South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

curve open to the right, e.g. pūjā-pūjita in line 72, and sometimes by a horizontal stroke slanting to the right ; e.g. bhūmi in line 60. The forms of ru and rū may be noted in ruchirō in line 8 and rūpaṁ in line 24. Medial ē or ō is shown either by a short vertical or a slanting downward stroke to the left of the top mātrā of a letter or by a slanting line cut on its head. The letters are generally uniform ; but k, v, p, etc., have different forms. The letter n has two forms, one North Indian and the other South Indian.

The language of the inscription is Sanskrit which is not accurate in all cases. Sometimes ś is used for s and vice versa. In certain places, anusvāra is used for final n (cf. ºmānakāṁ for mānakān in line 46). Attention may also be drawn to the use of tṛi for tri (line 6) and gri for gṛi (line 12). There are instances of short vowels being used for long ones and vice versa. As an example of metathesis may be cited jaga for gaja in line 23.

Some discrepancy is noticed in the date as recorded in lines 55-58 of the inscription. The Śaka year, given both in words and in figures, is 726 according to the former and 725 according to the latter. A lunar eclipse is stated to have occurred on the full moon of Kārttika during the year in question. According to Pillai’s Indian Ephemeris, there was a lunar eclipse on the full-moon day of Kārttika in the expired Śaka year 725. There was no eclipse on Kārttika paurṇimā of the preceding and following few years. The Śaka year intended here was therefore 725 (expired).^[1] The corresponding Christian date is the 2nd November 803 A.D.

The plates were issued by the Rāshṭrakūṭa king Gōvinda III from his victorious camp on the bank of the river Tuṅgabhadrā near Alaṁpura. The genealogy of the king recounted here is the same as in his other copper-plate grants, viz. Gōvinda I ; his son Karkka I ; his son Indra ; his son Dantidurga ; his uncle Kṛishṇa, son of Karkka I ; his son Gōvinda II ; his younger brother Dhruva ; and his son Gōvinda III, the donor of the present charter. In line 45 he is referred to as Śrī-Vallabha-narēndradēva.

The introductory stanzas are mostly the same as in the Paiṭhaṇ plates^[2] of Śaka 716, except that verses 20, 24 and 27 of the present plates do not occur in the latter and that verses 24, 26 and 27 of the Paiṭhaṇ plates do not occur in the present record. An interesting point to be noted is that verses 20 and 21 of the Paiṭhaṇ plates, which do not occur in any previous records of the Rāshṭrakūṭas, are found in the present plates (verses 21-22). Verse 24 of the present inscription is not found in any other charter.

Although the present inscription contains no new facts about the genealogy of the Rāshṭrakūṭas, it is useful for elucidating the time of the southern campaigns of Gōvinda III. According to our epigraph the king was camping on the bank of the Tuṅgabhadrā near Alaṁpura on the 2nd November 803 A.D. According to the Sanjan plates^[3] which describe the exploits of Gōvinda III, this king is stated to have launched an offensive against the Draviḍa kings after his campaigns in the north. While engaged in this southern expedition, he was encamped at Hēlāpura. In the other records of Gōvinda III, he is said to have spent the rainy season at Śrībhavana after his northern expedition and thence proceeded to the banks of Tuṅgabhadrā.

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^[1] In most of the charters issued by Gōvinda III the Śaka year mentioned is expired and the system followed is the northern luni-solar one. Sometimes the Śaka year is a current one, though it is said to be an expired one, as in the present plates. Besides this grant, there are two more records in which the date is mentioned as above. They are the Wāni-Diṇḍōri plates (Ind. Ant., Vol. XI, p. 159) and the Bahulāwāḍ plates (Sources of the Medieval History of the Deccan, Vol. II. p. 21). In the present charter, notwithstanding the expression Śaka-nṛipa-kāl-ātīta, the year 726 has to be taken as current, the year intended being 725 (expired).
^[2] Above, Vol. III, pp. 103 ff.
^[3] Ibid Vol. XVIII, pp. 235 ff.