North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF RATANPUR

TRANSLATION

Success ! Ōṁ! Adoration to Brahman!

(Verse 1) Obeisance to that most noble Brahman which is existence, which is the highest cause, without beginning or end, which is designated as the unmanifest, eternal and great, and independently of which, nothing exists

(V. 2) In the race of the moon there was the king Haihaya, the foremost of rulers and an ornament of the three worlds. His descendant was Kartavirya;-

(V. 3) He who defeated the ten-faced (Rāvaṇa), who had pleased Śiva by making Bhavānī embrace his body (when she was) terrified by his lifting up of the Kailasā (mountain), and whose rage was increased by the washing away of his offerings to Śiva on account of the flooding waters of the Rēvā, sportively checked by the dam of his arms.^²

(V. 4) In his race was the king Kōkala^³, an ornament of the earth. He had eighteen proud sons, irresistible in battle.

(V. 5) The eldest of them, having become the lord of Tripurī, made, by his prowess, all his younger brother the lords of maṇḍalas

(V. 6) A younger brother of the lord of Tripurī, who was the king of Vaṅkō Tummāṇa, had Kaliṅgarāja (as his son?^⁴) and his son was the king Kamalarāja.

(V. 7) His son Ratnaraja (I) begat Pṛithvīdēva (I). His son, who was adorned with valour, was Jājalladēva (I).

(V. 8) Of this victorious Jājalladēva (I), who destroyed Bala^⁵ even as Indra killed Vṛitra, (and) who exterminated the allies of all kings as Indra clipped the wings of all mountains, there is the son, the illustrious Ratnadēva (II), a king who in from resembles Jayanta, (the son of Indra).

(V. 9) He, -who by his excessive prowess has oppressed all kings, whose sovereignty has extended to the farthest ends of the earth, who by his radiance has completely eclipsed the lustre of (other) kings and destroyed Vṛitra,^⁶—has become manifestly and fit-
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¹ This akshara is redundant.
² See above, p. 246, n.2.
³ Elsewhere the name appears as Kōkalla.
⁴ In Nos. 76 and 77 above, Kaliṅgarāja is said to have been born in the family of a younger son of Kōkalla.
⁵ I.e., Bhujabala, the lord of Suvarṇapura; see above p. 420. The words jishṇu, paksha and bhūbhṛit have each a double entendre.
⁶ Vṛitra is, in the Ṛigvēda, the name of Indra's enemy who is also called Vala. As we have seen, the poet has used Vala (or Bala) in I.11 to signify Jājalladēva's enemy Bhujabala, the king of Suvarṇapura. Vṛitra in the present verse is, by double entendre, probably intended to signify the same king. For another

..................................CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM
VOL IV.........................................................................................PLATE LXVL
.............SHEORINARAYAN PLATES OF RATNADEVA II: (KALACHURI) YEAR 878