South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

and that the Pēshwās did not give it up even when they became independent or even imperial rulers. An ancient Indian instance of exactly the same kind is that of the wellknown Pratīhāra emperors whose dynastic name was apparently derived from the official designation pratīhāra meaning ‘ guardian of the palace gate ’. The designation rāshṭrakūṭa was also similarly stereo-typed and a number of Rāshṭrakūṭa royal families, later called Rāṭhōḍ (through Prakrit raṭṭhaüḍa) in some cases, are known to have ruled in different parts of India. There is no reason to believe that all these families were branches of a single dynasty ; but all of them appear to have been essentially of Kannaḍa origin although it is difficult to trace their original southern characteristic in some of the North Indian Rāshṭrakūṭa. So long no Rāshṭrakūṭa royal family was traced in Orissa. The inscription under discussion proves for the first time the existence of a line of Rāshṭrakūṭa rulers in the Sambalpur region of Orissa. As interesting epithet of the ruler who issued the charter (or, of his grandfather) is Llātalōra-vinirgata which shows that the family claimed to have hailed from a locality called Llātalōra. There is no doubt that the locality referred to is the same as Lattalūra (otherwise called Lattalūr, Lattanūr, Latalaura, etc.) which was the traditional home of the Rāshṭrakūṭas of Southern India and has been identified with modern Lātūr in the Osmanabad District of Hyderabad. We know that the imperial Rāshṭrakūṭas often called themselves Lattalūra-pura-paramēśvara^[1] and the Raṭṭa chieftains of Saundatti usually described themselves as Lattalūr-pura-var-ēśvara or Lattanūr-pura-var-ēśvara,^[2] while Mahāsāmanta Dhāḍībhaḍaka of the Mahā-Rāshṭrakūṭa family, who was a feudatory of the Western Chālukya emperor Vikramāditya VI (1076-1127 A. D.), is described as ‘ emigrated from Latalaura ’,^[3] exactly as the king in the inscription under review. The advent of these Rāshṭrakūṭas of Kannaḍa origin in Orissa, like that of the Kanarese Sēnas in Bengal, of the Karṇāṭaka dynasty of Nānyadēva in Mithilā and of the Telugu-Chōḍas in Chattisgarah and Orissa, seems to have been the result of the eastern expeditions led by Chālukya Vikramāḍitya VI some time before 1068 A. D.^[4] It seems that Parachakraśalya acknowledge, however nominally, the supremacy of the Western Chālukyas of Kalyāṇa. The establishment of the Kannaḍa royal houses in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa is a very interesting fact of South Indian history. The Kannaḍigas of Bengal and North Bihar have left their mark on the culture of the lands of their adoption ; but those of Orissa were politically insignificant.

The Rāshṭrakūṭas of Southern India had the Pāli-dhvaja, Ōka-kētu and Garuḍa-lāñchhana,^[5] while the Orissan Rāshṭrakūṭas are described in our record as having the Garuḍa-darpaṇa-dhvaja. The fact that the former were heralded in public by the sound of a musical instrument named ṭiviḷi (variously called trivaḷe, trivaḷi or trivaḷī in the records of the Raṭṭas of Saundatti) explains the occurrence of the epithet kanaka-ḍamaru-trivalī-tūrya-rav-ōttrāsit-ārāti-chakra, applied to the Rāshṭrakūṭa kings mentioned in the record under discussion. The Orissan Rāshṭrakūṭas are further said to have enjoyed the śvēta-chchhatra (white umbrella) and pīta-chāmara (yellow fly-whisk).

From what has been said above about the epithets of the Rāshṭrakūṭa rulers mentioned in the inscription under review, it may be suspected whether they had anything really to do with Orissa. Such a doubt is, however, set completely at rest by the epithet ashṭādaśa-ghaṭṭa-gōndram-ādhipati, ‘lord of the eighteen ghaṭṭas and Gōndramas’. The word ghaṭṭa is not found in similar context in Orissan epigraphs and may have been used to mean ‘ a pass ’ or ‘ hill range ’ in the Kannaḍa sense of the word. The word gōndrama is, however, found in many early copperplate grants of Orissa in royal epithets claiming lordship over ‘ all the Gōndramas ’ or ‘ the eighteen Gōndramas ’ although the meaning of the word gōndrama and its origin are both unknown. Whether it is

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^[1] Cf. Ind. Ant., Vol. XII, p. 220.
^[2] Cf. ibid., Vol. XIX, pp. 165, 248.
^[3] Bombay Gazetteer, op. cit., p. 384, note 4.
^[4] Ibid., p. 442.
^[5] Ibid., p. 387.