|
The Indian Analyst
|
|
South Indian Inscriptions |
RELIGION Their copper-plate grants have an emblem of solar worship, perhaps an anginkunda on their seals. Some of their grants were made on the occasion of sankrānti i.e., the sun’s crossing a sign of zodiac1 The later kings of this dynasty from Dadda III onwards were worshippers of Mahēśvara, but they continued the old emblem of the dynasty and made grants on the tithis sacred to the sun. Dadda III, for instance made a grant on Magha śu di 7 , known as the Ratahaspatami2 There must have been several temples of the sun built by the Gurjara princes and others in the country of Lāta but none are mentioned in Gurjara grants. We know, how ever, of a temple of the sun under the name of Jayāditya from a reference in a later grant of the Gujarat Rāshtrakūtas.3 It was situated at Kōtipura in the territorial division of Kāpikā (Modern Kāvi) and was probably erected by the Gurjara king Jayabhata II. An analysis of the grants of this period would shed an interesting light on the reli- gipus tendencies of the age. Of the thirty-One grants4 of this period two were made to Buddhist viharas5 and three to Hindu temples.6 The remaining twenty-six grants were made to Brahmanas, most of them being intended for the maintenance of the five great sacrifices. As for the auspicious occasions on which grants were made, we find that no particular tithis were observed in the grants to Buddhist viharas. Those to Hindu temples and Brahmanas were generally made on some sacred tithi or parvan. Of the twentyfive grants, in which a tithi is mentioned, we find that three were made at the time of a solar eclipse7 and one on that of a lunar eclipse.8 The Purnima was generally regarded as an auspicious tithi; for eleven grants were made on Purnima The Karattiki Purnima or the full-moon day of Karttika was regarded as specially holy, probably because Siva killed Tripurasura on that tithi. Donations on this tithi specially enjoined when it is joined with the nakshatra Krittka. Of the eleven grants made in Purnimas as many as five were on the Karatiiki Purnima9 In two grants it is called Mahakarttiki.10 Some grants were recorded on the thirteenth tithi of the bright fortnight of a month probably after the completion of the Ekadasi-vrata.11 Grants were rarely made on an amavasya unless it was the day of a solar eclipse. Only three such occur in the records of this period.12 The holy tithi Rathasaptami, sacred to the sun, has already been mentioned. Finally, three grants are known to have been made on the occasion of sankrantis, namely Mesha, Karkataka and Tula13
This analysis will show that though the Vedic religion had not its lost its hold on the people of the age, the Pauranic Hinduism, which laid a stress on the construction of the temples of gods as a specially meritorious act, was gradually gaining ground. Buddhism, on the other hand, was losing the popular support
1See Nos. 22 and 23.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
