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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA connected with the Telugu word koṇḍa, meaning ‘ hill ’, is uncertain. The eighteen Gōndramas are sometimes supposed to indicate the same thing as the Oriya aṭhara-gaḍa-jāta, vaguely referring to the Native States now merged in the State of Orissa. The earliest reference to ‘ the eighteen States ’ of this area seems to be found in the Kanās plate[1] of Lōkavigraha dated in the Gupta year 280 (599-600 A.D.), which speaks of the Tōsalī kingdom (Balasore-Cuttack-Puri-Ganjam region) as consisting of ‘ eighteen forest kingdoms (aṭavī-rājya) ’. The association with ghaṭṭa may possibly suggest that gōndrama indicated ‘ a hill-fort ’ or ‘ a State with its headquarters in a hill-fort ’. Of the geographical names mentioned in the inscription, Vāgharā-kōṭṭa seems to have been a hill-fort that was the capital of the Rāshṭrakūṭas of Orissa (cf. kōṭṭa, ‘ a fort ’). Whether it was the old name of the present Bargarh in the Sambalpur District cannot be determined with certainty. The gift village is called Salēḍāgrāma without mentioning the name of the vishaya or district in which it was situated. This is probably because it was lying near the headquarters of the Rāshṭrakūṭas of Vāgharākōṭṭa. It may, however, be pointed out that the usual passage referring to the royal order regarding the grant, addressed to the king’s officials, subordinates and others, seems to be wanting in our record owing to the inadvertence of the scribe or the engraver and that the reference to the vishaya in which the gift village was situated may have been lost along with it.
TEXT[2] First Plate
1 Siddham[3] [Ōṁ] svasta(sti ||) Samata[4] 56 Muyasira-vadā(di)[5] 4
Second Plate, First Side
6 chakra-Rāshṭrakuṭṭāmalakulātīlaka[8]-
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[1] Above, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 328 ff.
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