South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

Mârassalba, under whom a certain Daḍigarasa was governing the district,─ meaning, of course, the district that included the village at which the records is ; the name of it is not specified.

The record is not dated. But the characters of it are fairly referable to closely about A.D. 800. And there can be no doubt that the person whom it mentions as Mârassalba is to be indentified with the Mârâśarva of a verse, used in the account of the Râshṭrakûṭa king Gôvinda III. in the Waṇî and Râdhanpur grants of A.D. 807,^[1] which runs :─“ Having heard, through his own spies, that he (Gôvinda III.) was encamped on a slope of the Vindhya mountains, and recognising that (though so far away) he had (practically) arrived at his own territory just if it were Dhruva (on a previous occasion), king Mârâśarva, impelled by fear, quickly went to satisfy his (Gôvinda’s) desires by (giving up) his choicest heir-looms, such as had never been amassed before, as well as to propitiate his feet by doing obeisance to them.” Further, we may safely take it that Mârassalba-Mârâśarva was, like the Kattiyara of the Diḍgûr inscription, one of the twelve confederate kings and princes headed by Stambha-Kambayya, who shortly after A.D. 794 sought to dispute the sovereignty of Gôvinda III.^[2] And, as the elephant, depicted so prominently on the stone, can hardly be taken as the emblem of the Daḍigarasa of the record, who was plainly a person of very minor rank and importance, we can only understand that it stamps Mârassalba-Mârâśarva as belonging to the family of the Western Gaṅgas of Taḷakâḍ.^[3] We shall have to consider hereafter who, exactly, Mârassalba may have been. He may be some member of the Gaṅga family whose existence the Mysore records have not yet disclosed. Or the name may possibly be another appellation of Śrîpurusha-Muttarasa, who in the course of his career did unquestionably find an opportunity to assume the paramount power and titles. Or it is possible that it may be the name from which, first by substituting the synonymous śiva for the śarva of its Sanskṛitised form, and then by metathesis, the persons who fabricated the spurious records of the Western Gaṅga series may have obtained the name Śivamâra II. as an alleged son of Śrîpurusha-Muttarasa.

In connection with the general history of the period, it is convenient to make here a note regarding the identification of a place which is mentioned in the verse in the Waṇî and Râdhanpur grants which comes next after the verse that mentions Mârassalba-Mârâśarva. The verse tells us that Gôvinda III. spent a rainy season at a place named Śrîbhavana, and then marched thence, with his army, to the Tuṅgabhadrâ, where he conquered and despoiled the Pallavas.^[4] Mr. Wathen was told that Śrîbhavana denotes “ Cowldurga, in Mysore, south of the river ;”^[5] that is say, apparently, Kavalêdurga, near the north bank of the Tuṅgâ, in the Tîrthahaḷḷi tâluka of the Shimoga district, about seven miles on the west of Tîrthahaḷḷi. Dr. Bühler felt certain that Śrîbhavana is not ‘ Cowldurga,’ but could not himself identify the place.^[6] Pandit Bhagwanlal Indraji proposed to identify Śrîbhavana with ‘ Sarbhon ’ in the

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^[1] Ind. Ant. Vol. XI. p. 158, text line 25 ff., and Vol. VI. p. 67, verse 17 ; also page 250 above, Prof. Kielhorn’s rendering. Prof. Kielhorn has detected what I and Dr. Bühler had not recognised, namely, an astrological allusion to the comet Dhruva. But I consider that there is certainly also a secondary reference to the king Dhruva. I hold that, just as the astrological allusion to the asterism Jyêshṭhâ, in verse 5, was suggested, to the composer of the verses, by what Dhruva had done to his elder brother, so, also, the allusion here to the comet Dhruva was suggested by something that he had done to the territory of Mârâśarva, and the verse contains a secondary reference to it.
^[2] See page 252 above.
^[3] It is possible that Daḍigarasa, also, was a Gaṅga. But, even so, it is very unlikely that a Gaṅga should, at that time, be exercising local authority so far to the north of the real Gaṅga territory, unless his paramount the Daḍigamaṇḍala country, in Mysore, which is mentioned in an inscription of A.D. 1113 or 1114 at Sûḍi in the Rôṇ tâluka (see Ind. Ant. Vol. XXX. p. 111).
^[4] Ind. Ant. Vol. XI. p. 162, and Vol. VI. p. 71, verse 18.
^[5] Jour. R. As. Soc., F. S., Vol. V. p. 352, note.
^[6] Ind. Ant. Vol. VI. p. 63, note.