South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

presenting their names in the somewhat different forms of Dhaladi and Tâtabikyana, appears to say :─ “ He, this Râjamârtaṇḍa (a very sun among kings), piercing (everything) in front (of him), having conquered in battle, with his arm, him who was named Tâtabikyana, (and also) Dhaladi, causes his fame to be sung by people.”^[1]We have, however, no information as yet as to the part of the country to which they belonged.

It may be remarked, incidentally, that a biruda of Châlukya-Bhîma II., not mentioned in this record, which is presented in the Guṇḍugolanu grant of the period A.D. 945 to 970 as, apparently, Karayilladâta,^[2] would have been given more correctly as Kareyilladâta : it means “ he in whom there is no spot or blemish” (karey-illad-âta) ; and it answers exactly to the Sanskṛit appellation Akalaṅka.

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Châmekâmbâ, who caused the grant to be made, seems to be clearly marked by line 53 as a courtesan. It would appear, therefore, that she was a favourite mistress of the king. And, for a case analogous to this one, we may quote that of the courtesan Vinâpôṭi, the prâṇavallabhâ or “ mistress as dear as life” of the Western Chalukya king Vijayâditya, who is mentioned in one of the Mahâkûṭa inscriptions as making certain grants to a temple, and whom that record has treated with such respect as to name also her mother and grandmother.^[3] So, also, the spurious Sûḍi plates claims a grant of some land at that village by the Western Gaṅga prince Bûtuga II. for the purposes of a Jain temple founded by his mistress Dîvaḷâmbâ.^[4]

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The Paṭṭavardhika lineage (anvaya),─ to which, as is indicated in line 52 f. of this record, Châmekâmbâ belonged by birth, and in respect of which we are told that the members of it belonged to the retinue of the Chalukya kings,─ is mentioned as the Paṭṭavardhini race (vaṁśa) in a record of Amma I. (A.D. 918 to 925). That record specifies, as members of it, Kâlakampa, who had been a follower of Kubja-Vishṇuvardhana I., and, with his permission, had killed in battle (a king) Daddara and seized his insignia ; a descendant of Kâlakampa, named Sômâditya ; Sômaditya’s son Pritiviyarâja ; and Pritiviyarâja’s son Bhaṇḍanâditya, also called Kuntâditya, who had been a servant of Vijayâditya IV. (A.D. 918), and to whom the grant of a village, registered in the record, was made.^[5] And another reference to it is to be found in a record of Amma II. (A.D. 945 to 970), which registers the grant of some fields to the Yuvarâja Ballâladêva-Vêlâbhaṭa, also called Boḍḍiya, son of (the lady) Pammavâ (of) the Paṭṭavardhinî (family).^[6]

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^[1] South-Ind. Inscrs. Vol. I. p. 45, line 17 ff. I read the first two pâdas, from an ink-impression, thus:­─Yas= Tâtabikyan-âkhyaṁn=Dhaladi munn-iriva Râjamârttaṇḍau. The verse is in the Âryâgîti metre. At the end of the first pâda, âkhyaṁn has of course to be corrected into âkhyan. In the second pâda, three syllabic instants are wanting ; the metre may be set right by readings:─ Dhaḷadiṁ munn-iriva Râjamârttaṇḍô-sau. The words munniriva are Kanarese.
^[2] Ind. Ant. Vol. XIII. p. 249, line 17-18.
^[3] Id. Vol. X. p. 103.
^[4] Vol. III. above, p. 184 ; and see Ind. Ant. Vol. XXX. p. 217, No. 31. The expression svakîya-priyâ, in line 70 of the text, should be rendered by “ his mistress ;” not by “his wife,” as was done by me in editing the record. This should perhaps have been recognised by me at the time, from the description of Dîvaḷâmbâ in line 84 as “ the one Rambhâ of the world ;” and also because, the passage being in prose, the word patnî or bhâryâ might have been used just as readily as priyâ, if a wife was really intended. But there are, I think, a few cases in which quite respectable women were likened to Rambhâ in respect of their beauty and general charms ; and the name itself occurs as the name of Rambhâ, the sâbhvî or “ virtuous wife ” of the poet Ratnasiṁha, in the Ratnapur inscription of Pṛithvîdêva (Ep. Ind. Vol. I. p. 50, verse 12). However, we know now that the wife of Bûtuga II. was Rêvakanimmaḍi ; see Vol. VI. above, p. 71.
^[5] South-Ind. Inscrs. Vol. I. p. 43
^[6] Vol. V. above, p. 140.