North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF SARAYUPARA

KAHLA PLATES OF SODHADEVA : (VIKRAMA) YEAR 1135

the dark fortnight of the pūrṇimānta Chaitra was current at sunrise as required. It will thus be seen that the grant was reduced to writing as late as fourteen months after it was made.

The land measuring 20 nālus, which was granted by the present charter, was situated in (the sub-divisions of) Ṭīkarikā included in the district of Guṇakala. It formed part of the field of (the villages) Mahiāripāṭaka, Asthīpāṭaka, Thiulapāṭaka, Vaṇiāpāṭāka, Duāripāṭaka and Chhiḍāḍāṭēmbhā. These villages were bounded on the east by Antāḍha, on the north by Ṭikari, on the south by Avaḍachaṇa, and on the west by Chanduliā. The donees were fourteen Brāhmaṇas, of whom two received threequarters of a nālu each, and two others one nālu each; one got three nālus together with a dwelling place, and the rest one a half nālu each. The names of the Brāhmaṇas, their gōtras, pravaras and śākhās can be seen from the subjoined translation. The following are named as the places of their residence or origin:- Kaṭaughana, Kahalla, kulāñcha, Ṭīkari, Talī, Nagara, Nikhatīgrāma, Mahuālī, Mathurā, Sāṅkasasthāna and Hastigrāma.

As for the localities mentioned in this record, Ayōmukha,^¹ is probably identical with A-ye-mu-k'a mentioned by the Chinese traveller Yuan Chwang. Cunningham identified it with Dauṇḍia-khērā on the northern bank of the Gaṅgā², but Mr. V. Smith's view that it corresponds to the Partabgarh and Rae-Bareli Districts in Uttar Pradesh³ appears to be more probable; for this territory has to be conquered before a king of Kālañjara could establish himself in the Gorakhpur District. The identification of Śvētapada with the Nasik District in the Bombay State, proposed by Mr. R. D. Banerji, rests on a wrong reading⁴ and has to be abandoned. A clue to its location is perhaps furnished by similarity of its name to Svētapatha ( Svētapatha) which is mentioned in some records at Sanchi.⁵ Kielhorn identified the river Gaṇḍakī in which the king had bathed before making the grant, with the Gaṇḍak or Little Gaṇḍak of Uttar Pradesh. He also pointed out that 'the river Sarayū, after which Sōḍhadēva's territory appears to have been called Sarayūpāra, most probably is the river Gogra, which in Oudh is known by the names Deoha, Surjoo or Sarayu as well as Ghogra'. He could not, however, identify with confidence any of the numerous places mentioned in the present grant. Some of these I have been able to identify with the help of large-scale maps. Dhuliāghaṭṭa, where the king was residing at the time of making the grant, is probably Dohrighāṭ on the right bank of the Ghogra. It is not, of course, on the Gaṇḍak or even the Little Gaṇḍak, but in view of its proximity to Kahla⁶, which is plainly identical with Kahalla mentioned in 1.45 of the present grant, the identification appears to be probable. It also raises the question if the river Gaṇḍakī mentioned hare could not be the same as the Ghogra. Ṭikari still retain its name and lies about 2 m. north of Kahla. Chanduliā is probably Chandriā, 2 m. to the west of Ṭikari. Mahiāripāṭaka, Asathīpāṭaka, hiulapāṭaka and Vaṇiāpāṭaka seem to be identical with Mehdiā,
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¹Kielhorn took Ayōmukha to be the name of a demon and a mountain (Ep. Ind., Vol. VII, p. 86, n. 2).
² Cunningham's Ancient Geography of India (ed. by S. N. Mujumdar), pp. 443 and 708.
³ Watters, On Yuan Chwang, Vol. II, Appendix, p. 338
⁴ What he read as Svētapada in Ep. Ind., Vol. XIX, p. 72 is really Svētapaṭa meaning 'the Śvētāmbara Jains'; see Bhandarkar's List of Inscriptions of Northern India, p. 291, n. 6.
⁵ M. S., Vol. I (Inscriptions No. 89 and 475).
⁶ It is only 9 miles south by east of Kahla. The Little Gaṇḍak flows about 35 miles and the Gaṇḍak about 80 miles east of Kahla. Besides, as Kielhorn has admitted, no name like Dhuliāghaṭṭa can be found on their banks. 25