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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA The following six stanzas (verses 61-66) describe the activities of Anayasiṁha, the son of Salakhaṇa and the donor of the grant. He is stated to have built a temple for the god Śiva and excavated a tank at Dēvapālapura. This locality seems to have been named after the Paramāra king Dēvapāla who succeeded Arjunavarman. Another temple was built by him at Śākapura for the goddess Ambikā. This locality may have been the headquarters of the Pargana called Śākapura-pratijāgaraṇaka which is mentioned in the Piplianagar plates[1] of Arjunavarman. Anayasiṁha also built a temple for the god Jambukēśvara Śiva in the vicinity of the Ōṅkāra (i.e. Ōṅkārēśvara) temple and excavated a tank near the former. In the fort of Maṇḍapa, he excavated a tank and granted in favour of Brāhmaṇas, with the king’s permission, a purī or township having a surrounding wall, a gate, a big shrine and a pond and containing 16 temples endowed with golden jars [forming their pinnacles]. This purī is apparently the Brahmapurï at Maṇḍapadurga, mentioned as the habitation of the Brāhmaṇa donees of the grant under discussion and already referred to above. Similar pious works were also done by Anayasiṁha at Māṇdhātṛi-durga.
The earlier part of the inscription before the introduction of the feudatory family of the Chāhamānas, to which the donor Anayasiṁha belonged, may be divided into two sections, the first containing invocation to various deities and the second the genealogy of the Imperial Paramāras of Malwa. The first section begins with the Praṇava and a passage in prose in adoration to Dharma described as purush-ārtha-chūḍāmaṇi. The same invocation is found in several other grants of the Paramāra kings.[2] The above is followed by eleven stanzas (verses 1-11) in adoration of the following deities : ‘ the lord of sacrificers ’, i.e. the Moon-god (verse 1) who is similarly invoked at the beginning of some other Paramāra charters ;[3] Rāma, i.e. Paraśurāma (verse 2) ; Rāma, i.e. Rāma Dāśarathi (verse 3) ; Puradruh, i.e. Śiva (verse 4) ; Śarva having eight forms, i.e. Śiva (verse 5) ; Ōṅkāra (verse 6), identical with Paśupati or Śiva and having his temple on the bank of the Rēvā or Narmadā (verse 7), the description of the shrine near the junction of the Rēvā and the Kāvērī being continued in the following stanza (verse 8) ; Kaiṭabhajir or Vishṇu in his Boar incarnation (verse 10) ; and Pitāmaha, i.e. Brahman (verse 11). The said section is followed by the mythical account of the origin of the Paramāra dynasty. Verse 12 relates how the god Brahman created out of his own mind the Seven Sages, one of whom was Vasishṭha. The next stanza (verse 13) refers to the quarrel between Vasishṭha and Kauśika, i.e. Viśvāmitra, wellknown from the epics and Purāṇas, while verse 14 states how Vasishṭha created out of his sacrificial fire-pit a hero named Paramāra for punishing his foes (i.e. Viśvāmitra’s forces) who were the enemies of Dharma. Verse 15 says that this Paramāra was the progenitor of a royal family [bearing his name]. This mythical account of the origin of the Paramāras is first noticed in records of the eleventh century[4] when it seems to have been fabricated. The myth has been interpreted to mean that the Paramāras were Hinduised foreigners of the Hūṇa-Gurjara stock.[5] The theory is of course not disproved by the evidence of the Harsola plates,[6] according to which Bappaïrāja (Vākpatirāja I) was descended from the family of the Rāshṭrakūṭa king Akālavarsha Kṛishṇa III (939-66 A.D.), since this apparently refers to Bappaïrāja’s relations with the Rāshṭrakūṭa house on his mother’s side as otherwise, if the Paramāras were direct des- ____________________________________________
[1] JASB, Vol. V, 1836, pp. 377-82.
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