South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

Inscription^[1] (V.S. 1345=1288 A.D.) of Chāhamāna Hammīra (c. 1233-1301 A.D.) of Raṇastambhapura. Hammīra is stated to have defeated Arjuna in battle and wrested the glory of Mālava by force.^[2]

According to lines 128 ff., the four villages, having well-defined boundaries, were granted as a permanent endowment together with trees, house, house-sites, granaries and threshing floors, tala-bhēdhyā (pits ?) and cow-sheds. The donees’ rights included certain taxes payable by the tenants in kind and described as handfuls of Vegetables, small measures of oil and vesselfuls of liquids or grains. They were granted the right over objects grown in the space above the earth and treasures and deposits under the ground as well as over temples, gardens, tanks, step-wells, wells, etc. They were further allowed to enjoy taxes in cash, periodical offerings and the customary share of grains, and also the tax on temporary tenants as well as other incomes including fines. But the donees were not allowed to have any right over any part of the land already in the possession of gods and Brāhmaṇas. The Paṭṭakilas and villagers were ordered to pay to the donees the usual share of the produce, periodical offerings and taxes in cash as well as to obey their orders. Some of the ordinary imprecatory and benedictory stanzas are quoted in lines 134-38. According to verse 72 in line 139, the writer of the charter was Śrīkaṇṭha who was a courtier of king Jayavarman. The document was engraved by Rūpakāra (artisan) Kānhāka who may be the same as Kānhāḍa, the engraver of the Māndhātā plates of V.S. 1317 (1261 A.D.), issued by the same king.

The following geographical names are mentioned in the inscription : (1) Rēvā, i.e. the river Narmadā ; (2) Kāvērī, a branch of the Narmadā ; (3) Māndhāṭri of Māndhātṛi-durga, i.e. modern Māndhātā ; (4) Dhārā, i.e. modern Dhār ; (5) Bhaillasvāmipura, i.e. modern Bhīlsā ; (6) the Vindhya mountain range ; (7) Dākshiṇātya, apparently meaning the dominions of the Yādavas of Dēvagiri ; (8) Dēvapālapura, probably modern Dipalpur, 27 miles to the north-west of Mhow ; (9) Śākapura probably the headquarters of a Pratijāgaraṇaka or Pargana of the same name identified by some with the present Shujalpur Pargana ;^[3] (10) Maṇḍapa-durga, i.e. modern Māṇḍū ; (11) Vardhanāpura-pratijāgaraṇaka ; (12) Kumbhaḍāuda-grāma ; (13) Vālauda-grāma ; (14) Saptāśīti-pratijāgaraṇaka, literally ‘a Pargana consisting of 87 villages’ ; (15) Vaghāḍī-grāma ; (16) Nāgadahapratigaraṇaka, a Pargana probably having its headquarters at Nagdah near Ujjain ; (17) Nāṭiyā-

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^[1] Bhandarkar’s List, No. 623.
^[2] The successor of Arjunavarman II on the Paramāra throne seems to have been Bhōja II. According to the Hammīramahākāvya of Nayachandra, Chāhamāna Hammīra of Raṇastambhapura also defeated king Bhōja of Dhārā, encamped at Ujjayinī and worshipped Mahākāla (Ind. Ant., Vol. VIII, pp. 64-65). The Muslim writers speak of one Kōkā (sometimes called Haranand), the Rājā of Malwa, who was defeated by ‘ Alāuddīn Khaljī in 1305, A.D. (Tarikh-i-Firishta, Briggs’ trans., Vol. I, pp. 361-62 ; Ray, op. cit., pp. 907-08). In an inscription of V.S. 1496 (Bhandarkar’s List, No. 784) the same ruler is called Gōgādeva, king of Mālava, who was defeated by Guhila Lakshmasiṁha, a contemporary of the Khaljī Sultān. Kōkā thus appears to have been either identical with or a contemporary of Bhōja II. Wassāf, who wrote his Taziyatul Amsār in 1300 A.D., says : “ It may be about thirty years previous to may laying the foundation of this book that the king of Malwa died and dissension arose between his son and minister. After long hostilities and much slaughter, each of them acquired possession of part of that country ” (Elliot and Dowson, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 31). It is not impossible that the king of Malwa and his son referred to here are Arjunavarman II and Bhōja II. In such a case, Kōkā may be the minister who became the king of a part of Malwa at the time of Bhōja II during whose reign Wassāf seems to have written his book Muslim authors sometimes call Kōkā a Pradhān of king Mahlak Deo of Malwa (Elliot and Dowson op. cit., p. 76). This Mahlak Deo may have been the successor of Bhōja II. He was probably succeeded by Jayasiṁha whose Udaypur inscription (Bhandarkar’s List, No. 661) is dated in V.S. 1366 (1310 A.D.). But Jayasiṁha must have been ruling over a part of the country, its other parts then being in the hands of the Muslim conquerors.
^[3] Ganguly, op. cit., p. 201.