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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA No. 28.─BHUBANESWAR INSCRIPTIONS OF RAGHAVA, SAKA 1090 (1 Plate) D. C. SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND The celebrated Gaṅga monarch Anantavarman Chōḍagaṅga (1078-1147 A. D.) is known to have annexed the whole of Lower Orissa to his empire. So far, however, very few inscriptions of this king and his immediate successors have been traced in the Puri-Cuttack region. It was therefore not without satisfaction that I found two fragmentary records of the time of Rāghava, one of the sons and successors of Anantavarman Chōḍagaṅga, amongst the impressions (preserved in the office of the Government Epigraphist for India)[2] of the inscriptions in the Liṅgarāja temple at Bhubaneswar in the Puri District of Orissa. In the copper-plate charters of the later members of the family, Rāghava is assigned a reign of 15 years, sometimes believed to be of the Aṅka reckoning and equal to 13 actual years. His rule was plated by M. Chakravarti between Śaka 1078 (1156-57 A.D.) and 1092 (1070-71 A.D.).[3] Some scholars[4] believe that Rāghava ended his rule in Śaka 1090, although he could not have died before Śaka 1091 (1169-70 A.D.) which is the date of the of his known records.
Five inscriptions of Rāghava’s reign, all of them in the Śrīkūrmam temple, have so far been published.[5] Two of these refer to the reign of Anantavarman Dēvīdāsa Raṇaraṅga-Rāghava Chakravartin, while the rest mention the king under the name Anantavarman only. The five ___________________________________________________
[1] Engraved in bold Kannaḍa-Telugu characters.
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