South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

seems clearly to intend to allot to him the biruda of Iddhatêjas, because it speaks of him as “ the king Iddhatêjas, who had the other name of Nirupama,”^[1] instead of using such a construction that the word might be taken as an ordinary adjective qualifying râjâ ; but it is very problematical whether there is anything authentic about that appellation, appearing, as it does, for the first time at that late date.

Dhruva was succeeded by his son Gôvinda III. His Paiṭhaṇ grant of A.D. 794 introduces him, in verse, as Gôvindarâja, son of Nirupama, and tells us that he was chosen for the succession out of several sons, because he surpassed his brothers in merit ; and, in the preamble of the prose passages, it denotes him by the birudas of Pṛithvîvallabha and Prabhûtavarsha, in combination with a third appellation Śrîvallabhanarêndradêva, which apparently uses the biruda Śrîvallabha, and which, in that case, is to be rendered by “ his majesty the king Śrîvallabha.”^[2] His grant from the Kanarese country, issued in A.D. 804, uses, from among his various birudas, only that of Prabhûtavarsha, and presents his proper name in the Prâkṛit form of Gôyinda.^[3] Like the Paiṭhaṇ grant, his Waṇî and Râdhanpur grants of A.D. 807 do not mention any of his birudas in the verses ; in the formal prose passages, the Waṇî grant uses the biruda Prabhûtavarshadêva and Pṛithvîvallabha, followed by his proper name as Gôvindarâjadêva,^[4] while the Râdhanpur grant follows the Paiṭhaṇ draft, and places the Pṛîthvîvallabha first, gives the Prabhûtavarsha without the ending dêva, and uses Śrîvallabha-narêndradêva, “ his majesty the king Śrîvallabha,” instead of the proper name.^[5] The Baroda grant of A.D. 811 or 812, issued in his time, gives him, in verse, the biruda Kîrtipurusha,^[6] which we meet in the Nîlgund inscription of A.D. 866 in the form of Kîrtinârâyaṇa^[7] more in accordance with the habitual style of the Râshṭrakûṭa birudas ; and further on, in another verse, it speaks of him as Śrîvallabha.^[8] The Tôrkhêḍê grant of A.D. 813, also issued in his

_______________________________________________________________
^[1] Ind. Ant. Vol. XII. p. 249, text lines 10, 11.
^[2] For the rendering of the honorific termination narêndradêva, see page 188 below.─ That the śrî is an integral and essential part of the appellation, and not the honorific prefix,─ that is to say, that Gôvinda III. really had the biruda Śrîvallabha,─ seems to be established by the corresponding passage in the Râdhanpur grant of A.D. 807, which (unless we choose to assume a mistake of some kind or a piece of carelessness) intentionally repeats the śrî, or, in other words, prefixes the honorific śrî to the biruda Śrîvallabha. The text in that record (see Ind. Ant. Vol. VI. p. 67, plate ii. b, text lines 3, 4) runs ─ Pṛithvîval[l*]abha-śrîmat-Prabhûtavarsha-śrî-Śrîvallabhanarêndradêvaḥ ; using, in addition to the śrî before Śrîvallabha, the honorific śrîmat, which has precisely the same value, before Prabhûtavarsha. And, if it were not for that passage, there would be sufficient authority for treating the śrî in the Paiṭhaṇ passage as the honorific prefix, and for rendering the appellation used there by “ his glorious majesty the king Vallabha,” just as we have to render śrîmad-Vallabhanarêndradêva in the formal prose passages of records of Gôvinda IV., Kṛishṇa III., and Kakka II. (see further on, under those kings) ; particularly as the Nausârî grant of A.D. 817 seems to single out Pṛithivîvallabha as the special vallabha-appellation of Gôvinda III. (see further on in the text above). We should then have to treat in the same way the expression used in the Tôrkhêḍê grant. And the result would go far towards cancelling the biruda Śrîvallabha altogether in the case of Gôvinda III. ; in fact, the only remaining authority for it would be the verse in the Baroda grant of A.D. 811 or 812 (see further on in the text above).─ On the occasional emphasising of śrî as an integral part of proper names and birudas, see Gupta Inscriptions, p. 8, note 3, clause (3) on p. 9.
^[3] Ind. Ant. Vol. XI. p. 126, text line 3-4, and p. 127, text line 5.
^[4] Ibid. p. 159, text lines 34, 35.
^[5] Ind. Ant. Vol. VI. p 67, plate ii. b, text lines 3, 4 ; and see note 2 above.
^[6] Ind. Ant. Vol. XII. p. 159, text line 24. The word was then translated by me, by “ the personification of fame,” for which, however, there seems no justification.
^[7] Page 103 above, text line 7 ; and see page 106, note 1.
^[8] Loc. cit. (note 6 above), p. 160, text line 35.─ Because Amôghavarsha I. had the biruda Lakshmî-vallabha, Pandit Bhagwanlal Indraji proposed to identify the Śrîvallabha of this passage with that king, who, he suggested, was “ then heir-apparent of Gôvinda” (Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I. Part I. p. 124). But that identification is not tenable. The verse occurs in the account of Indrarâja of Gujarât younger brother of Gôvinda III., to whom the rule over the province of the lords of Lâṭa was given by Gôvinda III. It says that he put to flight the leader of the Gurjaras, and that the array of the Mahâsâmantas or feudatory princes of the Dakshiṇâpatha or Dekkan, terrified and not holding together in the course of having their power or