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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA only discrepancy is that the name of the father of Nannaraja of the Berar records is given as Svamikaraja, while that of ?a??appa is mentioned as Bhamana ; but this discrepancy can be solved by assuming that Bhamana was the biruda of Svamikaraja and that, in the metrical composition of the present record (verse 4), the biruda suited the exigencies of the metre better than the name. Nannaraja would thus become identical with ?a??appa, appa being the Kanna?a honorific attached to the name ?a??a or Nanna.[1] If this identification be accepted, it will show that Rash?raku?a Nannaraja or ?a??appa reigned from 693 to 712 A. D. and that his rule extended from Berar in the south to Malwa in the north. But from the undated U??ikava?ika grant[2] of Rash?raku?a Abhimanyu we know of another Rash?raku?a family ruling in circa seventh century A. D. over the Hoshanagabad-Mhow region which falls between Berar and Malwa.[3] How could two ruling families hold sway over the same region simultaneously ? The difficultly is resolved by assuming that either the two Rash?raku?a families were friendly and had agreed to have concurrent jurisdiction over the Mhow-Hoshangabad region or the two families were mutually at war trying to grab each other’s territory. It is, however, more probable that the family of Abhimanyu had already passed out of the stage before the rise, in circa 693 A. D., of Nannaraja-?a??appa who could thus hold undisputed sway over the region extending from Berar in the south-east to Malwa in the north-west.
We have one more inscription mentioning Nannaraja from Berar, viz. Nagardhan plates[4] of Svamiraja, dated in the year 322 of an unspecified era. These plates were issued from Nandivardhana by Nannaraja, brother of the reigning princes Svamiraja and differ from the other Berar plates of Nannaraja not only in respect of palaeography, but also in leaving the era as well as the name of the dynasty unspecified and in called Nannaraja a brother of Svamiraja instead of a son of Svamikaraja. As the year 322 of the record has been shown[5] to refer to 573 A. D., this grant antedates the Multai and Sangalooda plates by over a century, thus indicating that Nannaraja of the Nagardhan plates was different from Nannaraja of the other Berar plates. The similarity of the names and the identity of territory, however, may show that Nannaraja and Svamiraja of the Nagardhan plates were probably earlier members of the same family. If this view is accepted, we have to conclude that Nandivardhana (modern Nagardhan near Ramtek, Nagpur District), the place of issue of the Nagardhan plates, was the earlier capital of the family. Their capital was subsequently shifted to Achalapura (modern Ellichpur) which is prominently mentioned in literature as well as in the spurious Tiwarkhed plates. Padmanagara, the place of issue of the Sangalooda plates, has been identified with Padmin near the town of Akola.[6] It appears to have been an important town in the time of Nannaraja-?a??appa, if not the new political seat of the family. Nanna appears to have been a popular name among the Rash?raku?as and Rash?raku?a chiefs bearing this name are also known from other inscriptions. One Nanna Gu?avaloka is mentioned as the grandfather of Rash?raku?a Tu?ga Dharmavaloka in the latter’s Bodhgaya stone inscription,[7] dated in the year 15 of a regnal reckoning. Nanna Gu?avaloka of this inscription, which is palaeographically assignable to circa 9th century A. D., is obviously not the same as Nanna of _________________________________________________________
[1] [The identification does not appear to be supported by any evidence besides the contemporaneity of the
two chiefs bearing similar names.- Ed.]
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