North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF CHANDRAVATI

been edited nor noticed or referred to before in connection with the history of the Paramāras. D. R. Bhandarkar, who visited Nāṇā in 1907-08, discovered another inscription in the temple but missed the present one, which appears to have been found in 1968-69, by the Technical Assistant of the office of the Chief Epigraphist, in course of his visit to that place ; and from impressions prepared by him and kindly supplied to me by the Chief Epigraphist, [1] the record is edited here.

...The inscription consists of nine lines of writing, measuring 14 cms. broad by 24.5 cms. high. The last of the lines contains only two letters. The average size of the aksharas is 2 cms., but in the first line they are slightly bigger and their size is about 2.5 cms. The characters are Nāgarī. The form of bh in 1. 8 is antique. The letters are legible, but I could not correctly make out the last two of them in 1. 4 so as to give an intelligible sense.

...The language is Sanskrit, with a few errors of spelling and also with some Prakrit elements creeping in. The record is all in prose. The orthography does not call for any remark except about the use of the word Pramāra for Paramāra, as in some of the records of the house. [2]

...The object of the inscription appears most probably to mark a plot of land belonging to the Brāhmaṇas at the place; and in view of this, the stone bearing the record does not appear to have been originally belonged to this temple where it was found but brought here from a place in its vicinity where the plot may have then actually existed,

... The object of the inscription appears most probably to mark a plot of land belonging to the Brāhmaṇas at the place; and in view of this, the stone bearing the record does not appear to have been originally belonged to this temple where it was found but brought here from a place in its vicinity where the plot may have then actually exist

... Following the figures for the year, the Paramāra family is introduced and the prince (rājaputra) of the name of Rājasiṁha appears in 11. 5-6, with his title sāhaṇī (sādhanika). The last two letters in 1. 4, along with the three in the next line, read somewhat like sāiṇasāhaṇī, which means an emperor; and if the reading is correct, the use of this title by a Hindu prince may be taken to indicate the practice then current in this part of the land, probably due to the growing Muslim influence.

...The name of the Mahārājaputra Rājasiṁha, a member of the Paramāra family, is otherwise unknown, and the present inscription, which is of course a business document, is altogether silent as to his relationship with any of the known members of the house. However, if the word dāvaḍā, as it appears in 1. 2 of the inscription, is taken to be a corrupt form of the word Dēvarāja, or wrongly engraved in it, he may have been a member of the Bhinmāl Paramāra branch, founded by Dēvarāja. [3] This view receives a strong corroboration from the fact that the provenance of the inscription is only about 60 kms. due north-east of Bhinmāl, the capital of the house of Dēvarāja.

...It is, however, difficult to ascertain Rājasiṁha’s position in the house. The Kirāḍū inscription we know to have been dated in 1218 V.S., during the reign of the Paramāra Sōmēśvara who was succeeded by the Māhārājaputra Jagatsiṁha whom we know from the Bhinmāl stone inscription of V.S. 1239 or 1182 A.C.,; [4] and the date of the present inscription is 19 years later than that of the first of these records and 2 years earlier than that of the second. Following this clue, it is possible to suggest that Rājasiṁha of the present inscription may have been a son or nephew of Sōmeśvara and probably an elder brother of Jagatsiṁha of the Bhinmāl inscription. This assumption, however, cannot be verified under the present state of our knowledge. But he appears to have been a contemporary of Dhārāvarsha of the Sirōhī branch of the Paramāras holding sway in the neighbourhood,

... No geographical name appears in the inscription.
________________

[1] It is No, C-2815 of 1968-69 of the A. R. E. The temple where the inscription is said to have been found. stands on an extremity of the village. In my visit to it on 13-9-1972, however, I could not succeed in locating the inscription, though I found the other one edited below.
[2] See above, No. 62, 1. 2; No. 63, 11. 2-3, etc.
[3] As in the example of Luṇṭhigadēva, for which see S. E., p. 89, It has, however, to be admitted here that we have no other example from the Bhinmāl Paramāra branch itself.
[4] Below, Nos. 94 and 95, respectively,

CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM
VOL.VII .................................................................................................PLATE LXXI
..............NANA STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF RAJASIMHA: (VIKRAMA) YEAR 1237

Home Page