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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA UJJAIN COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF MAHĀKUMĀRA LAKSHMIVARMAN ...To consider the reason why the grant had to be renewed after about eight or nine years, we have to examine the history of the Mahākumāra branch of the Paramāra house of Mālwa. It has long been a theme of keen controversy among scholars, and in continuation of what we have observed while editing the preceding inscription, we may resume the thread here. Noticing that the name of the P.M.P. Jayavarman has been omitted in the present record, and also that Lakshmīvarman’s name has similarly been omitted in the Pipliānagar grant of Hariśchandra, of Saṁvat 1235 (1178 A.C.), [1] Kielhorn observes as follows, with reference to the succession, in the family of Yaśōvarman : “Yaśōvarman had three sons, Jayavarman, Ajayavarman and Lakshmīvarman ; and he was in the first instance succeeded by Jayavarman. Soon after his succession (and certainly some time between Vikrama 1192 and 1200), Jayavarman was dethroned by Ajayavarman, who and whose successors then became the main branch of the Paramāra family in Mālwā, and continued to style themselves Mahārājas. The third brother Lakshmīvarman, however, did not submit to Ajayavarman, and as stated in E (i.e. the Bhopāl grant of the Mahākumāra Udayavarman), he succeeded by force of arms in appropriating a portion of Mālwā, which he and his son and grandson de facto ruled over as independent chiefs. At the same time, Lakshmīvarman, and, after him, his son and successor Hariśchandra looked upon Jayavarman, though deposed, as the rightful sovereign of Mālava, and, in my opinion, it is for this reason that Hariśchandra, in the grant D (his Pipliānagar grant ) professes to rule by the favour of that prince, and that both Lakshmīvarman and Hariśchandra claim for themselves no higher title than that of Mahākumāra, a title which was handed down to, and adopted by, even Lakshmīvarman’s grandson Udayavarman.” [2]
...Kielhorn’s suggestion is indeed ingenious, but we have not the slightest evidence to show that Jayavarman was dethroned by Ajayavarman (in fact, these were the two names of the same person, as we shall see presently), or that Lakshmīvarman did not submit to Ajayavarman. Moreover, the statement of the Bhopāl grant of Udayavarman to the effect that Lakshmīvarman succeeded in occupying the territory not from Jayavarman, who, as we have seen in the preceding grant, had himself fled to the Bhopāl region and may have then been accompanied by Lakshmīvarman, but from his enemies who were the Chandēllas who had that time usurped a portion of the region around Bhilsā, as we know from the Augasī grant of Madanavarman, [3] which was issued from his residence near Bhillasvāmipura ; and our observation gets further support from the fact that Lakshmīvarman confirmed the grant made by his father in the same region around Bhilsā which is herein called the Mahādvādaśaka-maṇḍala ; and it may fairly be imagined that Lakshmīvarman’s reconquest of the region may probably have necessitated the re-issuing of the grant. ...Omission of a name or two is no sure indication of a feud ; nor does it throw any definite light on the line of succession, as rightly observed by N.P. Chakravarti, while editing the Bhopāl charter of Udayavarman, (V.) S. 1214 (1157 A.C.), by stating that “we know that inscriptions do not always give a full genealogy of the ruler to whose reign they refer themselves but may mention the names of one or two or even none of his predecessors.” [4] With reference to Kielhorn’s observation, it may also be remarked here that in fact the present charter had not the least occasion to mention the name of Jayavarman, since the concerned rulers were only two, viz. Yaśōvarman who had originally made the grant, and Lakshmīvarman who confirmed it subsequently.
...
The whole discussion on the division of the Paramāra kingdom during the fourth decade
of the twelfth century may be summarised here. Soon after the capture of Mālava and its king
Yaśōvarman, by the Chaulukya Jayasiṁha, in 1138 A.C., the former’s sons Jayavarman and
Lakshmīvarman (and along with them Trailōkyavarman also, about whom we shall speak while
Mālwā-somewhere in the region around Bhopāl, where they annexed some territories from the
Chandēllas and established themselves there. In the last days of the Chaulukya Jayasiṁha, or soon
after his death, Jayavarman, who was very probably the elder of the two brothers, returned to Dhārā
[1] Below. No. 45. The same we find also in the Bhopāl grant of Hariśchandra. issued in (V.) S. 1214 or
1157 A.C.
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