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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA No. 7─ MADAGRAMA GRANT OF DEVENDRAVARMAN AND BHIMAKHEDI (1 Plate) R. C. MAJUMDAR, NAGPUR This is a set of three copper plates which the Tahsildar of Srikakulam received from Mr. Manda Narasimham and forwarded to the Government Epigraphist for India. I edit it from a set of excellent estampages kindly supplied by the latter. Each of the three plates measures 7.8″ by 3.6″. They were held together by a ring with a seal containing the emblem of a fish flanked on the sides by an aṅkuśa and the crescent moon. The first and third plates are written on one side only, containing respectively ten and nine lines, while the second plate has eleven lines on the first and ten on the second side. There are thus altogether forty lines of writing. The plates, together with the ring, weigh 150 tolas, the ring alone weighing 35½ tolas. The ring was cut when the plates were received for examination. The characters belong to the variety of the North Indian alphabet normally used in the Orissan inscriptions of the tenth and eleventh centuries A. D. The language is Sanskrit and the inscription is written throughout in prose. It abounds in mistakes both of grammar and spelling. The use of medial ī for i and s for ś seems to be almost a regular feature, though both medial i and ś are occasionally used. The word vṛiksha is written as vrīkha (line 31) and vṛikha and vrīksha (line 29), though the correct form vṛiksha is used in line 27. The nasal is often changed into anusvāra before a consonant (lines 9, 10, 24). Among other peculiarities may be mentioned the use of vada for bda (lines 8, 15-16).
The inscription records the grant of the village of Māḍagrāma in the Bhīlāṅgā bhōga in favour of two persons. The boundaries of the village are given in detail. The donor is Rāṇaka Bhīmakhēḍi, son of Mahāmāṇḍalika Rāṇaka Dharmakhēḍi of the Kadamba family and feudatory of Paramabhaṭṭāraka Paramēśvara Śrī-Dēvēndravarman of the Gaṅga dynasty. Both the feudatory and the suzerain are called Paramamāhēśvara or devotee of Śiva, and the grant was made in Śaka 988 from Dantapura (written as Dantāpura).[1] The record concludes with the usual imprecatory verses. The suzerain as well as the feudatory rulers mentioned in the record are known from several other grants. Two of these deserve special mention, viz. the Santa-Bommali[2] and Mandasa plates[3] of Dharmakhēḍi. The inscription begins with the usual description, first of the ruling Gaṅga king residing at Kaliṅganagara and paying devotions to Gōkarṇṇasvāmin established on the Mahēndra mountain, and then of the feudatory ruler of the Kadamba dynasty. The first fifteen lines of the present grant agree, almost word for word, with only slight deviations here and there, with the first fifteen lines of the Mandasa plates. The rulers named and the place of issue are, however, different. The present grant was issued from Dantapura[1] by the Kadamba feudatory Bhīmakhēḍi, son of Dharmakhēḍi, whose suzerain was the Gaṅga ruler Dēvēndravarman. The Mandasa plates, however, refer to the Gaṅga king Anantavarman and the Kadamba feudatory Dharmakhēḍi, son of Bhīmakhēḍi,[4] who issued the grant from Jayantyāpura. The Santa-Bommali plates (Simhipura grant) were issued during the reign of Dēvēndravarman, son of Anantavarman, by Dharmakhēḍi, son of Bhīmakhēḍi. The introductory ______________________________________________________________
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