North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF RATANPUR

the form babhūva; the left limb of the palatal ś has now assumed the modern Nāgarī form; see Śivāya, 1.1 The avagraha is used to denote the elision of a in kartta'tha, 1.19 and manyē' mushmin, 1.23. The vertical dash is used at the end of several lines to denote an incomplete word.

The language is Sanskrit. Except ōṁ namaḥ Śivāya in the beginning and the mention of the date and the ruling king at the end, the record is metrically composed throughout. There are, in all, 38 verses, all of which are numbered. The records is composed in a verbose style full of hyperbolical expressions, well-known from the records of later periods. The poet shows considerable command over the language, though here and there one comes across a grammatical solecism or a metrical irregularity ; see, e.g., adhirōpyata in 1.21 for adhyarōpyata-. Lakhamā in 1.15 should be Lakhmā to suit the Mālinī metre of the verse. As regards orthography, the consonant following r is redupli- cated in many cases ; see, e.g., -karṇṇa-, 1.2; the dental s is occasionally used for the palatal ś as in sikhara, 1.2 ; y is used for j in paurusha-yushāṁ 1.15 ; n is used ñ in panchāyastanam=, and for anusvāra in -vidhvansa-, both in 1.23. As stated before, v is used for b throughout. Finally, in niḥkaṇṭakaṁ ll. 18 and 19, the visarga takes the place of sh.

The inscription refers itself to the reign of Pṛithvīdēva II who belonged to the Ratanpur branch of the Kalachuri Dynasty. The object of it is to record the construction of a five-shrined temple of Śiva by Putushōttama, a minister plenipotentiary (Sarvādhikārin) of Pṛithvīdēva's father and predecessor Ratnadēva II, and the grant of some land in honour of the gods installed in the temple.

The record is dated in the year 900 (expressed in decimal figures only) of an unspecified era, without any further details such as month, fortnight, tithi and week-day. The date must evidently be referred to the Kalachuri era which was current in that period in Chhattisgarh. It falls in the reign of Pṛithvīdēva II whose dates range from K. 890^¹ to K. 915.^² Verse 35 mentions a solar eclipse on the occasion of which Pṛithvīdēva II granted a village to the minister Purushōttama. No year is mentioned in connection with this eclipse, but supposing that it occurred in the same year in which the present record was put up, we get some data for verification. According to the epoch of 247-48 A.C., the year 900 mentioned in the present inscription will have to be taken as current; for there was a solar eclipse in the current Kalachuri year 900 (corresponding to 1147-48 A.C.), which occurred on the pūrṇimānta Vaiśākha amāvāsyā^³ (20th April 1148 A. C.), while in the expired Kalachuri year 900 (1148-49 A.C.) there was no solar eclipse at all. The date may therefore be said to be regular.⁴ This is one of the few later dates of the Kalachuri era, mentioning a current year.

After four maṅgala-ślokas in praise of Śiva, his Nandi, the goddess of speech and Gaṇapati, the auther states in one verse the importance of having a poetical record of one's achivements. He then proceeds to state the pedigree of the ruling king Pṛithvīdēva II
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¹ This date is furnished by the Daikōni plates, No. 86 above.
² This date occurs in the Ratanpur stone inscription of Pṛithīdēva II; see No. 96, bellow.
³ Another solar eclipse had occurred just before the commencement of that Kalachuri year, on the amōvāsya of the pūrṇimānta Kārttika (26th October 1147 A. C.).
⁴ The original epoch of the Kalachuri era was 248-49 A. C. which suite early dates of the era found in Gujarat and Northern Maharashtra as shown before. See dates of Nos. 21-23, above. That epoch does not suit later dates of the era and would not at all suit the date of the present inscription; for according to that epoch the solar eclipse should have occurred in 1148-49 A. C. if the year 900 was current, and in 1149-50 A. C. if it was expired. But in neither of these years was there any solar eclipse.