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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF RATANPUR tingly the sun who by his intense heat scorches all mountains, whose one-wheeled chariot roams to the farthest end of the earth, and who by his radiance completely eclipses the lustre of the moon and dispels darkness.¹
(Vv. 10-13) The king Ratnadēva (II), whose hand was full of whole rice-grains and
kuśa, gave, with (a pouring out of ) water, on the holy occasion of a lunar eclipse, for the
increase of the religious merit and fame of (his) mother and father and of himself, the village Tiṇērī (situated) in the district of Anarghavallī, the boundaries of which are well-marked,
together with all taxes, to Nārāyaṇaśarman of the Parāśara gōtra with the three pravaras,
Vasishṭha,Śakti and his son (i.e., Parāśara), who belongs to the Sāmavēda and is conversant,
with the work of the Udgātṛi (priest) and who is the son of the learned Tribhuvanapāla,
and the son's son of Śīlāditya, who has studied and mastered the six Vēdāṅgas.
Seal
No. 83 ; PLATE LXVII THESE plates were found in 1916 in a tank called Gadhia in Sarkho,² a village 4 miles north of Jānjgir in the Bilaspur District of the Chhattisgarh Division in Madhya Pradesh. Pandit Lochan Prasad Pandeya, Honorary Secretary of the then Chhattisgarh Gaurava Prachāraka Maṇḍalī (now Mahākōsal Historical Society), came to know of them in 1925 and took immediate steps to acquire them for his Society. They are now in the possession of that Society at Bilaspur. The record was first published by Mr. Pandeya in the Hindi Monthly Mādhurī of Lucknow (Vol.V, pp. 317-22) and was subsequently edited with a lithograph by me in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXII, pp. 159 ff. It is edited here from the original plates and their ink-impressions kindly supplied by the Government Epigraphist for India. The inscription is on two substantial copper-plates, measuring 13.5” broad and 8.6” high. They are I” in thickness. The first plate weighs 174 tolas and the second 181½ tolas. There is a hole, 6” in diameter. at the centre of the top of each plate for the ring which must have originally held them together. But no ring or seal is forthcoming now. The edges of the plates are raised into rims for the protection of the letters. There are 36 lines in all, 18 being inscribed on the inner side of each plate. The letters on the first plate were not deeply engraved and have been somewhat damaged by rust. There are also depressions here and there on its inscribed surface. There is, however, no uncertainty in the reading anywhere.
The characters are Nāgarī. The letters are beautifully written and carefully engraved.
Their average size is .25”. The form of the initial i is made up of two curves with a instance of a human enemy being referred to as a demon, see the Thāṇā plates of Aparājitadēva, dated Śaka 1049 (J. B. B. R. A. S., Vol. XXI, pp. 505 ff.) which speak of Chhittuka, the enemy of Aparājita, as an Asura. This Chhittuka was the Kadamba king Jayakēsari II, as shown by K.B. Pathak. 1The name appears as Sirko in the Degree Map 64 J.
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