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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLY GURJARAS etc, The grant was made on the full-moon day of Kārttika. The scribe was Rēva, the Officer in charge of the Department of Peace and War. The inscription is dated, both in words and in numerical symbols in 11. 50.51, on the fifteenth tithi of the bright fortnight of Kārttika of the year 380. Though the era is not specified, the date, on the evidence of palœography, must be referred to the Kalachuri era. According to the epoch 248-49, A.C. it would correspond, for the expired year1 380, to the 6th November 629 A.C. It does not admit of verification. The Present inscription mentions two ancestors of Dadda II, viz., his grandfather Dadda I and his father Jayabhata I who had the biruda Vītarāga. About the former we are told that he was a Sāmanta or a feudatory prince, though his suzerain is nowhere named, and that from his very birth he was a devotee of the sun. The epithet ākrishta-śatru-nāga-kula-samtati (11.3-4) applied to him was interpreted to mean that he exterminated his enemies of the Nāga race2; but as Kielhorn has shown, the description contains no such historical allusion, the sense being simply that ‘Dadda uprooted his enemies as the bird Garuda destroys the snakes.’ The description in line 10, that the lands at the foot of the Vindhya mountain delighted him, seems to suggest that he extended his kingdom to or raided the country up to the Vindhya mountain. About Jayabhata I the present inscription gives no information except that he obtained victories over the forces of his powerful foes, and that he had the bīruda Vītarāga. The description of his son Dadda II, the donor of the present grant, is also conventional, the only historical information that we can glean from it being that he had obtained the pañchamahāśabda, and had the biruda Praśāntarāga.
As for the localities mentioned in the present grant, Nāndīpurī was identified by Dr. Bühler3 with an old fort of that name just outside the Jhadēśwar gate to the east of Broach. Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji, however, suggested that Nāndīpurī was identical with Nāndōd in the Broach District.4 The statement in the Anjanēri plates of Jayabhata III5 that Nāndīpurī vishaya included the village Tōranaka (modern Tōran 2 miles to the north of Nāndōd) proves the correctness of Pandit Bhagvanlal’s suggestion. The absence of any word like vāsakāt after Nāndipurī indicates that it was probably the capital of the Gurjaras. Akrūrēśvara is clearly identical with Anklēśvar, the chief town of a tālukā of the same name, in the Broach District. Sirīshapadraka is Sisōdra about 11 miles west by south of Anklēśvar. Jambūsaras still bears its ancient name and lies about 27 miles north of Broach. Bharukachchha is of course Broach, while Bhērajjikā is probably Bōrjai in the Broach District, about 12 miles east of Anklēśvar.
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1If the year is applied as current, the date would correspond to the 18th October 628 A.C. |
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