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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA Anantaśaktivarman has already been published in this journal.[1] The present set consists of three plates, each measuring about 7·3″ by 2·4″. The edges of the plates, though not raised into rims, have been fashioned thicker and flattened, so that the inscription is fairly well preserved. The plates are strung together by means of a ring, ·25″ thick and 3·8″ in diameter, the two ends of which are secured in an elliptical seal measuring 1·2″ by 1″, on the counter-sunk surface of which is cut in relief a seated bull, which is corroded. There is no legend or any other symbol on the seal. The ring was cut by me for taking impressions. The first side of the first plate and the second side of the third plate have been left blank. Each inscribed side contains six lines of writing. The engraving is bold and elegant. The alphabet belongs to the Southern script of about the 6th-7th centuries A. C. and bears close resemblance to that of the Chicacole[2] plates of Mahārāja Indravarman : Year 128, the Parlakimiḍi[3] plates of Rājasiṁha Indravarman : Year 91, and the Urajām plates of Indravarman : Year 97[4]. The language is Sanskrit and, except the usual imprecatory and benedictory verses (lines 15-19 and 21-23) and the verse (line 23-24) in which the names of the ājñapti and the scribe are mentioned, the inscription is in prose. The date portion of the grant contains numerical symbols for 100, 30 and 3. The inscription opens with the usual praśasti of the early Gaṅgas and registers the command of Mahārāja Indravarman to the residents of the village Tōṭavāṭaka, situated in the Krōshṭukavartanī vishaya, that the said village, which was constituted into an agrahāra and exempted from all taxes, was given to the Brāhmaṇa residents of Andōrakāgrahāra, belonging to various gōtras, who were students of the Ṛigvēda (Bahvṛicha charaṇa), on the new moon day of Śrāvaṇa when there was a solar eclipse, so that merit, longevity and fame may accrue to his father and mother as also to himself.
The record is dated in the augmenting years of the Tumburuvaṁśa, and, curiously, the date mentioned in symbols does not agree with that given in words. While expressing the date in words as śatē triṁśaty-adhikē the engraver has given the numerical symbols for 100, 30 and 3. The record is said to have been written by Prabhākara at the command of Lōkārṇavadēva who is described as “one who vanquished many foes” (vijit-ānēka-vidvishaḥ). So far nearly thirty five inscriptions of the early Gaṅgas ranging in date between 39 G. E. and 528 G. E. have come to light. Of them, those belonging to Indravarman and issued from Kaliṅganagara are dated 87[5], 91[6], 128[7], 138[8], and 154[9] while a grant dated 137[10] was issued from Dantapura and mentions the name of the father of the donor to be Dānārṇava. The donor of the grant under review, Mahārāja Indravarman, should therefore be identical with one of the Indravarmans of the records cited above. The praśasti of this inscription is identical with the praśasti of the records of Indravarman dated 87 and 91 G. E., but differs from the praśasti of the Chicacole plates of Indravarman dated 128 G. E. Mr. M. Somasekhara Sarma, after a critical study[11] of all the _______________________________________________
[1] Above, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 175 ff.
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