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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA No. 5─ THREE GRANTS FROM CHINCHANI (3 Plates) D. C. SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND Two of the five copper-plate grants discovered at Chinchani in the Dahanu Taluk of the Thana District, Bombay, have been edited in the foregoing article. One of them pertains to the reign of king Indra III (915-28 A.D.) and the other to that of Kṛishṇa III (939-67 A. D.), both the rulers belonging to the Imperial Rāshṭrakūṭa dynasty of Mānyakhēṭa (Māḷkhēḍ). Of the three other copper-plate charters discovered at the same place, two were issued by a Mōḍha chief of Saṁyāna (Sanjan in the Thana District). The name of the family to which the issuer of the remaining charter from Chinchani belonged is not mentioned in the record ; but he was also a ruler of Saṁyāna and seems to have been a Mōḍha. The family name, viz. Mōḍha, associates these chiefs of Saṁyāna with the Brāhmaṇa and Bāniyā communities of the same name now residing in various parts of the Northern Konkan and its neighbourhood.[1] No ruler of this dynasty was known so far from any other source.[2] The three charters are dated respectively in Śaka 956 (1034 A.D.), Śaka 969 (1048 A.D.) and Śaka 975 (1053 A.D.). Before the inscriptions are taken up for discussion, a few words may be said about the circumstances leading to the rise of the Mōḍhas at Saṁyāna. We have seen above[3] how an Arab governor was ruling over the territorial division of Saṁyāna on behalf of the Rāshṭrakūṭa kings Kṛishṇa II (878-915 A.D.) and Indra III (915-27 A.D.). It is well known that the Śilāhāras claimed to be the rulers of the Northern Konkan with their capital at Purī since the days of Amōghavarsha I (814-80 A.D.).[4] The founder of the Śilāhāra house was Kapardin I whose son Pullaśakti (843-44 A.D.)[5] and grandson Kapardin II (851-78 A.D.)[6] are known to have enjoyed the title ‘ lord of the Konkan ’ or ‘ lord of the entire Konkan ’ as feudatories of the said Rāshṭrakūṭa monarch. The Śilāhāra inscriptions give the names of the following rulers of the family after Kapardin II : (1) his son Vappuvanna, (2-3) Vappuvanna’s sons Jhañjha and Gōggi, and (4) Gōggi’s son Vajjaḍa I. Little is known about these rulers, although Al Mas‘udi speaks about 916 A.D. of Jhañjha as governor of the Lār (Lāṭa) country and ___________________________________________
[1] See Bomb. Gaz., Vol. IX, part i, pp. 2-3, 11-12, for the Mōḍha Brāhmaṇas who are believed to have migrated
to Gujarat from Upper India, and for the town of Mōḍhērā (cf. also ibid., p. 72 ; Vol. VII, pp. 608-09) which is
supposed to have given the Mōḍhas their name. For the same sub-caste of the Brāhmaṇas in Kutch, Kathiawar,
Poona, Rewa Kantha and Thana, see respectively Vol. V, p. 45 ; Vol. VIII, p. 146 ; Vol. XVIII, part i, p. 163 ;
Vol. VI, pp. 23-24 ; and Vol. XIII, p. 80. For the Mōḍha Bāniās in Gujarat, Kutch, Kathiawar and Thana,
see respectively Vol. IX, part i, p. 72 ; Vol. V, p. 50 ; Vol. VIII, p. 148 ; and Vol. XIII, p. 112.
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