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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA from Gauḍa-dēśa.[1] Then follows a section in prose which, after stating that the record was engraved by one Chāmuṇḍasōma, furnishes details of the endowments made in favour of the temple. This section, written in faulty and ungrammatical Sanskrit, was obviously drafted by a person other than the one who composed the beautiful verses ; but the entire record appears to have been engraved by the same hand. The date of the record is expressed in words (verses 13-14 in lines 13-14). It is stated that the temple was constructed during winter when seven hundred years exceeded by sixty-seven of the [era of the] world-famous Mālava kings had elapsed. Year 767 of the Mālava (Vikrama) era corresponds to 710-11 A.D. The object is to record the construction of a temple of Śiva by the Pāśupata ascetic Dānarāśi. It is obviously represented by the excavated ruins of the temple that yielded the inscription. The inscription also records the endowments made to Guhēśvara,[2] which appears to be the name of the deity enshrined in the temple, by Dēullikā, Takshullikā and Bhōginikā, daughters of one Kumāra of the Prāgvāṭa caste. The endowments included a house situated near the street in the western part of the fort which may be identified with the fort of Indragaḍh existing in ruins on the hill adjoining the site.[3]
The inscription is interesting in various ways. Firstly, it provides epigraphic evidence of the antiquity of the Indragaḍh site. Secondly, it furnishes the names of two Pāśupata teachers, Vinītarāśi and his disciple Dānarāśi who built the Śiva temple at Indragaḍh. Incidentally it proves the existence of the Pāśupata sect of Śaivism in Malwa during the early medieval period. Thirdly, by showing that the city was charged with the responsibility of carrying out repairs to the shrine and maintaining worship therein, the inscription throws light on one of the latest of the ancient city administration. Fourthly, this record dated in the year 767, supplies the latest date in ‘the Mālava era’ to be found in Malwa, which is 178 years later than the Mandasaur inscription of Yaśōdharman Vishṇuvardhana of the Mālava year 589.[4] Fifthly, the name Ṇaṇṇappa, ending in the Kannaḍa honorific appa, affords another proof of the Kannaḍa origin of the Rāshṭrakūṭas.[5] But the importance of the inscription lies in the fact that it supplies the names of two new Rāshṭrakūṭa chiefs, viz. Ṇaṇṇappa and his father Bhāmāna. From the way the name of Ṇaṇṇappa is mentioned in the record it is plausible to conclude that he was the reigning prince of Malwa in Mālava year 767=710-11 A. D. Now a Rāshṭrakūṭa prince called Nannarāja is mentioned in the Multai plates[6] dated Śaka 631 (709-10 A. D.), Tiwarkhed plates[7] dated Śaka 553 (631-32 A. D.) and Sangalooda plates[8] dated Śaka 615 (693-94 A. D.). In these plates which all come from Berar, Nannarāja is called son of Svāmikarāja. Prof. Mirashi has shown the Tiwarkhed plates to be spurious.[9] The dates provided for Nannarāja by the Multai plates, viz. Śaka 631 (709-10 A. D.), and by the Sangalooda plates, viz. Śaka 615 (693-94 A. D.), come very close to the Mālava year 767 (710-11 A. D.) furnished by the present record and one is tempted to identify Rāshṭrakūṭa Nannarāja of the Berar plates with Rāshṭrakūṭa Ṇaṇṇappa of the present record. The ______________________________________________
[1] The stanza in question (verse 15) says that the pūrvā, i.e. the eulogy (cf. above, Vol. XXX, p. 123),
was composed by Durgāditya. In the epithet pūrvaja-pūjanā applied to pūrvā, the word pūrvaja has been used
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