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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
ADDITIONAL INSCRIPTIONS PRINCE OF WALES MUSEUM PLATES OF DADDA III: YEAR 427 His name is inadvertently omitted, but he is described as a student of the Ṛigvēda and as the son of Gaṅgāditya who was himself the son of Dundubhibhaṭṭa. The village was donated together with an elephant-chariot on the occasion of the ratha-saptamī, i. e., the seventh tithi of the bright fortnight of Māgha, in the year 427 (expressed in numeri cal symbols only). The charter was written by Saṅgulla, the son of Durgabhaṭa, who held the office of Mahāsandhivigrahādhipati (the Chief Minister for peace and war). Another son of this Durgabhaṭa, Sahabhaṭa by name, who was a military officer (Balādhikṛita), wrote the Anjanēri plates¹ of Jayabhaṭa III, dated K. 460. Saṅgulla, the scribe of the present plates , must be distinguished from the homonymous writer of the Prince of Wales Museum plates of Jayabhaṭa IV, dated K. 486; for, the latter Saṅgulla, who lived about 60 years later, was the son of Alla2, not of Durgabhaṭa. He may have been a grandson of the writers of the present plates. It is noteworthy that though Dadda III was himself a devotee of Maheśvara (Śiva) he made the present grant in honour of the Sun, the tutelary deity worshipped by his ancestors from Dadda I onwards3. The seventh tithi of the bright fortnight of Māgha, called rathasaptamī4, is sacred to the Sun; for his form is believed to have been revealed to the gods on that day⁵. It is regarded as holy as the day of a solar eclipse.⁶, and 2 gift made on that day is regarded as very meritorious. The gift of an elephant is specially commended in the Purāṇas as ensuring a wide dominion to the donor.
The date of the present plates, like those of the other Gurjara grants, must be referred to the Kalachuri era. If the year 427 was expired, it would correspond to the 16th January 677 A.C.; but since the Maitraka king Śīlāditya III also made a grant at Bharukachchha on this very tithi (Māgha-śuddha-saptamī) in the Gupta year 357 (677 A.C.), it appears likely that the Kalachuri year mentioned in the present grant was current. The date would, therefore, correspond to the 29th December 675 A.C. It does not admit of verification. Dadda III claims to have obtained victories over the rulers of the east and the west. The ruler of the west was probably the contemporary king of Valabhī, Śīlāditya III, whose known dates range from G. 342 to G. 365, i. e., from 661-62 A.C. to 684-85 A.C. It is not known whether Dadda III actually defeated the Maitraka king who had assumed the Imperial titles Paramabhaṭṭāraka, Mahārājādhirāja and Paramēśvara and was evidently a very powerful ruler; but if he did, the latter soon took revenge. He raided the Gurjara kingdom and occupied it for some time. This is known from his Aṇastu plates⁷ which record the grant of a village in the Bharukachchha vishaya, i. e., the district of Broach in which the Gurjara capital was situated, in G. 357 (the 16th January 677 A. C. ), just a year after the date of the present plates. The grant was made on the same tithi, viz., Magha śu. di. 7. This leaves no doubt that Śīlāditya III had annexed at least the coastal portion of the Gurjara kingdom to his own dominion in that year. As for the localities mentioned in the present plates, Bharukachchha is well-known
as the ancient name of Broach. Kōrēlla-Eighty-four is probably identical with the territorial division Korillā-pathaka mentioned in the Navsāri plates of Jayabhaṭa III. Kōrēlla,
its headquarters, is probably identical with Koral on the southern bank of the Narmada
1 No. 22, 1. 38. above.
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