North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF RATANPUR

PENDRABANDH PLATES OF PRATAPAMALLA : YEAR 965

the Kalachuris. To Sātyasādhāra Pratāpamalla gave a village named Kāyaṭhā, situated in the Anargha-maṇḍala on the occasion of the Makara-saṅkrānti. The last line states that the plates were issued from the victorious camp at Palasadā on Tuesday, the 10th day of the bright fortnight of Māgha in the year 965 of an unspecified era. The tithi and the year are expressed in decimal figures only.

The date of this grant must evidently be referred to the Kalachuri era, but the details do not work out regularly. The tenth tithi of the bright fortnight of Māgha in the expired Kalachuri year 965 fell on Thursday (the 23rd January 1214 A. C.) and not on Tuesday. The same tithi in the current Kalachuri year 965 fell on Saturday (the 2nd February 1213 A. C.). In neither case was it connected with a Tuesday. The discrepancy can, however, be accounted for as follows. Though the grant was made on the day of the Makara-saṅkrānti, the plates were actually issued a few days later as in the case of the Kāvī plate^¹ of Jayabhaṭa IV. The Makara-saṅkrānti in the expired Kalachuri year 965 fell on Wednesday, the eleventh tithi of the bright fortnight of Pausha (the 25th December 1213 A. C.). The plates were, however, actually incised about a fortnight after, on the tenth tithi of the dark half of Māgha which (if the month was pūrṇimānta) fell on a Tuesday. The writer seems to have, by mistake, written su di for va di. The corresponding Christian date is, therefore, Tuesday, the 7th January 1214 A..C.

As for the localities mentioned here, the maṇḍala of Anargha, as stated before,^² roughly corresponds to the modern Jānjgir tahsil of the Bilaspur Disstrict. The village Kāyaṭhā is still extant in the form Kaiṭā, about 15 miles almost due west of Pēṇḍrābandh, and about 3 miles beyond the southern limit of the Jānjgir tahsil. As for Palasadā there are several villages named Parsadā or Parsadi in the Balōdā Bazār tahsil, but the village where Pratāpamalla's camp was pitched may be Parsodi about a mile to the north of Kaiṭā.

¹Above, No. 23.
² Above, p. 420.
³ From the original plates.
⁴ Metre: Anushṭubh.
⁵ Metre: Upajāti.
⁶ Read नैकश:.
⁷ Read-र्न्नरेन्द्रा
⁸ Metre: Sragdharā.
⁹ Read- -विभङ्गसिंहा
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