South Indian Inscriptions

INCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLY KALACHURIS

The object of the present inscription is to record the grant, by Śankaragana, of a hundred nivartanas of land, measuring forty nivartanas on either side, in the village Vallisikā which was situated in the vishaya (district) of Bhōgavardhana. The donee was a Brāhmana¹ of the Taittirīya sākhā and Gautama gōtra residing at Kallivana. The purpose of the grant, which was made at the request of Gōggā^,2 is stated to be to provide for the maintenance of bali, charu, vaiśvadēva, agnihōtra and other rites.

The grant is dated, both in words and in numerical symbols, on the fifteenth tithi of the bright fortnight of Sravana of the year 347. Though no era is specified, the date must plainly be referred to the Kalachuri era. It does not admit of verification in the absence of the necessary details, but according to the epoch of 248-49 A. C. which suits other verifiable early dates of the era, the date of the present grant would correspond, for the expired year³ 347, to the 3rd August 597 A. C.

As for the localities mentioned in the present grant, Ujjayanī is, of course, modern Ujjain in the Central India. Kallivana, where the donee was residing is modern Kalvan, the chief town of the Kalvan tālukā of the Nāsik District. It may be noted in this connection that the present plates were found at Ābhōna which lies only seven miles west of Kalvan. Bhōgavardhana, the headquarters of the district in which the donated village was situated, is probably Bhōkardhan (200 16’ N. and 750 46’ 56” E.) in the Hyderabad State, where a large Brahmanical cave temple of about 8th century A.D. has been recently excavated.⁴ Vallisikā is modern Valsā, 7 miles south of Bhōkardhan.⁵ __________________

¹Prof. Pathak read the name of the Brāhmana in line 21 as Āhmanasvāmin. The first akshara of this word is certainly not ā, the form of which may be seen in āchchhēttā, 1.28. I read it as prā which, I think, is incorrectly written for brā. The scribe has confused p and b in another place also, see pratāb-āti- śaya for pratāp-ātiśaya in line 11. Strange as it may appear, the proper name of the donee, which ought to have been inserted between brāhmana and svāmin, has been inadvertently omitted here. Compare the names of the donees Brāhmana-Bōdhasvāmin and Brāhmana-Bappasvāmin in other Kalachuri grants Nos. 14 and 16, below). Similar names of donees with the prefix Brāhmana, occur in the records of the Traikūtakas and Maitrakas also.
²This lady may have been the queen of Śankargana. As for the absence of any title like Mahārājñī in connection with her name, it may be pointed out that neither Krishnarāja, nor Śankaragana is called Mahā-rāja in this or any other grant of the Early Kalachuris.
³The usual practice is to cite expired years. Current years are cited only exceptionally. If the year 347 is applied as current, the date would correspond to the 15th July 596 A.C. Prof. Pathak gives the 27th July 595 A.C. as the corresponding. Christian date, evidently taking the year 347 as current and applying the epoch A. D. 247-48 which Dr. Kielhorn finally fixed on the evidence of later Kalachuri dates. But this epoch does not suit early dates of the Kalachuri era as admitted by Kielhorn himself. See Ep. Ind., VoI. V, Appendix, p. 57, n. 6 and 7.
⁴A.B.I.A., (1935), pp. 31-32. Bhōgavardhana is mentioned in several inscriptions at Sānchī. See e.g., Nos. 156, 162,163, etc. M. S. Vol. I, pp, 315 ff.
⁵Mr. Gupte has suggested the identification of Vallisikā with Vārasi, about 8 miles south of Kalvan (Ind. Ant., VoI. XLII, p. 270); but as the Vadnēr grant of Buddarāja (No. 14 below) shows, the country round Vadnēr, which is only about 16 miles south of Kalvan, was included in the bhōga of Vatanagara. So the country round Kalvan is not likely to have been included in a different vishaya like Bhōgavardhana. Mr. Gupte’s alternative identifications of Vallisikā with Bālhēgāon near Ujjain and District, and as shown above, better identifications of the localities with places not far from the eastern limit of that District can be proposed. Kallivana is also mentioned in the Mundkhēde plates of the Sēndraka king Jayaśakti. See Q.B.I.S.M., Vol. XVII, p. 52 ff.