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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
INCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLY KALACHURIS The plate was issued from the victorious camp fixed at Nirgundipadraka by Śāntilla, the Balādhīkrita ( Military Officer) of Nirihullaka who bore the title Bhōgikapālaka1 and Mahāpīlupati.2 Nirihullaka is described as meditating on the feet of the illustrious Śankaragana who had obtained victory in many battles and who was the son of the illustrious Krishnarāja. The object of the inscription is to record the grant of a field, requiring one pitaka of paddy as seed, which was made by Śāntilla on the occasion of a solar eclipse, for the increase of religious merit and fame of the Paramabhattāraka, i.e., probably Śankaragana. The field was situated on the western boundary of Śrī-Parnakā which was included in (the territorial division of) Tandulapadraka. The donee was Bhattika Anantsvāmin of the Kautsa gōtra, who was a student of the Vājasanēya or White Yajurvēda and a resident of Pāshānihrada. The gift was intended to provide for the performance of the religious rites of the five great sacrifices. Dr. Bühler first suggested that Śankaragana, whose name has been wrongly written as Śankarana in 1.3, was identical with the Katachchuri (or Kalachuri) Śankaragana. Sāntilla, who issued the present plate, was only a military officer. He seems to have obtained a great victory, to commemorate which he made this grant on the occasion of a solar eclipse; for he did it not for his own religious merit and fame, but for those of his great lord (Paramabhattāraka) who was probably Śankaragana. He was obviously acting in anticipation of the latter’s sanction; so he communicates his order not only to the officers serving under him, but to those directly appointed by the king. He mentions here his immediate superior, the Bhōgikapālaka and Mahāpīlupati Nirihullaka, probably because he was governing the territory in which the donated village was situated.
The plate does not contain any date, but the mention of Śankaragana as the reigning sovereign shows that the inscription must be referred to the last quarter of the sixth century A.C. As for the localities mentioned in the present inscription, Mr. Dhruva identified Pāshānihrada with Saniādarī, about 14 miles north by east of Sankhēdā, for ‘hrada would be masculine dharō and feminine dharī in Gujerātī and Pāshāni would drop its Pā, as Bagumrā has done with its Bā in having Gumrā, and give Saniā and thus we get Saniādari.3’ his further suggestion that Tandulapadraka is Tāndaljā is also acceptable, as the latter is only two miles west of Saniādarī. But his identifications of Nirgundipadraka with Nāgarvādā, 6 kos from Dabhoi and Śrī-Parnakā with Paniu, now desolate, 5 kōs from Dabhoī, are doubtful, as the places are not in the vicinity of Saniādarī and Tāndaljā. I am, however, unable to suggest any other identifications.
1The present grant shows that the Bhōgikapālaka was not an altogether petty officer, for Nirihullaka
who bore that title had a military officer under him. The Bhōgikapālaka seems to have been
the chief of the Bhōgikas who were probably identical with Bhōgapatis or heads of subdivisions to whom
royal orders are often addressed.
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