North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF RATANPUR

with a silken cloth representing an umbrella (red) like an indragōpa insect over a golden jar.^¹ He made brave kings tremble in a great war and brought the under his sway. This Sāhilla is not known from other records. Rājamāla, in whose family he was born, may be identical with the king Rājamalla who is described in a grant of the queen Tribhuvanamahādēvi of the Kara dynasty as an ornament of the southern regions. He was the father of the queen and had given his valuable support to re-establish the power of the Karas in a great crisis in their history after the death of their ruling prince who was perhaps his own son-in-law.^² If the proposed identification is correct, Sāhilla seems to have emigrated from the eastern coast to seek his fortune in Chhattisgarh. Vaḍahara, from which he emigrated, may be identical with the district of Vōḍā mentioned in the Antirigām plates of Yaśabhañjadēva.^³ The Vivarabhūmi which Sāhilla conquered appears to be another name of Pātāla or the nether world. We know from the Navasāhasāṅkacharita of Padmagupta^⁴ that Chhattisgarh was so designated by Sanskrit poets of the 11th cen. A.C.

The inscription next states that Sāhilla had a younger brother named Vāsudēva and three sons Bhāyila, Dēsala and Svāmin. They conquered the Bhaṭṭavila and Viharā countries. Jayadēva, the elder son of Svāmin, acquired ( the country of ) Dāṇḍōra containing 2100 villages, while the younger son Dēvasiṁha took the Kōmō maṇḍala. We are next told that the Ṭhakkurājṅī Udayā, who as already observed, must have been the wife of one of the two last-named brothers, was the mother of Jagapāla.

The next six lines (7-12) describe the achievements of Jagapāla. The Māyūrikas and Sāvantas, dreadful enemies as they were, submitted to him. Of these the Māyūrikas may refer to the contemporary rulers of the Bhañja dynasty while the Sāvantas have been identified by Rai Bahadur Hiralal with the aboriginal tribe of the Sāontas in the Bilaspur District.^⁵For his lord Jājalladēva, who is evidently the first prince of that name in the Ratanpur branch of the Kalachuri dynasty, Jagapāla conquered the Tamanāla coun- try, together with Rāṭha and Tēra.^⁶ During the reign of Ratnadēva (II) he acquired the name of Jagatsiṁha (the Lion of the world) by his heroic deeds in the Talahāri country.^⁷ But his exploits were still greater during the reign of Pṛithvīdēva (II). He took the strong forts of Saraharāgaḍha and MachakāSihavā and conquered the countries of Bhramaravadra, Kāntāra, kusumabhōga, Kāndā-ḍōṅgara and Kākayara. He established the town of Jagapālapura in the newly acquired territory. He had three younger brothers, Gājala, Jayasiṁha and Dēvarāja,^⁸ of whom the last one occupied a prominent position during the reigns of the three princes mentioned above. With the help of these three brothers, Jagapāla is said to have won the earth.

As has been already observed by Cunningham and Kielhorn, Sāhilla seems to have come as a military adventurer to Chhattisgarh where we find his descendants settled down
________________

¹This is what the words means as they stand. As the record is composed in a slipshod manner,
it is not unlikely that the author intended to convey the sense of a golden kalaśa on a red umbrella. Such a kalaśa on the top of an umbrella is seen in South Indian temples.
² J. B. O. R. S., Vol. II, p. 422.
³ Ep. Ind., Vol. XVIII, pp. 298-299. Hiralal, who identified Vaḍahara with Baḍahara in the Mirzapur District, thought that Sāhilla came from the north. He has not, however, been able to suggest any identification of Rājamāla.
⁴ Ind. Ant., Vol. LXII, p. 104 ff.
⁵ I.C.P.B., (second ed.), p. 107.
⁶ I am not certain about the names of these countries. They are not met with elsewhere, though R.B. Hiralal has conjectrually placed them to the north of the former Raigarh State.
⁷ This was perhaps during the invasion of the country by Anantavarman Chōḍagaṅga.
⁸ Dēvarāja also (api) was probably a brothers of Jagapāla, though there is no explicit statement to that effect.