North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF RATANPUR

India for 1903_4, pp.53 ff. and his account was followed by Rai Bahadur Dr. Hiralal who identified some of the places mentioned in it in his Inscriptions in C.P. and Berar.^¹ The record was finally edited with a lithograph, but without a translation, by Dr. N. P. Chakravarti in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXI, pp. 159 ff. It is edited here from the original stone and from inked estampages taken under my direction.

The inscription contains 28 lines of writing, which cover a space 3' broad and 1' 6" high. The writing has suffered considerably here and there, especially towards the proper left in the first twenty lines. Besides, several letters are so much choked up with dust that they do not show quite clearly in an estampage, though they can be read with certainty on the original stone. The characters are Nāgarī. They resemble closely those of the Mallār stone inscription of K. 919 which, as shown below, was written by the same scribe. The only peculiarity which calls for notice is the sign of the upadhmānīya which is wrongly employed in puḥpak-, 1.23 and puḥpa-vāṭikā-, 1.26. The language is Sanskrit. Except for ōṁ namaḥ Śivāya in the beginning and the date at the end, the record is metrically composed throughout. It contains 44 verses, all of which are numbered. One of these (V. 17), which described the reigning king, is repeated from line 13 of the earlier Shēorinārāyaṇ stone inscription^², dated K. 919, where, however, it was employed to glorify a member of a collateral branch of the ruling family, probably Ulhaṇadēva. As regards orthography, we may note that the sibilants are generally used in their proper places, the sign for v is everywhere employed to denote b, and n is written wrongly for ṇ in nirnnayē, 1.27.

The inscription refers itself to the reign of Ratnadēva III of the Kalachuri Dynasty of Ratanpur. The object of it is to record the benefactions of his minister Gaṅgādhara at Kharōd and other places. It is dated in the Chēdi year 933, without any specification of the month, fortnight and tithi. It does not, therefore, admit of verification, but the year, if expired, would correspond to 1181-82 A.C

The record falls into two parts, the first comprising the first nineteen verses, and the second the remaining twenty-five. After the customary obeisance to Śiva and two invocatory stanzas in praise of the same deity, we get a description of the moon, the mythical ancestor of the Kalachuris. The genealogy of the ruling king Ratnadēva III is then traced from Kōkalla. Down to Jājalladēva II, it is the same as that noticed in his Amōdā plates, but there are some minor differences and references to historical events which deserve special notice. Kaliṅgarāja is here mentioned as a younger son of Kōkalla and not as a descendant, evidently remote, of that son as stated in all earlier records.^³ We are again told that he became the lord of Tummāṇa by propitiating Vaṅkēśvara. Jājalladēva I is here said to have defeated Bhujabala, the lord of Suvarṇapura. This achievement of Jājalladēva is also conveyed by double entendre in verse 8 of the Shēorināyaṇ plates of Ratnadēva II.^⁴ Ratnadēva II’s defeat of Chōḍagaṅga, the lord of elephants and the ruler of the Kaliṅga country, is here recorded with the further detail that the conqueror captured his horses, elephants and treasure. Pṛithvīdēva II’s victory over Jaṭēśvara, the son of Chōḍagaṅga, is next mentioned in verse 18. Unfortunately this verse is partially effaced, but my reading of the preserved portion shows that Pṛithvīdēva II not only defeated Jaṭēśvara, but even made him captive. This decisive victory of Pṛithvīdēva II is referred to in the Ratanpur
_______________

¹ Second ed., pp. 117 ff.
² Above, No. 98.
³ See, e. g., verse 7 of the Amōdā plates of Pṛithvīdēva I (above, No. 76) and verse 6 of the Ratanpur stone inscription of Jājalladēva I (above, No. 77). The relation is not stated explicitly in No. 82, v. 6.
⁴ Above, No. 82.