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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA to the number of instances in which the name-ending of the members of a family became stereo-typed into a cognomen in Eastern India in the age of the Guptas and their successors.[1] It has been suggested that such Brahmanic family names like Ghōsha, which are now found only among the non-Brāhmaṇas in the area about Bengal, points to the absorption of many early Brāhmaṇa families in such non-Brāhmaṇa communities of today as that of the Kāyasthas.[2] There is no indication about the donated property in the preserved portion of the inscription. The lost sixth plate of the charter probably contained this information. The record begins with a verse in adoration to the god Śiva which also occurs at the commencement of the Nidhanpur inscription. It is interesting to note that, although the ancient rulers of Assam claimed descent from the god Vishṇu through his son Naraka born of the goddess Earth, they were devoted to Śiva. The next three verses speak respectively of the mythological kings Naraka, his son Bhagadatta, and the latter’s son Vajradatta, from whom the ancient kings of Assam traced their descent. Verse 5 credits Vajradatta with the performance of a number of horse-sacrifices. The next verse introduces Pushyavarman, progenitor of the royal family to which Bhāskaravarman belonged, as a descendant of Vajradatta and as a performer of sacrifices like the lord of the gods. We know that, according to the Nidhanpur inscription, Pushyavarman floursihed when 3000 years had passed since the days of Vajradatta,[3] whom epic and Puranic traditions assign to about the beginning of the Kali age shortly after the great battle of Kurukshētra. This is another way of saying that Pushyavarman flourished in the fourth millennium of the Kaliyuga, that is to say, in the millennium starting with 102 A.D.[4] Since Pushyavarman was twelfth in ascent from Bhāskaravarman who ruled in the first half of the seventh century, counting about quarter of a century per generation, his rule may be roughly assigned to the second half of the fourth century A.D. It thus seems that the tradition about the beginning of the Kaliyuga in 3102 B.C. and the actual age of Pushyavarman were both known to the court-poet of Bhāskaravarman who composed the Nidhanpur record. Verses 6-10 of our epigraph describing the achievements of this king do not give historical informations of any great importance.
Verse 11 says that after Pushyavarman’s death the throne passed on to his son Samudravarman who is described as belonging to the Bhaum-ānvaya in verse 15. There is little of interest in the description of Samudravarman with the exception of the facts that verse 13 refers to his death, verse 14 to his queen Dattavatī (called Dattadēvī in the legend on the seal) and verse 15 to his son and successor Balavarman. It has been suggested that the names of Samudravarman and Dattadēvī were imitated from those of the Imperial Gupta monarch Samudragupta and the latter’s queen Dattadēvī.[5] Considering the facts that naming of the feudatory’s son after his overlord was not unknown in ancient India[6] and that Pushyavarman, as indicated above, was probably a younger contemporary of Samudragupta (circa 340-76 A.D.), this may be regarded as suggesting penetration of the political influence of the Guptas in the Brahmaputra valley about the second half of the fourth century.[7] The suggestion seems to be supported by the adoption of the use of the Gupta era by the rulers of ancient Assam as indicated by the Tezpur inscription of Harjaravarman.[8] Verse 16 describing the activities of Balavarman says that he celebrated a number of _____________________________________________
[1] Cf. IHQ, Vol. XIX, p. 19.
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