North Indian Inscriptions

ADDITIONAL INSCRIPTIONS

annihilated the vanity of all kings by spending (in charity) the wealth he had acquired, in excess of the desires of (his) suppliants; whose valour in mounting mighty elephants has become well known through (his) holding in check infuriated elephants, which, becoming uncontrollable through rut, had grown restive under the goad; whose habit of (performing) acts of benevolence is celebrated throughout the world through his deliverance of hundreds of kings who had fallen under the blow of adversity; whose second name Bāhusahāya has become renowned through the valour of his arm which he exhibited in routing the numerous hosts of elephants that surrounded thousands of kings in the great wars fought with the supreme rules of the east and the west; who is a devout worshipper of Mahēśvara (and) has attained the pañchamahāśabda—being in good health, addresses (the following order) to all kings, feudatories, bhōgikas, heads of vishayas and Mabattaras of rāshtras and village:-

(L. 15) “Be it known to you that for the increase of the religious merit and fame, in this and the next, of (My) mother and father and of Myself, I have granted, with the usual libation of water,^¹ the village Uvarivadra included in (the territorial division of) Kōrēlla-Eighty-four together with udraṅga and uparikara (as well as) fines (imposed) for the ten offences, with the right to forced labour arising thereform, together with (the gifts of) grain and gold,- which is to be enjoyed by a succession of sons and sons' sons as long as the moon, the sun, the ocean, the earth, rivers and mountains will endure—to the son of Gaṅgāditya (who is himself) the son of Dundubhibhṭṭa, who belongs to the Bharadvāja gōtra (and is) a student of the Ṛigvēda and who resides at the well-known Sāvatthī and belongs to the community of the Chaturvēdins of that place.

(L. 20) “Wherefore, none should cause obstruction while he enjoys it or causes it to be enjoyed, cultivates it or causes it to be cultivated, in the proper manner as (in the case of a village) donated to a Brāhmaṇa. And gracious kings of the future, whether born in our family or others, knowing that the religious merit accruing from a gift of land is common to (him who makes the gift as also to him who preserves it) and realizing that fortune is transient, being unsteady like lightning, and that life fickle like a drop of water on the tip (of a blade) of grass, should consent to and preserve this gift. He who, with his mind shrouded by the veil of darkness of ignorance, confiscates it or allows it to be confiscated will incur the five great sins together with the minor sins.”
(Here follow four benedictive and imprecatory verses.)

(L. 28) (The afore-mentioned village) was granted together with an elephant-chariot on the Rathasaptamī in the bright fortnight of Māgha. The year 400 (and) 20 (and) 7.
This charter has been written by the Mahāsandhivigrahādhipati Saṅgulla, the son of Durgabhaṭa.
This is the sign-manual of Me, the illustrious Dadda.

No. 122; PLATE CI
PARAGAON PLATES OF RATNADEVA II: KALACHURI YEAR 885

THESE plates were discovered near the village Pāragaon, about 7 miles north of Baloda Bazar in the Raipur District of the Chhattisgarh Division in Madhya Pradesh. They were sent by the Deputy Commissioner, Raipur, to the Government Epigraphist for India for decipherment. They are now in the possession of the former Malguzar of the
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¹ [Sanskrit] would literally mean ‘according to the maxim of a libation of water’. [Sanskrit] is wrongly used here.