South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

Kannaḍa-English Dictionary gives sindûra-boṭṭu as meaning ‘a round mark (on the forehead) made with red lead.’ That, therefore, was one of the uses of red-lead ; namely, for making the tilaka or ‘ mark on the forehead, made with coloured earths, sandal-wood, or unguents, either as an ornament or as a sectarian distinction.’ But a special use of the sindûra as a royal prerogative is established by the Râjataraṁgiṇî, 8, 2010. We are there told, in respect of a certain confidential official named Kôshṭhêśvara, a councillor of king Jayasiṁha of Kashmîr, that,─ baddhv=âdhikâriṇaḥ śulkaṁ gṛihṇat=âḳâri râja-vat têna sva-nâmnâ bhâṇḍêshu draṅgê sindûra-mudraṇaṁ─“ imprisoning the officials, he collected the customs at the watch-station, and had his own name stamped in red-lead on the wares as if he were the king.”^[1] To this, Dr. Stein has attached the comment that “ it is still customary in Jammu territory, and “ probably elsewhere too in India, to mark goods for which octroi-duty has been paid, with “ seal-impressions in red-lead (sindûra).” That comment is apposite enough. But we further learn from the text that, in ancient times, there was a certain royal privilege of stamping with red-lead. The word mudraṇa means the act of making the mudrâ or stamp or impression of a lâñchhana or device on a seal or crest. And we thus see that the possession of the sindûralâñchhana or sendûralâñchhana entitled an owner of it to stamp his name, crest, or other symbol, in red-lead.

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Gôvinda II., and Alâs plates which purport to have been issued in A.D. 770.

In Vol. VI. above, p. 170 ff., I examined again, in the light of only the most nearly synchronous records, a question which had engaged my attention once before.[2] And I arrived at the same conclusion ; namely, that the successor of Kṛishṇa I. was his younger son Dhruva. I indicated that the pointed expression used in the Waṇî record of A.D. 807 (and repeated in the Râdhanpur record of A.D. 808), that Dhruva obtained the sovereignty by “ leaping over his elder brother (jyêshṭh-ôllaṅghana),” would not be incompatible with the possibility that Gôvinda II., the elder son, was the intended successor of Kṛishṇa I., and in fact is rather suggestive that, not only was that the case, but also an appointment of him as Yuvarâja was actually made. And I found, in the Paiṭhaṇ record of A.D. 794, a possible intimation that Gôvinda II. established himself in the northern parts of the Râshṭrakûṭa territories, while Dhruva set himself up as the rival in the south, and that time elapsed before Dhruva made himself master of the whole kingdom. But I found it to be plain that, at the best, Gôvinda II. made a stand for only a short time. And I arrived at the conclusion, from the early authoritative records, that Dhruva set himself up as king immediately on the death of Kṛishṇa I., and that Gôvinda II. had no real part in the succession at all.

Since then, there has been published, in Vol. VI. above, p. 208 ff., the record contained in the Alâs plates. This record mentions Dantidurga, son of Indra II., by a name, Dadrivarman, which is of course nothing but a mistake, made by the writer, for Dantivarman. It introduces Gôvinda II. as “ the dear son ” of the favourite of Fortune and the Earth, the Mahârâjâdhirâja, Paramêśvara, and Bhaṭṭâraka Akâlavarsha-(Kṛishṇa I.), and describes him as the Yuvarâja Gôvindarâja, with the birudas or secondary appellations of Prabhûtavarsha and Vikramâvalôka, “ whose head was purified by an anointment to the position of Yuvarâja which was greeted with acclamation by the whole world, and who had attained the pañchamahâśabda.” It brings forward a certain Vijayâditya, with the birudas of Mâṇâvaḷôka (sic) and Ratnavarsha, who is described as a son of (another) Dantivarman, and as a son’s of a Dhruvarâja (who seems to be Dhruva, the younger brother of Gôvinda II.). And it recites that, at the request of Vijayâditya, and on a specified day of the month Âshâḍha in the Saumya saṁvatsara, Śaka-Saṁvat 692 (expired), falling in June, A.D. 770, Gôvinda II., as Yuvarâja. being

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^[1] Dr. Stein’s Text ; and Translation, Vol. II. p. 156.
^[2] Dyn. Kan. Distrs. p. 393.