of Dhṛitipura and Khiñjali-maṇḍala and not in the records of Raṇabhañja himself and his father Śatrubhañja. This fact also suggests _____________________________________________
[1] Cf. JBORS, Vol. VI, p. 273.
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