North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF RATANPUR

AMODA PLATES OF PRIMHVIDEVA I : YEAR 813

Gāṅgēyadēva. His son was Ratnarāja, who married Nōnnalā,^¹ the daughter of Vaju varman, the lord of the Kōmō-Maṇḍala. Their son was Pṛithvīdēva (I), the donor of the present grant. He is described here as the sole lord of twenty-one thousand (villages), the extremely mighty ruler of the entire Kōsala country, the Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara who had acquired the pañchamahāśabda and was a devout worshipper of Mahēśvara.

The object of the present inscription is to record the donation of the village Vasȧhā in the Apara-maṇḍala^² on the occasion of the construction of a chatushkikā, or a hall resting on four pillars, of the temple of Vaṅkēśvȧra in Tummāṇa. The donee was the Brāhmaṇa Kēśava^³ of the Āṅgirasa gōtra with the three pravaras Utathya, Gautama and Vasishṭha.⁴ He was the son of Chānda,⁵ the grandson of the Upādhyāya Thirāīcha (Sthirāditya) and the great-grandson of Yaśōdēva. He had emigrated from Hastiyāmaṭhī. The grant was made on Sunday, the seventh tithi of the dark fortnight of phālguna of the year 831 (expressed in numerical figures only) of (the era of) the lord of Chēdi (Chēd-īśasya). The witnesses of the gift were three persons, probably officials, viz., Trivikramarāja, Vikrama and Arjuna. The Śrēshṭhin Yaśa, the Mayor of Ratnapura, and the rich Dhōdhāka also made a gift of land, apparently to the same Brāhmaṇa. The charter was written by Alhaṇa, the owner of a village named Garbha. It was incised by the sculptor Hāsala.

The date of the present grant must evidently be referred to the Kalachuri era. R.B. Hiralal explained Chēdīśa used in connection with it as signifying Chhattisgarh.⁶ The latter name, which apparently means (the country of) thirty-six forts, is according to him a corruption of Chēd-īśa-gaḍha, 'the forts or districts of the lord of Chēdi'. But the derivation is fanciful. Kōsala, or Dakshiṇa-Kōsala, not Chēdi, was the ancient name of Chhattisgarh. As Pargiter has shown,⁷ Chēdi was the name of the country along the southern bank of the Yaminā. Southwards it probably extended to the Vindhyas. Besides, chhattīsa is derived from the Sankrit shaṭ-triṁśat and not from Chēd-īśa. The reason why the era is specified here as belonging to the lord of Chēdi is that it was introduced for the first time in Chhattisgarh by a subordinate branch of the Kalachuri dynasty. The latter owed allegiance to the main house of Tripurī which ruled over the Chēdi country. The kings of Śarabhapura and those of the Sōmavaṁśī dynasty, who were ruling in Chhattisgarh before the Kalachuris, used only regnal years in dating their records. In the 11th century A.C. to which the present record belongs, the era was used in India only by the Kalachuris who were then ruling over the Chēdi country. As it was not previously current in Chhattisgarh, it had to be specified as above to prevent confusion.

The date of the present grant regularly corresponds, for the current Kalachuri year 831, to Sunday, the 27th January 1079 A.C. The seventh tithi of the dark fortnight of the pūrṇimānta Phālaguna ended 7 h. 30 m. after mean sunrise on that day. In 1080 A.C., the tithi fell on a Thursday and in 1081 A.C., on a Wednesday, neither of which years would, therefore, be suitable. This is one of the few dates of the Kalachuri era citing a current year.
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¹ This name also appears in a different form elsewhere. See, e.g., line 13 of No. 77, below, where it appears as Nōnallā.
² See below p. 406, n. 12.
³ He is called a sage in 1. 27. He is mentioned as a witness in the preceding grant (No. 75, 1. 13).
⁴ The pravara Vasishṭha is not generally associated with Gautama. The pravaras should, therefore, be Āṅgirasa, Autathya and Gautama; see the Gōtrapravaranibandhakadamba, p. 39.
⁵ Hiralal read the name as Chāṭṭa; see below, p. 406, n. 8.
⁶ Ep. Ind., Vol. XIX, p. 76.
⁷ J. A. S. B., Vol. LXIV, Part I, p. 253.