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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
Some of the usual imprecatory and benedictory stanzas (verses 24-34) are quoted in lines 40-58, with a similar passage in prose in lines 45-50. The date when the charter was written is given
in words and figures in lines 58-60. It is stated in lines 60-63 that the document was written by
Sugata, son of Ajita who had been the Sāndhivigrahika (minister for war and peace) of
Dhruvarāja, with the cognisance of Vathaiya, a Dhruva of Saṁyāna, and under orders from
Sugatipa who received instructions in this matter from Paramēśvara Paramabhaṭṭāraka
Mahārājādhirāja Nityavarshadēva (Indra III) meditating on the feet of his predecessor
Akālavarshadēva (Kṛishṇa II). As in many other records of the kind, the document is
stated to be authoritative even if here and there a letter was omitted from it or unnecessarily
put in tit. Verse 35 prays for the continuous rule of the chief Sugatipa, represented as the
donor of the village of Kāṇāḍuka together with half a Dhura of land at Dēvīhara, and for the
rehabilitation of Annaiya (Annammaiya), Rēvaṇa and Kautuka, apparently after their death, in
the mountainous abode of the gods (i.e. on the Sumēru), through the grace of the Dēvī. This
Dēvī is no other than Bhāgavatī Daśamī who is mentioned in line 30 and whose image was installed
in the maṭhikā constructed by Annaiya or Annammaiya at Saṁyāna. The mention of Rēvaṇa
and Kautuka along with Annaiya (Annammaiya) in this stanza suggests that they were also
responsible for the construction of the temple and the installation of the Dēvī in it. Indeed
the other inscription from the same place, edited below, seems to refer to the said maṭhikā
as built by Kautuka alone. This may have been due to the fact that Annaiya and Rēvaṇa
were the younger brothers of Kautuka. The last stanza (verse 36) of the inscription contains the
prayer that the charter might last for ever through the grace of the Dēvī. There is a
benedictory passage of the usual type at the end of the record in line 67.
The inscription raises several interesting points, the most important among them being
its date. It shows beyond doubt that the Rāshṭrakūṭa king Indra III surnamed Ntiyavarsha
ruled at least down to April 926 A.D. The Nausari plates[1] of Indra III record a grant made
on the occasion of his paṭṭa-bandh-ōtsava, or festival of coronation, on the 24th February
915 A.D. The Dandapur inscription[2] of the 23rd December 918 A.D., referring to the reign
of Prabhūavarsha (Gōvinda IV, son of Indra III), led scholars to believe that Indra III died
before that date, even though the Cambay plates[3] of Gōvinda IV were issued on the occasion
of his own coronation (paṭṭa-bandha) on the 10th May, 930 A.D. In The Rashṭrakūṭas
and their Times published in 1934,. Prof. A. S. Altekar suggested that Indra died in 917 A.D.,[4]
although Sewell’s The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India, published two years earlier,
refers to Nos. 271-72 of 1918, dated 922 A.D., as belonging to the reign of Nityavarsha Indra
III.[5] But, some years later, R. S. Panchamukhi and A. S. Ramanatha Ayyar referred to
certain inscriptions of Indra III, the latest of which (from Kamalāpuram in the Cuddapah
District) is dated the 23rd of December 925 A.D.[6] They also suggested that the Haḷeritti
inscription of Nityavarsha Nirupama-Vallabha, dated December 927 A.D., also belongs to the
same Rāshṭrakūṭa monarch. But none of the stone inscriptions quoted by Panchamukhi
and Ayyar gives the genealogy of the king. Some of these inscriptions mention the king
under his biruda Nityavarsha and it was sometimes believed that Gōvinda IV was also called
Nityavarsha like his father.[7] Thus the inscription under study, which not only quotes a
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[1] Ind. Ant., Vol. XII, p. 253.
[2] Ibid., p. 222.
[3]Above, Vol. VII, pp. 27 ff.
[4] Op. cit., p. 105.
[5] Ibid., pp. 43, 383-84.
[6] Annual Report on Kannada Research in Bombay Province, 1939-40, pp. 35 ff. ; above, Vol. XXVI, p. 162.
[7] A. R. Ep., 1916, para. 38 ; ARASI, 1920-30, p. 173 ; ibid., 1930-34, Part I, p. 235. Even in a recent
publication, Prof. A. S. Altekar suggests that Indra III died in 922 A.D. (cf. The Age of Imperial Kanauj, ed.
Majumdar, 1955, p. 13).
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