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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA These are three copper-plates, the first and third of which bear writing on one side only, and the second on both sides. They measure each 1′ 2″ long by 7″ broad. Their edges are slightly raised into rims for the protection of the inscription. On the left side of each plate there is a ring-hole, but the ring and the seal which must have accompanied the plates are both lost. A portion of the right side of the second, and of the lower corners of the first and third, plates have been broken off. The letters bear the usual marks of the working of the engraver’s tool, throughout. Their size is about ⅜″.─ The language is Sanskṛit throughout. Excepting ll. 24-26, the inscription is in verse up to line 28 ; and the rest is in prose, excluding ll. 33-4 and the benedictive and imprecatory verses at the end (ll. 42-8). All the verses of the genealogical part of this grant excepting five (vv. 6, 7, 9, 17 and 18) occur in other Râshṭrakûṭa records.─ The characters belong to the southern variety of alphabets. For some of the forms of individual letters, attention may be drawn to the two forms of kh, one in khaḍgaṁ (l. 4) and the other in ºśikharâṇi (l. 9) ; to the two forms of g, one in ºmaṇḍalâgrô (l. 2) or ºgaṇaiḥ (l. 13), and the other in ºr=Ggôvindarâjaº (l. 3) or kar-âgr⺠(l. 5) ; to ṅ in Śubhatuṅgaº (l. 20) ; to j in ºtmajô jaº (l. 6) and dvijânâṁ (l. 8) ; to t in kâṁt-ênduº (l. 1) ; to n in vaitânaº and ºnichayaiḥ (l. 8) ; to bh in ºbhôgikaº (l. 29) ; to m in ºm=abhimukhîṁ (l. 3) ; to the two forms of initial a or â, one in âsîº (l. 2) or aśvamêdhaº (l. 44), and the other in aṁkên=âpi (l. 31) ; to the secondary i in ºmâ-linyâḥ (l. 14) and ºnirddalitaº (l. 25) ; to the subscript û in ºdhûmaº (l. 8) ; to the two forms of the subscript ṛi, one in kṛitaṁ (l. 1), and the other in ºkṛit-ânukṛitiḥ (l. 7) ; and to the visarga expressed by three dots in ºvishay-ântarggataḥ (l. 38), and by one dot and one short stroke in grâmaḥ (l. 40).─As regards orthography, the sign for v throughout serves for both v and b. The consonants following r are, as a rule, doubled, though indifference in this respect is in some cases observable ; thus m is doubled in ºnirmmathaº (l. 22), but not in ºsûnur=mahîpatiḥ (l. 18). Gha is used instead of h in râjasigha (l. 3) ; final n before a consonant is no less than five times wrongly changed to an anusvâra, e.g. in yaṁ-nâbhi-kamalaṁ (l. 1) and yasmiṁ praśâsati (l. 8) ; t is doubled before r, e.g. in gôttraº (l. 7) ; and anusvâra is changed once to the dental nasal before s in ºlikhit-ânsa-pîṭhaḥ (l. 11). The rules of Sandhi have been frequently disregarded, and in many a place aksharas have been omitted by the writer.
The inscription records a grant by the Râshṭrakûṭa chieftain Karkarâja or, as he is
described in lines 28-29, “ Suvarṇavarsha Pratâpaśîla[1] śrî-Karkarâja who has obtained the five
great sounds.” Karkarâja is spoken of as a son of śrî-Dhruvarâja, younger brother of Gôvinda
(II.) or, as he is described in lines 25-6, “ Pṛithvîvallabha Mahârâjâdhirâja Paramêśvara śrî-Prabhûtavarsha.” The inscription refers itself to the prosperous reign (pravarddhamâna-râjya)
of Gôvinda (II.) and is dated in the year 701 (in words and figures, l. 31 f.), expired, of the
Śaka era, on the tenth tithi of the bright half of Pushya. The charter was issued by Karkarâja while staying at Sindînagara, on the occasion of a saṁkrânti,[2] to a Brâhmaṇa whose name
is lost, son of Bhaṭṭa Chandrâditya, of the Kauśika gôtra, and student of the Kaṭha school. The
grantee appears to have been a man of deep erudition ; for he is represented to have mastered
the Vêda, Vêdâṅga, Itihâsa, Purâṇa, Vyâkaraṇa, Mîmâṁsâ, Tarka, Nirukta and Yajñavidyâ.
The village granted to him was Rakkhulla-grâma situated in the province (vishaya) of Nâsikka.
The boundaries specified are to the E. Chêbhaṭikâ, to the S. the Gôdâvarî, to the W.
Vaṭamukha, and to the N. Vaṭapura. All the localities mentioned in this grant are to be
found in the Nâsik district. That Nâsikka is Nâsik goes without saying. Sindînagara, where
the royal grantor resided at the time of making the grant, is known to us from the records of
the earlier Yâdavas, and has been identified with Sinnar, the principal town of the tâluka of the
same name. Rakkhulla-grâma, the village granted, is Lâkhalgâṁv to the north of the
[1] [The same surname occurs in l. 48.─ E. H.]
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