North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF RATANPUR

ear-ornament of the excellent lady of the night, the abode of the highest principle of love, a swan in the Gaṅgā flowing through the matted hair of the destroyer [of Tripura] (i.e., Śiva), whose loveliness crushes the pride of . . . . , a true friend of the night-lotuses, and the tap-root of the intense joy of the people!

(V. 4) In the race of this [very] (Moon), there occurred many sub-divisions of the family in former times. Among them was a lineage named Kalachuri, adorned with excellences, in which were born kings possessed of the greatness of Indra, who with the plaster of their immense fame whitened the temples of the three worlds.

(V. 5) From the milk-ocean of that Kalachuri family was born Ratnarāja (1), the home of the good actions of royal personages, an incarnation of the law of truth, a royal road among the paths of morning remembrance,^¹ a wise man of well-known greatness like Māndhātā (and) an object of veneration to princes.

(V. 6) From him was born the king Pṛithvīdēva (1), who was to the Kali age what an elephant is to a lotus-plant;^² who was possessed of well-known fame and of renowned greatness through veracity and liberality; who was virtuous in conduct and resembled the sun in lustre, being (himself) piety incarnate and a grown-up tree, supporting the creepers of good deeds, and like Pṛithu, an object of veneration to the world.

(V. 7) From him was born the king Jājalladēva (1) who, by the mighty valour of his bolt-like arms, destroyed the fortune of his enemies, even as fire destroys a large forest; who was possessed of glory, brilliant and white like the autumnal moon, a kunda (flower), snow, a pearl-necklace (and) a night-lotus.

(V. 8) He had (a wife) named Lāchchhalladēvī, whose hand he grasped (in marriage), as Purushōttama (i.e., Vishṇu) had Lakshmī. She became a co-wife of the Earth. .

(V. 9) His son was^³the illustrious Ratnadēva (II) by name, an elephant dex- terous in fighting, who completely crushed the conceit of the heroic princes, (and) who set his heart on giving away in charity the wealth he had collected by the unbounded valour of his arms.

(V. 10) “This is no world, but Kailāsa; these are no ordinary men, but (Śiva) the lord of Parvati; all these rivers are the Gaṅgā; this is no autumn, but it is the laughter of that moon-crested (Śiva).” __In the three worlds, thus do the people know (all objects of) the world as connected with Śiva while the mass of fame of that best of men is rolling on.

(V. 11) An able (and) devoted feudatory of the illustrious ancestors of that king was Dēvarāja of the Vaiśya lineage, who, by the great mass of this lustre, resembled the mid-day sun; who was like the wish-fulfilling celestial tree to poor people and who, being lovely by (his) fame, placed on his head the dust of Śiva's feet.

(V. 12) As from the milky ocean was produced the cool-rayed (moon), nourishing the clusters of night-lotuses, so from him (i.e., Dēvarāja) was born a son named Rāghava, a famous minister of kings, who (like the moon) removed the oppression of the people, and had (knowledge of ) arts (as the moon has digits), (who was) a unique habitation of truth and valour, illustrious and intelligent, a receptacle of incomparable greatness, and the foremost among the mighty.⁴
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¹ I. e., the foremost among those whose names are auspiciously uttered in the morning.
² I. e., he destroyed the evil influence of the Kali age.
³ As the present inscription belongs to the reign of Ratnadēva (II) himself, the past tence is here wrongly used for present. In the next verse, on the other hand, the poet has rightly used the present tense while referring to the conditions in the reign of Ratnadēva II.
⁴ The epithet ugr-ōparisṭbaḅ can also be applied to the moon which is placed on the head of Ugra (Siva).