North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA

No. 47 ; No PLATE
PIPLIANAGAR COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF ARJUNAVARMAN
[Vikrama] Year 1267

...THE copper-plate bearing the subjoined inscription is stated to have been found, some time in the early years of the last century, in a field of the village of Pipliānagar in the Shujālpur parganā of the Shājāpur District of Madhya Pradesh. It was acquired by the Jāgirdār of the village and presented to L. Wilkinson who was then Political Agent at Bhopāl. Wilkinson published his reading of the text in Nāgarī, with a translation, but without an illustration, in the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society, Volume V (for 1836), pp. 377 ff ; but he has stated nothing as to the dimensions, weight and the other details of the plate, and the whereabouts of its existence are not known to-day. Thus, failing to obtain its impression or a photograph, I edit the inscription here from its transcript published by Walkinson, with my notes appended to it.

... The inscription is in Nāgarī and the language is Sanskrit. It is composed in verses, with the exception of a small sentence paying obeisance to dharmma in the beginning, the formal portion with the date, middle, and the mention of the composer’s name, etc., in the end, which are all in prose. The orthography calls for no remarks except that (1) the consonant following r is generally doubled with a few exceptions, e.g., in dharmmāya, 1. 1, but not in the same word in v. 9 ; and (2) the general use of an anusvāra, even at the end of a sentence or a verse. It may also be observed here that the word kṛimi is spelt as krimi in verse 22.

... The object of the inscription is to record the donation of the entire village (samastō’=pi grāmaḥ) known as Piḍiviḍi, situated in the Śakapura pratijāgaraṇaka, by Arjunavarman, and it was announced by the king from his stay at Maṇḍapa-durga, to all officials and the public of the village. The date of the gift is recorded to be the tenth day of the bright half of Phālguna of the year 1267, mentioned both in words and figures, just following the poetical portion ending with verse 19. The date regularly corresponds to Thursday, the 24th February, 1211 A.C. The year was Kārttikādi, expired.

...To note the contents of the inscription, it begins with a small sentence in prose, paying obeisance to dharmma which is the crest-jewel of all the purushārthas ; and following this, there are 19 stanzas in the anushṭubh metre, the first four of which respectively invoke the blessings of the Moon, Paraśurāma, Rāma and Yudhishṭhira. The following 12 stanzas (vv. 5-16) are devoted to the description of the dynasty of the Paramāras of (reigning at ) Dhārā, beginning with Bhōjadēva, (vv. 5-6), who was followed by Udayāditya, who stripped off the glory of his adversaries. This is probably a veiled reference to the prowess of this king in restoring the glory of his house, as we have seen above.[2] Udayāditya’s son was Naravarman (vv. 9-10), his son Yaśōvarman, and his son Ajayavarman (v. 11), his son Vindhyavarman who vanquished the strength of (the king of ) Gujarāt (vv. 12-3), his son Subhaṭavarman (vv. 14-4),[3]
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[1] See Ind. Ant., Vol. XIX, p. 24, No 10, and n. 4.
[2] The expression tataḥ in v. 7 has to be taken in the sense of after him and not from him, in which sense also it is often used. The adjective nity-ōtsāhaika-kautukī appearing in the second foot of the verse and applied to Udayāditya has been translated by Wilkinson as “whose constant delight was the pursuit of pleasure”. This is evidently wrong and goes against history. I take the expression to mean “whose sole delight was to perform deeds of valour”. This ruler is known to have subdued the enemies who had overpowered the kingdom in the last days of Bhōjadēva., as also referred to by the expression mahā-kalaha-kalpa in the next verse of the present record.
[3] Between Vindhyavarman and Subhaṭavarman a king of the name of Amushyāyaṇa is interposed by Wilkinson, who mistook an epithet for a proper name. This was first pointed out by F. E. Hall in Journ. of the Am. Ori. Soc., Vol. VII, p. 37. Similarly, Wilkinson has not well brought out the meaning of verse 13, in which the expression uddhṛitya dhārayā is used a double entendre, meaning
(1) by the blade of (his) uplifted sword, and (2) by the liberation of (the town of )Dhārā, the Paramāra capital.

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