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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF RAIPUR The slab of polished red sand-stone, which bears this inscription, was originally fitted into the wall of the maṇḍapa of a temple at Khalārī¹, about 45 miles east of Raipur in the Raipur District of Madhya Pradesh. It is now preserved in the Raipur Museum. The inscription contains sixteen lines of writing, which cover a space of about 1' 11½” broad by 11½” high. The writing is in a good state of preservation, only two or three letters being slightly damaged. The size of the letters is about .5”. The characters are Nāgarī. The letters dh and bh present throughout their modern Nāgarī forms and the pṛishṭhamātrās have nowhere been used. The sign of the avagraha has been used in some places to mark the elision of the initial a or ā. The language is Sanskrit. Except for the customary salutation to Gaṇapati in the beginning and the particulars of the date etc. at the end, the whole record is in verse. The orthography does not present anything calling for remark, except that b is everywhere denoted by the sign for v. The inscription refers itself to the reign of the king Haribrahmadēva of the Kalachuri² dynasty. The object of it is to record the construction of a temple of Nārāyaṇa by the shoe-maker (mōchī) Dēvapāla, son of Śivadāsa and grandson of Jasau, at the town of Khalvāṭikā After the customary obeisance to Gaṇapati and three invocatory verses in honour of that god and of Bhāratī (the goddess of speech ) and Nārāyaṇa, the inscription goes on to state that in the Kalachuri branch of the Ahihaya³ ( i. e., Haihaya) dynasty there was born the king Siṁhaṇa a devotee of Śiva, who conquered eighteen forts of his enemies. His son was Rāmadēva, who killed in battle Bhōṇiṅgadēva of the Phaṇivaṁśa (i.e., Nāga lineage). His son was Haribrahmadēva, who also was a devotee of Chandrachūḍa (Śiva ). Verses 7-8 describe his capital Khalvāṭikā. The inscription was written by Rāmadāsa of the Vāstavya family and was engraved by the artisan Ratnapāla.
The inscription is dated in lines 15 and 16 in the (Vikrama) year 1470, the Śaka year 1334, the cyclic year being Plava, on Saturday, the ninth tithi of the bright fortnight of Māgha, while the moon was in the asterism Rōhiṇī. As Kielhorn has shown, the details of the date agree neither for the Vikrama year 1470 current (corresponding to Śaka 1334 expired), nor for the Vikrama year 1470 expired. The proper year is Vikrama 1471 expired, corresponding to Śaka 1336 expired. In that year the ninth tithi of the bright fortnight of Māgha ended 15 h. 20 m. after mean sunrise on Saturday ( the 19 th January 1415 A.C.) and the moon was in the asterism of Rohiṇī for 12 h. 15 m. after mean sunrise on that day. The cyclic year also, according to the northern luni-solar system⁴, was Plava⁵. The Christian equivalent of the day is, therefore, the 19th January 1415 A.C. As the present inscription was incised only about thirteen years after the preceding one which also comes from the Raipur District, the kings Siṁhaṇa, Rāmadēva and
Haribrahmadēva mentioned in it are plainly identical with Siṅgha, Rāmachandra and
Brahamadēva named in the latter. Kielhorn identified the first two of them with the
homonymous kings mentioned in the Rāmṭēk stone inscription. But the latter are
there said to have belonged to the Yādava dynasty and must, therefore, be identical with
the well-known kings Siṁhaṇa and Rāmachandra of that dynasty, who flourished in the 1C.A. S. I. R ., Vol, p. 157.
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