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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA in all the cases. It is interesting to note that the reign of Amōghavarsha II has been recognised in the record.[1] About the reigning monarch Kṛishṇa III, verse 10 says that he conquered certain enemies even when he was a crown-prince, while verse 11 enumerates the following as bowing down to his feet : the Pāṇḍyas, Ōḍras, Siṁhalas, Chōlas and Pārasīkas, the Andhra king, the Draviḍas, Varvaras and Tajjikas, and the Vaṁkīṇas, Hūṇas, Khasas, Gūrjaras and Mālavīyas. The success of Kṛishṇa III against the Pāṇḍyas, Siṁhalas, Chōlas and Gūrjaras (i.e. the Gurjara-Prathihāras of Kanauj[2]) is referred to in some of his records.[3] The name Draviḍa seems to have been applied to the Pallavas. A Pallava king named Aṇṇiga is known to have been subdued by him.[4] The Mālavīyas were probably the Paramāras who owed allegiance to him.[5] The Tajjikas (i.e. Tājikas) were the Arabs, some of whom, as we have seen above, were serving under the Rāshṭrakūṭa kings, while the Pārasīkas or Persians appear to be the Parsees who had settled at places like Sanjan in the western coast land forming a part of the Rāshṭrakūṭa empire.[6] The king’s relations with the remaining peoples mentioned in the verse are not known from other source.
Verses 12-14 speak of the god Bhillamāladēva, also called Madhusūdana (i.e. Vishṇu), worshipped at the unspecified place whence the charter was issued. The deity is stated to have been installed by the descendants of the merchants of Bhillamāla which is the modern Bhinmāl in the Jodhpur region of Rajasthan. Verses 15-19 state that, at the same place, there was another maṭhikā, i.e. monastery or temple, which had been constructed by Kautuka and at the gate of which the goddess called Bhagavatī had been installed for worship. It is clear that the god Bhillamāladēva alias Madhusūdana was installed in the temple standing near another made by Kautuka for the Mother-goddess. There is little doubt that Kautuka’s maṭhikā enshrining Bhagavatī was the religious institution built by Annaiya (Annamaiya), Kautuka and Rēvaṇa at Saṁyāna and that the goddess is no other than Bhagavatī Daśamī installed in it, both mentioned in the grant of the time of Indra III, edited above. Verse 19 of the record under study refers to the Anagha-parshad (called Mahā-parshad in line 35) in connection with the goddess and this is apparently the Ārya-dēśīyā Mahā-parshad or Pañcha-Gauḍīya-mahā-parshad of Saṁyāna mentioned in the other epigraph. The following section in prose in lines 35 ff. records a vyavasthā which means ‘a legal decision in a dispute’ in the present context. It is very interesting to note that, in this case, the decision emanates from a deity and his attendants and not from any judicial or administrative authority. In this respect, the inscription under study offers a peculiar instance. It is stated that a vyavasthā based on an order was offered to the maṭhikā (i.e. the monastery or temple of the goddess) and the svādhayāyikas or scholars belonging to the Mahā-parshad attached to it by the god Bhillamāladēva and his vārikas. The word vārika is known to have been used in the sense of ‘an official’ and, in the present context, it no doubt means a priest or Paṇḍā of the temple of Bhillamāladēva at Saṁyāna.[7] Apparently the decision of the temple authorities was passed as the order of the god ; but whether any device was adopted to convince the people that it was really the will of the god is uncertain. The terms of the vyavasthā, which follow, were that the maṭhikā of the goddess should pay forty dramas to the god Bhillamāladēva and his vārikas as śrōtaka for ______________________________________________
[1] Cf. Bomb. Gaz., Vol. I, part ii, p.416, note 5. The fact that Amōghavarsha II obtained the throne is also recognised in some other records of Kṛishṇa III (cf. above, Vol. IV, p. 283, verse 18-19)
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