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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA Verse 12 gives the date on which, on the occasion of a solar eclipse, a grant was made by Malayavarman. This date, already discussed above, is also quoted in figures in a prose passage, which follows the stanza. Verse 13, which follows the short passage in prose says that, on the said date, the king took a bath in the waters of the Charmaṇvatī (Chambal) and worshipped the gods, Brāhmaṇas and elders, in order to make a grant for the merit of himself and his parents with the consent of his minister and priest (or, ministers and priests). The following two stanzas (verses 14-15) describe the family of the donees. It is stated that there was a Brāhmaṇa family called Bhēraṁḍa which belonged to the Vāsala gōtra. It may be observed here that the Vāsala gōtra is not known from the old works on gōtras and pravaras. In the Bhēraṁḍa family was born Bhōlēka who had a son named Gaṅgādhara whose son was Rajapālaka. Verse 16 says that king Malayavarman granted by a charter a village called Kudavaṭhē in favour of the Brāhmaṇas, Vatsa and Haripāla, who were the sons of the said Rajapālaka. The above part of the inscription is followed by a prose section which says that the said village of Kudavaṭhē, having all its four boundaries accurate and the land below the surface pure, was granted together with the grazing ground (sa-gōprachāra), the salt pits (sa-lavaṇākara), the mango and Madhūka trees and the things under the ground and above it (ākāśa-pātāl-ōtpatti-sahita), but without the lands previously granted in favour of gods and Brāhmaṇas (dēva-Brāhmaṇa-bhukti-varja). The king also informed the village elders (mahattama-jānapadān) that the village had been granted by him by a charter in favour of the Brāhmaṇas, Vatsa and Haripāla. The villagers were asked to pay the two Brāhmaṇas whatever was payable as bhāga (customary share of the produce), bhōga (periodical supply of fruits, etc.) and other dues from the date of the grant. The king also said that there should be no obstruction to the enjoyment of the village by the donees from the members of the royal family of any one else.
The details of the donation quoted above are followed by four imprecatory and benedictory stanzas stated to be sayings of the Smṛitikāras. The record ends with two stanzas (verses 21-22), the first of which says that the document was composed by Vishṇu, son of the poet Dharma and grandson of the scholar Hari. The last verse states that it was written by the learned Vāghadēva, son of the venerable Vishṇu, who belonged to a Kāyastha family of the Māthura clan. It seems that Vāghadēva wrote the document on the plate to facilitate the work of the engraver and was not himself the engraver of the inscription. We have seen that Pratīhāra Malayavarman captured the fortress of Gwalior where he was ruling at least from about 1220 to 1233 A.D. This fortress is known to have been under the Gurjara-Pratīhāra emperors of Kanauj in the ninth and tenth centuries[1] and then under a branch of the Kachchhapaghāta family from the middle of the tenth century to at least the beginning of the twelfth.[2] Lakshmaṇa (circa 950-75 A.D.), the first king of this house, is stated to have defeated the king of Gādhinagara (apparently a Pratīhāra king of Kanauj) and captured Gōpādri which may have been then under a Pratīhāra viceroy. The Sasbahu temple inscription[3] of Kachchhapaghāta Mahīpāla, dated V. S. 1150 (1093 A.D.), shows that Lakshmaṇa’s descendants were still holding Gwalior. There were two other branches of the Kachchhapaghāta family in the Gwalior region, one ruling in the Dubkund area in the period circa 1000-1100 A.D.[4] and the other in the Narwar area in circa 1075-1125 A.D.[5] Of these, the Kachchhapaghātas of Dubkund are known to have owed allegiance to the Chandēllas whose suzerainty may have also been acknowledged by the other branches of the family flourishing in the Gwalior region at least for some time. Epigraphic ________________________________________________
[1] Cf. Bhandarkar’s List, No. 35-36.
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