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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF RATANPUR the first was ruling in K. 866 (1114 -5 A.C.) and the second in K. 919 (1167-68 A.C).¹ The palæography of the inscriptions leaves no doubt that they must be referred to the reign of Jājalladēva I.² What was this work of Jājalladēva, I, which is recorded in so many places? It could not have been the construction of the sanctum of the temple ; for there is an inscription in three parts incised over three recesses in the architrave of the door-way of the garbhagṛiha, which records the construction of the structure by Vikramādithya, the son of the Mahāmaṇḍalēśrara Malladēva. As the names Malladēva and Vikramāditya occur in the dynastic lists of Bāṇa kings, Dr. Bhandarkar made the ingenious suggestion that this Vikramāditya may have been one of the Bāṇa kings.³He could not definitely identify him at the time ; because no such Vikramāditya, the son of Malladēva, was then known. From the Udayēndiram plates which had been published by Dr. Kielhorn,⁴ two Vikramāditya of the Bāṇa dynasty were known, but neither of them was a son of Malladēva. About the chronology of the Bāṇa kings also, there was considerable doubt. Dr. Kielhorn at first referred the second Vikramāditya mentioned in the Udayēndiram plates to the middle of the 12th century A.C.,⁵ but later on he identified his friend Krishṇarāja mentioned in the Udayēndiram plates with Kṛishṇa II of the Rāshṭrakūa dynasty and thus referred Vikramāditya II of the Udayēndiram plates to the end of the 9th century A.C.⁶ The discovery the of Guḍimallam plates⁷ has placed the genealogy of the Early Bāṇa kings on a sound basis. As Dr. Hultzsch has shown, there were three Vikrāmadityas⁸ in the Bāṇa dynasty, of whom the first, called also Jayamēru, was the son of Malladēva. He is identical with Bāṇa-Vidyādhara mentioned in the Udayēndiram plates. As his son Vijayāditya-Prabhumēru was ruling in Saka 820⁹ we can place Vikramāditya (I) in the last quarter of the 9th century A.C. The Pāli inscription shows that he was ruling in Dakshiṇa Kōsala or Chhattisgarh before the advent of the Kalachuris.¹Â°
Jājalladēva I was not thus the builder of the sanctum. He did not also probably
erect the maṇḍapa of the temple, but may have repaired it. As Mr. Cousens has already
noticed,¹¹the maṇḍapa has been partly rebuilt, the additional walls across the corners
to support the roof making it look as if it were originally octagonal in shape. And
it is noteworthy that it is on one of these walls, the rebuilt door-way and an additional
pilaster inserted to support a broken beam¹²that the following inscriptions are engraved.
As a period of more than two hundred years separates the Bāṇa king Vikramāditya I from
Jājalladēva I, it is not unlikely that the temple had fallen into disrepair during the time
of the latter. Jājalladēva I seems, therefore, to have only repaired the maṇḍapa of the
temple where the inscriptions are found. 1Below, Nos. 97-99
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