South Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE TRAIKUTAKAS

n appears in two forms, see Nanna, 1.3 and –ārnnava-, 1.5. The superscript n is unlooped in –antarggata, 1.4. The sign of b has a round top in brāhmana-, 1.3. Sh generally appears with a notch in its left limb, see shashti-, 1-7, but notice its subscript form in kshiti, 1.5. The sign for the jihvāmūlīya occurs in 11.6 and 7, and the numerical symbols for 200, 10, 7 and 3 in 1.9.

The language in Sanskrit, and except for an imprecatory verse towards the close, the record is in prose throughout. Attention may be drawn to the word santaka in 1.2 which is used here as in Vākātaka records in the sense of an official, and bhōjya, 1.6 which, contrary to Pānini VII, 3, 69, is employed in the sense of what to be enjoyed.1 The expression Buddhagupta-dūtakam in 1.8, which is evidently copied from an earlier record where it must have qualified some word like likhitam, is here wrongly connected with ājñā. As regards orthography we may note that a consonant following r, with the exception of sh, is doubled in several cases, see karmmakarō, 1.2, -ārnnava, 1.5, etc. Similarly dh is doubled before y in anuddhyāta, 1.1. Rules of sandhi have either not been observed, or violated in a few cases, see svāmina atr-, 1.3, -bhivriddhayē ā-, 1.5, and krishatō praviśata-, 11.6-7.

The plates were issued from the victorious camp at Āmrakā by Mahārāja Dahrasēna (of the dynasty) of the Traikūtakas. The object of the inscription is to record the donation, by Dahrasēna, of the village Kanīyas-Tadākāsārikā in the Antar-Mandalī vishaya to the Brāhmana Nannasvāmin, a resident of Kāpura. The grant was made for the increase of religious merit and glory of the king and his parents. The dūtaka was Buddhagupta.

The date of the grant is given in line 9 as the thirteenth tithi (expressed both in words and in numerical symbols) of the bright (fortnight) of Vaiśākha in the year 207 (expressed in numerical symbols only). The palaeography of the present inscription leaves no doubt that this date refers to the Kalachuri era. According to the epoch of 248-49 A.C., it would correspond, for the expired year2 207, to the 23rd April 457 A.C. It does not admit of verification.

Dahrasēna calls himself Bhagavat-pāda-karmakara, ‘a servant of the feet of Bhagavat’. He was, therefore, a worshipper of Vishnu. He is identical with Dahrasēna, the son of Indradatta, ‘the most devout worshipper of Vishnu’, whose silver coins were discovered at Daman in the Surat District, Kāzad in the Indāpur tālukā of the Poona District, Karād near Sātārā and some other places.3 He was apparently an independent king, as he is said, in the present grant, to have performed an Aśvamēdha sacrifice.

The localities mentioned here were identified by Dr. Fleet.4 According to him the Antar-Mandalī vishya denotes ‘the district of the territory between’ the rivers Mindhōlā on the north and the Pūrnā on the south. I would rather take the expression to mean the district on both the banks of the Mandalī (modern Mindhōlā) river on the
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¹Santaka and bhōjya occur in the earlier records also. See e.g. Nos. 2 and 3, 1. 2.
²The date was first calculated by Dr. Fleet. It would correspond to the 4th April 456 A.C. if the year is taken to be current. In the case of the early records of the Kalachuri era, Nos. 1-34, the dates are calculated according to the epoch of 248-49 A.C.
³Rapson, C.A.D. Introd., p. clx, f. n. 2. On some coins the name appears as Dabragana from which Rev. R. Scott conjectured that the king altered the termination of his name from sēna to gana at an early period of his reign. But even in the latter Surat plates of his son Vyāghrasēna his name appears as Dahrasēna. As Rapson has pointed out, some letters of the coin legends have assumed conventional forms, which has causes the confusion. See Rapson, C.A.D. Introd., pp. clxii f.
⁴Ep. Ind., Vol. X, p. 53