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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE MAHISHMATI Empire, it is not likely that Anūpa which lay further to the west continued to acknowledge Gupta supremacy.1 The year 167 is not, therefore, likely to be of the Gupta era. The general resemblance that the present grant bears to the three preceding grants from Khandesh in respect of characters, phraseology, royal sign manual etc., indicates that it belongs to the same period as the latter. The era in which these four grants are dated must therefore be identical. As shown above, the three grants from Khandesh are dated in the so-called Kalachuri-Chēdi era founded by the Ābhīra king Īśvarasēna in 249 A.C. The date of the present grant, if referred to the same era, would correspond to the 5th August 417 A.C. As stated above, it does not admit of verification. Māhishmatī, from which the plate was issued, is generally identified with the holy place Onkāra Māndhātā on the Narmadā, in the Nēmād District of the Madhya Pradēsh. The description of the city given by the Sanskrit poet Kālidāsa in his Raghuvamśa (VI, 43), namely, that it was surrounded by the river Narmadā like a girdle, suits Onkār Māndhātā very well. Udumbaragartā, which was the chief town of a pathaka named after it, may be Umarbār, now a small village on the western border of the Barwani District. It lies on the Jharkhal, a small tributary of the Narmadā. Sohajanā may be Sejwānik, about 4 miles south-east of Barwani.
TEXT2 TRANSLATION Mr. Haldar, who first edited the present inscription, referred its date to the Gupta era and took it as equivalent to 486 A.C.2 He thought that Mahārāja Subandhu was a subordinate of the Gupta Emperor Budhagupta whose Eran Stone inscription is dated in the Gupta year 165 (484-85 A.C.), i.e., just two years before the date of the Barwani grant. The field, which is at present enjoyed by Sāti here (i.e., at the village Sohajanā), has
been granted by me as a brahmadēya gift to this Brāhmana Shashthīsvāmin of the Bhara- 1For a detailed discussion of this matter, see my aforementioned article on the age of the Bāgh
Caves in I.H.Q., Vol. XXI, PP.79 f. |
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