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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA in the family of Jīmūtavāhana ’. As in many other records of the Śilāhāra dynasty, Chhinturāja is credited with the banner bearing the golden Garuḍa and endowed with the titles Abhimānamahōdadhi and Śaraṇāgata-vajra-pañjara. As already pointed out above, Chhinturāja of our inscription is no other than the well-known king Chhittarāja of the Northern Konkan branch of the Śilāhāra family. Lines 4-6 speak of the Mahāmātya Nāgaṇaiya and the Mahāsāndhivigrahika Nāupyaiya, both of whom served under the Śilāhāra king and are already known to us,[1] and of Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara Chāmuṇḍarāja who was governing Saṁyāna-pattana, i.e. the town of Saṁyāna, granted to him by Chhinturāja. Besides the usual feudatory titles Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara, Samadhigatāśēsha-pañcha-mahāśabda and Mahāsāmantādhipati, Chāmuṇḍarāja is endowed in lines 7-9 with the titles Nija-bhuja-vikram-āditya, Sāhasa-chakravarttin, Lāṭa-prākāra-rāya-dhvaṁsaka, Tribhuvana-nīla and others. Among these, Lāṭa-prākāra-rāya-dhvaṁsaka seems to refer to Chāmuṇḍarāja’s success against some ruler or rulers of Lāṭa identified by scholars with the present Nausari-Broach region.
Lines 10-14 state that, while ruling over Saṁyāna, Chāmuṇḍarāja passed an order regarding a grant, to be made by him, to his subordinates and others including the elders (mukhya) of the haṁyamana (i.e. the Parsee community),[2] the courtiers and officials as well as the officers like Alliya, Mahara and Madhumata, the city elders named Śrēshṭhin Kēsarin, Suvarṇṇa and Kakkala, the merchants such as Uva, Suvarṇṇa and Sōmaiya, the district officer (vishayin) Vērthalaiya, the śālā-sthāna-mukhya Yājñikara, the district officials such as Kshita, Limbaiya, Vēlaiya and Kēsavaiya, and the members of the Mahā-parshad such as Agasti, Gavī, Sīluva, Bhāskara, Arjuna, Dinakara, Dēdē, Ārya, Sindūra, Ādityavarṇa, etc. Chāmuṇḍarāja’s officials called Alliya, Mahara and Madhumata appear to have been foreigners as the names are apparently of Arabic origin. The name Madhumata (Arabic Muḥammad) is found in the form Madhumati in the Chinchani plates of the time of Indra III, which apply it to a Tājika or Arab governor of the Rāshṭrakūṭa king, while a Tājiya (i.e. Tājika or Arab) officer of the Kadambas of Goa is known to have borne the name Madhumata.[3] Alliya appears to be the same as the well-known Arabic name ’Alī. Whether the word śāla in Śālā-sthāna-mukhya means ‘a stable’ is difficult to determine. The Mahā-parshad is no doubt the same as the Pañcha-Gauḍīya or Ārya-dēśīya Mahā-parshad of Saṁyāna mentioned in both the Chinchani epigraphs of the time of Indra III and Kṛishṇa III, edited above.[4] Lines 14-21 describes the object of the record which was the grant of a ghāṇaka or oil-mill, made by Chāmuṇḍarāja in favour of the Kautuka-maṭhikā, i.e. the temple or monastery built at Saṁyāna by Kautuka and others and known from the two Chinchani records of the time of the Rāshṭrakūṭa monarchs, referred to above. This section begins with the stanza Chalā vibhūtiḥ, etc., found in so many Śilāhāra records,[5] and is followed by the date already indicated above. The purpose of the grant was to burn a lamp in front of the Bhagavatī known from both the Chinchani inscriptions of the time of Indra III and Kṛishṇa III to have been worshipped in Kautuka’s maṭhikā at Saṁyāna, as well as for besmearing oil on the feet of the svādhyāyikas or scholars apparently belonging to the Mahā-parshad attached to the maṭhikā and of the Brāhmaṇa visitors __________________________________________________
[1] Both the officers are mentioned in Chhittarāja’s Berlin Museum plates. See ZDMG, Band 90, pp. 282-83
text lines 32 33). In the same king’s Bhandup plates (Ind. Ant., Vol. V, p. 278, text lines 6-7), the same passage
occurs ; but the name of the Mahasāndhivigrahika is quoted as Sīhapaiya whom Nāupaiya appears to have
succeeded.
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