South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

(son of Harshavarman) and the son of the younger of the two brothers named Chakra and Arathi. Bhattacharya also suggested that Āratha (son of Arathi) was succeeded by Prālambha (father of Harjaravarman), the name of both of whom were read in the Tezpur plates^[1] of Vanamālavarman (son of Harjaravarman), Prālambha being represented there as the successor of Śrīharsha (i.e. Harshavarman) of the Sālastambha dynasty. But as we have suggested elsewhere,^[2] Vanamālavarman’s charters really speak of Sālambha as the successor of Śrīharsha and of his younger brother Arathi as the father and predecessor of Harjaravarman. We have also suggested that Chakra was possibly another name of Sālambha and that the name of Harshavarman’s son Balavarman is omitted in Vanamālavarman’s record probably because he was succeeded by Sālambha after a short rule. It seems that Balavarman, son of Harshavarman, was overthrown by Sālambha and that the usurper and his descendants did not recognise his claim to the throne. Thus we have the following names of the rulers of the Sālastambha dynasty from Sālastambha to Harjaravarman : (1) Sālastambha, (2) Vijaya, son of Sālastambha, (3) Pālaka, (4) Kumāra, (5) Vajradēva, (6) Śrīharsha or Harshavarman, (7) Balavarman, son of Harshavarman, (8) Chakra alias Sālambha, (9) Arathi and (10) Harjaravarman, son of Arathi. It is difficult to determine whether some other kings of the family also ruled between Sālastambha and Harjaravarman and whether their names are either omitted from or undecipherable in the Haiyungthal plate.

Verses 12-25 of the inscription under study describe the three kings Vanamāla (verses12-14), Jayamāla alias Vīrabhāhu (verses 15-18) and Balavarman (verses 19-25), the donor of the charter, as respectively the son, grandson and great-grandson of Harjara. It is stated in verses 16-17 that Vanamāla, who was a devotee of the god Mahēśvara or Śiva and built numerous palatial structures beautified with paintings, starved himself to death after having bestowed the white umbrella adorned with two fly-whisks (i.e. the insignia of royalty) on his son Jayamāla (called Vīrabāhu in verse 18), while verse 18 states that Vīrabāhu (i.e. Jayamāla) married Ambā (who gave birth to the donor of the grant under study) some time after his accession to the throne. Verse 21 shown that Jayamāla Vīrabāhu installed his son Balavarman on the throne when in course of time he was incapable of carrying on the administration owing to the attack of an incurable disease. Verse 25 says that Balavarman’s ancestral kaṭaka or capital stood on the Lauhitya.

King Balavarman of Kāmarūpa, who issued the charter under study, was the second king of the name in the Sālastambha family. Since, however, there was another Balavarman (about the beginning of the fifth century) in the Bhauma-Nāraka dynasty of Kāmarūpa^[3] and Sālastambha is represented in the records of his successors, even if wrongly, as a descendant of Naraka, Balavarman, donor of the present grant, may be designated as Balavarman III. The king of the same name, who was the son of Śrīharsha or Harshavarman, may be called Balavarman II, while Balavarman of the Bhauma-Nāraka dynasty may be regarded as Balavarman I.

The names of the three monarchs mentioned in verses 12 ff., when added to the list of the ten rulers from Sālastambha to Harjaravarman, would give us only thirteen kings of the Sālastambha dynasty. Only two other rulers of this family, viz. Vigrahastambha and Tyāgasiṁha, are known from Ratnapāla’s charters referred to above. Thus we know the names of fifteen out of the twentyone rulers of the dynasty. Since Tyāgasiṁha’s successor Brahmapāla seems to have ruled about the beginning of the eleventh century, most of the six rulers, whose names are missing, appear to have ruled in the period of about a century intervening between Balavarman III (about the close of the ninth and the beginning of the tenth century) and Tyāgasiṁha (beginning

__________________________________________________

^[1] Ibid., pp. 54 ff.
^[2] Above, Vol. XXIX, p. 149 and note 4.
^[3] Ibid. Vol. XXX, p. 66.