North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF RATANPUR

RAIPUR PLATE OF PRITHVIDEVA 1 : YEAR 821

The inscription names Trivikrama, Vikrama and Arjuna, who are mentioned in the next grant also, probably as witnesses of the gift. The charter was written by the owner of the village Garbha whose name has been omitted here owing to the exigencies of the metre, but who was probably Alhaṇa mentioned in the next grant in the same capacity and as owner of the same village. The engraver was Hāsala.

The date of the present grant must plainly be referred to the Kalachuri era. It regularly corresponds, for the current year 821, to Sunday, the 18^th January 1069 A.C. The eighth tithi of the dark fortnight of the amānta Māgha in that year ended at 20 h. 50 m. on that day. The Uttarāyaṇa or Makara saṅkrānti had already taken place at 23 h. on the 23^rd December 1068^¹This date is noteworthy; because firstly, it is one of the few dates of the Kalachuri era recorded in a current year and secondly, it is the only date of that era from Chhattisgarh which is cited according to the amānta scheme. The Amōdā plates, granted only ten years later by this very king Pṛithvidēva I, have their date recorded in a pūrṇimānta month. The present date in an amānta month is all the more surprising, because the prevailing custom in Chhattisgarh even before the advent of the Kalachuris was to cite dates according to the pūrṇimānta scheme.^² It shows, again, that the Kalachuri year must have commended on some day before Māgha va. di. 8.

Of the geographical names mentioned in the present grant, Apara-maṇḍala, if that is the correct reading of the name, seems to have comprised the territory round Bilaspur as shown by the Amōdā plates of the same king, but I have not been able to find any place-name corresponding to Asauṭhā from the maps available to me. Śrāvastī from where the donee had emigrated, may be Sahet Mahet in the Gonda District of Uttar Pradesh. Ratnapura is modern Ratanpur, 16 miles north of Bilaspur.

TEXT³
Second Plate ⁴

1 सकल ⁵ च (घ) व (र) णीभूषणमाण: (मणि:) ।⁶ समुत्पत्र: क्षीमान्वु (न्बु) घजनमनॊम्हा (म्भो) जत- रणि [:।*] प्रतापाग्नो (ग्नौ) [यस्य*]
2 ज्वलति सततॊत्तप्तह्रदयै [र्व्वि] लीनं सामात्यैर्जतुघटितपु (गा) त्रैरिव⁷ परै:⁸ ॥ [१॥*] यस्मिन्म [ही*]-
3 मवति नीतिविचार ⁹ सारे वातॊऽयवत्मीनि पदं न करोति कॊन्य: । घर्माघ्वनि ष्टितमतौ ¹º [च]
4 न   दैवतॊपि   लॊकेपु (षु) नूनमुपघातलावोदयॊस्ति ¹¹ ॥[२॥*] अनेन श्रीमद्धाङ्कस्वर ¹² वरलव्घ- (ब्घ) प्र-
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