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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA The banners and crests of the Râshṭrakûṭas of Mâlkhêḍ and of the Raṭṭas of Saundatti. The difference between the lâñchhana or crest, which was the device used on the seals of copper-plate charters,[1] occasionally at the tops of inscriptions on stone, and on coins, and the the Kanarese Districts, in the Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I. Part II., p. 299, note 4. The Râshṭrakûṭas of Mâlkhêḍ had the pâḷidhvaja banner and the Garuḍalâñchhana or Garuḍa crest, which are mentioned in for instance, lines 9 and 13 of the Sirûr inscription of A.D. 866, E., page 206. And it would appear, from a passage in the Âdipurâṇa of Jinasêna, that the pâḷidhvaja was a particular arrangement, in rows, of a thousand and eighty flags,─ a hundred and eight flags of each of ten kinds of flags bearing, as there specified, the devices of garlands, cloths (?), peacocks, water-lilies, geese, eagles, lions, bulls, elephants, and wheels ; see Ind. Ant. Vol. XIV. p. 104 f. The Raṭṭas of Saundatti, on the other hand, had the suvarṇaGaruḍadhvaja, or banner of a golden Garuḍa, and the sindûralâñchhana or sendûralâñchhana, the red-lead crest.
Their lâñchhana is mentioned in the records edited by me in the Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. Vol. X. pp. 194 to 286, in my translations of which I treated it as the mark of vermilion. Subsequently, however, the expression siṁdûra-lâchhanaṁ, for sindûra-lâñchhanaṁ, in line 43 of the inscription at Têrdâḷ, was translated by Mr. Pathak as meaning “ who has the device of an elephant.” To this there was attached a note, telling us vaguely that, “ according to Kêśirâja, sindhura is changed into sindûra.”[2] And, accepting that statement, I translated sindûra-lâ[ṁ]chhanaṁ in the Maṇṭûr inscription of A.D. 1040,[3] and siṁdûra-lâṁchhanas in the Bhôj plates of A.D. 1208,[4] by “ who has the crest of an elephant ;” and I have taken it as established that the Raṭṭas of Saundatti had the elephant crest.[5] Since that time, however, I have gradually learnt that, even apart from his habit of often not stating chapter and verse for his assertions, so that it is sometimes difficult or impossible to test them, the person who made that statement about the meaning of sindûra in this combination, is by no means to be accepted implicitly. He has misled us in this matter. And, as happens not infrequently, the process of setting things right cannot be made as brief as the enunciation of the assertion which has led us astray. On re-examining the Raṭṭa records themselves,[6] I find that they mention the crest by two words, sindûra and sendûra.7 I find the word sindûra in the following cases : ─ My ink-impression of the fragmentary inscription of Kârtavîrya II. at Saundatti, of the period A.D. 1069 to 1076, shews distinctly siṁdûra-lâṁchchhanaṁ, as given by me in Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. Vol. X. p. 213, text line 5. My photograph of the Kalhoḷe inscription of Kârtavîrya IV. of A.D. 1204 shews distinctly siṁdûra-lâṁchhanaṁ, as given by me ibid. p. 221, text line 16. And the published facsimile lithograph[8] of the Saundatti inscription of Lakshmidêva II. of A.D. 1228 shews distinctly siṁdûra-lâṁchhanaṁ, as given by me, ibid. p. 268, text line 62. And I have the _______________________ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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