North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF RATANPUR

The present inscription, which contains twenty lines, covers a space measuring 2' 7" broad and 1' 4½" high. It has suffered a good deal owing to the effects of weather, especially in the middle of lines 9-14 where several aksharas have become illegible. Besides, a large crack has cut the stone vertically on the proper right, damaging from two to four aksharas in each line except the last four, in each of which, owing to the breaking away of a large piece, as many as eight or nine aksharas have been destroyed. Fortunately, not much of historical importance has been lost. The characters are Nāgarī and the language, Sanskrit. Except for siddhiḥ śrī-Gaṇēśāya namaḥ in the beginning and the names of sculptors at the end, the whole record is metrically composed. The verses, all of which are numbered, total 23. The orthography does not call for any remark except that b is everywhere denoted by the sign for v.

The inscription is one of the king Vāhara who belonged to the Haihaya (i. e., Kalachuri) Dynasty of Ratanpur. The object of it seems to be to record the king's victory over some Paṭhāṇas.

After the customary obeisance to Gaṇēśa, the record opens with three invocatory verses in honour of Lambōdara (Gaṇēśa), Śiva and Durgā. It then describes the Moon, the mythical progenitor of the Haihaya (or Kalachuri) family. The first historical prince, named after the legendary kings Haihaya^¹ and Kārtavīrya, is Siṅghaṇa. The name of his son, which is partly damaged, seems to have been Ḍaṅghīra. His son was Madanabrahman, from whom was born Rāmchandra. The latter's son was Ratnasēna,^² whose son, apparently from his wife Guṇḍāyī, was Vāharēndra. We are next told that when Vāharēndra marched with his army, the Paṭhāṇas used to run away in apprehension to the river Śōṇa, while others, giving up their kingdoms, wealth and life, took shelter in the fortress of heaven. From Ratnapura, the king used to bring to his capital wild elephants and give them away together with gold to his suppliants. He used to make gifts of cows and burn a hundred thousands lights in honour of the goddess Durgā^³ in the month of Kārttika. He stored abundant wealth and provisions in the fortress of Kōsaṅga, from which he used to sally forth in search of enemies.

The inscription next describes, in verse 16-17, the king's councillor Mādhava, who defeated certain enemies whose names age illegible, and wrested away their fortune. He is also said to have vanquished the Paṭhāṇas and annexed their territory, carrying away a large booty of gold and other (precious) metals, horses and elephants, as well as cows and buffaloes. Vāharēndra's family-priest was Dēvadatta Tripāṭhī, who used to advise him rightly in accordance with the śāstras and the science of politics. We are next told that the king once gave a huge elephant to a learned man named Nāganātha, who had hailed from Karṇāṭa, for composing a praśasti of Durgā. The present record, which is also called a praśasti, was composed by Nāganātha and written by Rāmadāsa, the son of Mōhana. Next is mentioned a Kāyastha named Jagannātha, a trusted servant of Vāharēndra. Finally, the record states that the artisan (Sūtradhāra) Manmatha, had two sons Chhītaku and Māṇḍana, of whom the latter incised the present praśasti.
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¹ Hiralal's statement that 'the genealogy traces the origin in a somewhat novel manner to a family in which king Haya was born, after whom some other names are mentioned which are illegible until one comes to Kārtavīryārjuna' is evidently due to misreading. Haihaya, not Haya, is mentioned in v. 5 and he was directly followed by Kārtavīrya Arjuna.
² Hiralal's statement that Hariśchandra was another son of Rāmachandra is evidently wrong. Hariśchandra, who is mentioned in the beginning of verse 8 in connection with the description of Vāharēndra, was a legendary king noted for his liberality.
³ Beglar has described the shrine of Pārvatī (now called Kosgain Mātā) which is situated on the summit of a sharply pointed peak called Kosgain-garh. See Cunningham's A. S. I. R., Vol., XIII, p. 155.