North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF CHANDRAVATI

throughout legible, perhaps with the exception of a name which appears in 1. 3 of section A. The lines are not in proper alignment. The approximate height of the letters is between 1 and 1.2 cms., excluding the mātrās above.

...The script of the inscription is Nāgarī of the eleventh century. Dh and v are similar in forms, as in –dhavala, 1. 2; and bh is somewhat like t, as in prabhōḥ, in A, 1. 4. The language is Sanskrit, which is almost correct; and the record is all in prose. With reference to orthography, we may note that excepting in the first line of each of the sections, as we generally find in several other records of the time, the medial dipthongs are denoted by the pṛishṭha-mātrā.

...The object of the inscription is to record the installation of an image of the lord Brahmā by Bhābhinī, [1] a sister of the Maṇḍalīka Yaśōdhavala, on Thursday, the thirteenth of the bright half of Jyēshṭha in the (Vikrama)year 1210. The date regularly corresponds to 27th of May, 1154 A.C., for the Southern Vikrama year, expired.

... Commencing with the date, as shown above, the record mentions the name of Yaśōdhavala’s sister, in section A, also telling us that she installed the image. Section B is meant to state the name of the sculptor Dēū; and the record ends with the customary expression praṇamati nityaṁ(m).

... The family to which Yaśōdhavala belonged is not mentioned in the inscription, which is silent about his lineage also. The findspot of the inscription, i.e. the town of Bāgh, lies about 60 kms. straight south-west of Dhār which was then the capital of the Imperial Paramāra house, and obviously the region around it must have been included in the kingdom of the Imperial Paramāra house of Dhārā. But the name Yāśōdhavala does not appear in the family ruling at Dhārā. However, from the title of Maṇḍalīka that he is given in the record, he appears to be no other than the homonymous king, the father of the celebrated Dhārāvarsha of the junior branch of the Paramāra house holding sway over Chandrāvatī, who is known from two records of V.S. 1202 and 1207. [2] From the Ujjain stone inscription of the Chaulukya Jayasiṁha of V.S. 1195 or 1138 A.C., we know that this king (Jayasiṁha) claims to be Avanti-nātha, which shows that he had conquered and annexed the whole of the Paramāra kingdom to the Chaulukya empire. [3] This incident took place about fifteen years earlier than the time when the image bearing the present inscription was set up; and during the reign of Jayasiṁha’s successor Kumārapāla (c. 1143-1172 A.C.) there was practically no change in the situation. From Jinavatī through the favour of Kumārapāla, [4] to whom he remained faithful, and as such, he killed Ballāla of unknown lineage who had, during the period of confusion that followed Jayasiṁha’s capture of Mālwā, usurped some parts thereof, proclaiming himself as the king of that region. Thus Ballāla was an inveterate enemy of Kumārapāla, and Yaśōdhavala who was a devoted feudatory of the Chaulukya throne, had a fine opportunity to show his devotedness to his overlord by killing Ballāla. [5] In view of all this, it appears most probable. that Yaśōdhavala of the Paramāra branch of Ābū, who was a devoted feudatory of Kumārapāla, was also in some way or other concerned with the administration of the region around Bāgh, which is only about 200 miles or 322 kms. straight south-east of the Mālava capital. Or, he may have at least visited that place in course of his tour, when the image in question was set up by his sister. The date of the present inscription is also not far off from those of two known inscriptions of his reign, which are V.S. 1202 and 1207, as seen above. And the present inscription would show that this ruler was on the throne at least up on 1152 A.C. All these suggestions are merely conjectural and cannot be finally accepted unless they are corroborated by any other evidence.

...No place-name figures in the inscription.
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[1] For the reading of the name, see text below.
[2] Nos. 64 and 65, above.
[3] Ind. Ant., Vol. XLII, p. 258 ; I.N.I., No. 240. Also see H.P.D., pp. 166 ff.
[4] P. 42.
[5] Mt. Ābū inscription, Ep. Ind., Vol. VIII, p. 211, v. 35. Literary and epigraphical sources give the credit of slaying Ballāla to Kumārapāla himself (e.g., see Vaḍnagar praśasti, Ep. Ind., Vol. I, p. 293; Dvyāś-raya-kāvya, XVI, p. 8, p. 269); and Vasanta-vilāsa, 111, v. 29. But in view of the reference stated first, this was a sort of service actually perofrmed by the feudatory for his overlord, to whom it is attributed in these sources. Also see No. 76, v. 8; and I.N.I. , No. 488.

CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM
VOL.VII ................................................PLATE LXIX
........BAGH IMAGES INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF YASODHAVALA: (VIKRAMA) YEAR 1210

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