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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA The inscription begins with the usual symbol for Siddham which is followed by the passage recording the date discussed above. Next come three short passages separated from one another by double daṇḍas. The first of these passages reads tāmvara-khōli data and may be rendered into Sanskrit as tāmra-khōlī (or ºkhōlikā) dattā. This speaks of the gift of a khōlī or khōlikā made of copper undoubtedly referring to the cover bearing the inscription under notice. In Sanskrit the word khōla or khōlaka (of which khōlī and khōlikā would be feminine forms) means ‘ a helmet (i.e., a cover for the head) ’ but not actually a ‘ a cover (in general) ’ although khōl is used in the sense of ‘ a case or cover ’ in both Bengali and Hindī. The second and third passages together read bhaṭṭāraka-śrī-Damachāditadēva-padānā || maṭha-pati-śrī-Chihōkasya. In this padānā is no doubt a mistake for pādānāṁ. It seems therefore that the copper cover mentioned in the first passage belonged to (i.e., was caused to be made by) the maṭha-pati named Chihōka and was granted in favour of the illustrious lord Damachādita. The expression maṭha-pati means the superintendent of a monastery or the head-priest of a temple. Damachādita seems to be a mistake for Damach-āditya,although we are not sure whether even Damachāditya, as a name, is free from errors. There is, however, little doubt that the name refers to the image of the Sun-god of Sanokhār of which the object granted, viz., the tāmvara-khōli, was meant to be a cover. The image, together with its cover, seems to have been thrown into the waters of the old tank at Sanokhār with a view to saving it from desecration at the hands of the Turkish Musalmans who conquered the Bhāgalpur region of Bihār about the close of the twelfth century not very long after the dedication of the cover about 1166 A.D. The importance of the inscription lies in the fact that it offers, for the first time, definite evidence in favour of Ballālasēna’s rule over East Bihār.
Vijayasēna (circa 1095-1158 A.D.[1]), the extirpator of Pāla suzerainty from Western and Northern Bengal and of Varman rule from East Bengal and the first imperial ruler of the Sēna dynasty hailing from Karṇāṭa, is stated to have come into conflict with Nānyadēva (1097-1147 A.D.), founder of the Karṇāṭa dynasty of Mithilā (North Bihār), and with certain powers of the west, against whom he led a naval expedition.[2] It is, however, difficult to determine the amount of success he might have achieved against Nānyadēva whose successors ruled over Mithilā for a long time to come.[3] His grandson Lakshmaṇasēna (circa 1179-1206 A.D.) claims success ______________________________________________
[1] In the History of Bengal, Dacca University, Vol. I, p. 231, circa 1125 A.D. has been quoted as an alternative
date of Vijayasēna’s accession on the supposition that the date of his Berrackpur plate (above, Vol. XV, pp. 282 ff. ;
N. G. Majumdar, op. cit., pp. 61 ff.) may be the year 32 of his reign. But the correct reading of the date is certainly
62. Bhandarkar (List, No. 1682, note) was inclined to refer the date of the record to the Chālukya-Vikrama era,
in which case the year 62 would correspond to 1137-38 A.D. But this is improbable in view of the fact that the
inscription applies imperial titles to Vijayasēna who is not expected at that stage to acknowledge his subservience to
the Chālukyas by dating his record in their era even if it is supposed that he acknowledged Chālukya suzerainty in
the earlier part of his left. The name of Ballālasēna seems to suggest that the Sēnas were related to the Hoysaḷa
dynasty in which there were so many Ballālas.
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