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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA In 1930, the Raja Saheb of Tekkali published a paper on the above inscription in the June issue of the now defunct journal Vaitaraṇī (Vol. IV, 1930) which was published from Cuttack by Messrs. L. N. Sahu and B. Singh Deo. Unfortunately the paper (without any facsimile of the inscription) failed to attract the attention of scholars, which it so highly deserved. In spite, therefore, of the fact that the record in question reveals very valuable informations regarding the ancient royal family of the Māṭharas of Kaliṅga, writers (including myself) on the early history of Kaliṅga, who published the results of their study during the last two decades, had to work in absolute ignorance of its existence.[1] My attention was recently drawn to the Raja Saheb’s paper on the Āḍabā-Kānnāyāvalasā plates in the Vaitarāṇī, Vol. IV, June, 1930, pp. 293, ff., as well as to a few sets of impressions of the inscription lying in his possession. Unfortunately my attempts to trace the original plates were not crowned with success. Considering therefore the importance of the inscription as well as the fact that the Raja Saheb’s paper on the subject is neither free from errors of reading and interpretation nor easily available to scholars, I am editing the record in the following pages from a set of impressions kindly supplied to me by the Raja Saheb,[2] a few months before his sad demise in August 1953. InThe three plates, on which the inscription in question is incised, measure 7·1 inches by 2·15 inches each. Their thickness and weight are not recorded. Apparently, however, the thickness was not very considerable. All the plates have a hole about the left margin for the seal-ring to pass through ; but, as said above, the ring with the seal was never traced. The first and third plates have writing only on the inner side, while the second plate is inscribed on both the sides. There are altogether sixteen lines of inscription, four lines on each one of the inscribed faces of the plates. The preservation of the first and third plates is not very satisfactory.
In The characters employed in the record belong to the Southern Class of alphabets and may be assigned on palaeographical grounds to the fifth or sixth century A. D. They closely resemble those employed in other records of the same period coming from the ancient Kaliṅga region lying in the eastern coastal area of India, especially the inscriptions of the Māṭharas and the Pitṛibhaktas.[3] The language of the inscription under review is Sanskrit and, with the exception of three benedictory and imprecatory verses about the end of the charter, the entire record is written in prose. As in point of palaeography, so also in regard to language and orthography, our record resembles such other inscriptions indicated above as the Rāgōlu plates of Śaktivarman[4] and noting calls for special mention. The date of the inscription under review is quoted in lines 15-16 as the twelfth tithi of the bright half of Kārttika without the usual reference to the regnal year of the issuer of the charter. The absence of the year seems to be due to the inadvertence of the scribe of the document or the engraver of the plates. The charter begins with the word svasti and the reference to the victorious city of Siṁhapura whence it was issued. It then introduces the reigning monarch who was responsible for the issue of the grant as the illustrious Mahārāja Prabhañjanavarman. The king is described as the son of Śaktivarman and grandson of Śaṅkaravarman. Mahārāja Prabhañjanavarman was a devotee of Bhagavat-svāmi-Nārāyaṇa, i.e. the god Vishṇu. He is also described as the increaser of the _____________________________________________
In [1] See Suc. Sāt., 139, pp. 74 ff. ; A New History of the Indian People, Vol. VI, 1946, pp. 79 ff. ; B. V. Krishna
Rao, Early Dynasties of Āndhradēśa, 1942, pp. 384 ff., etc.
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