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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
this characteristic is noticed only in the Rēyūru grant of Narasiṁhavarman II and not even in
the Kurram plates of Paramēśvaravarman I who issued the present charter. The records of the
early rulers of the Later Pallava house (i.e. the branch represented by Siṁhavishṇu and his descendants) are mostly on stone. The only copper-plate grants of this house, issued by rulers who
flourished before Nandivarman Pallavamalla (a descendant of Bhīmavarman, brother of Siṁhavishṇu), are only three in number, viz. the Kuram plates and the present record belonging to Paramēśvaravarman I and the Rēyūru grant of Narasiṁhavarman II. Of these, the Kurram plates bear
close affinity in respect of the script and style with the grants of Nandivarman Pallavamalla such
as the Udayendiram and Kasakudi plates.[1] It is an elaborate praśasti written in Sanskrit prose
and verse and Tamil prose and in the Grantha and Tamil alphabets and contains, besides the
details of the grant, three lengthy sections, viz. an invocation, a legendary account of the origin
of the Pallavas and a description of the issuer of the charter and his ancestors. The style of the
present record as well as of the Rēyūru grant, on the other hand, is, like that of the Sanskrit charters of the Early Pallavas, much simpler. Many of the passages occurring in the Early Pallava
grants have been used in these two records without any modification or with slight modification.[2]
The same or similar epithets applied to different rulers in different records would suggest that the
officers who drafted the documents were scarcely very scrupulous about the accuracy of statement.
The number of epithets used with reference to the donor and his ancestors in the present record is
smaller than in the Rēyūru grant.
As in the case of the Rēyūru grant and many of the Sanskrit charters of the Early Pallavas
the inscription begins with the auspicious word svasti followed by the maṅgala : jitaṁ Bhagavatā,
“ Victorious is the Lord ”. The next passage refers to the issue of the charter from Kāñchīpura.
Then (lines 1-2) the Pallava family, to which the donor of the charter belonged, is introduced
as belonging to the Bhāradvāja gōtra and as having performed many sacrifices including the
Aśvamēdha. As in many Early Pallava charters, this no doubt refers to the horse-sacrifice
celebrated by two of the Early Pallava kings, viz. Śivaskandavarman and Kumāravishṇu.[3] In
lines 2-10, the donor of the grant, king Paramēśvaravarman I, is introduced as the son of
Mahēndravikramavarman (i.e. Mahēndravarman II, circa 668-69 A.D.), the grandson of Narasiṁhavarman I (circa 630-68 A.D.) and the great-grandson of Mahēndravarman I (circa 600-30
A.D.). The epithets sva-vīry-ādhigata-rājya, pratāp-ōpanata-rāja-maṇḍala, madhyama-lōka-pāla
and lōka-pālānām=pañchama, applied in the present record to Mahēndravarman I, are used with
reference to his grandson Mahēndravikramavarman or Mahēndravarman II in the Rēyūru grant
and in connection with some other rulers in the Early Pallava charters. It is difficult to believe
that all the rulers called sva-vīry-ādhigata-rājya succeeded in adding any territory to their paternal
kingdom ; but the epithet seems to suit Mahēndravarman I (son of Siṁhavishṇu) better than his
grandson of the same name. We do not agree with the view[4] that the epithets madhyama-lōka-pāla and lōka-pālānām=pañchama refer to the god Varuṇa. As we have elsewhere[5] shown, the
four Lōka-pālas or the guardians of the four different quarters were Yama, Varuṇa, Kubēra and
Vāsava,[6] and the king’s description as the fifth Lōka-pāla means to say that he was a protector of
the earth like those divine guardians of the quarters. In classical Sanskrit literature also the
king is often called madhyama-lōka-pāla or protector of the central world (i.e. the earth bounded
by the four quarters guarded by the Lōka-pālas).[7]
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[1] Ind. Ant., Vol. VIII, pp. 273 ff. ; SII, Vol. II, pp. 342 ff.
[2] Cf. above, Vol. XXIX, p. 91.
[3] See The Successors of the Sātavāhanas, pp. 189, 201, 206.
[4] Above, Vol. XXIX, p. 95, note 9.
[5] The Successors of the Sātavāhanas, p. 196.
[6] Hopkins, Epic Mythology, p. 149 ; Daṇḍin’s Kāvyādarśa, II, 331 ; Lüders’ List, No. 1112. For the four
Lōkapālas of the Buddhists, see Childers’ Pali Dictionary, s.v. mahārājā.
[7] Cf. Raghuvaṁśa, II, 16. Madhyama-lōka may also mean the earth lying between the heaven and the lower
world.
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