North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA

SEHORE COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF ARJUNAVARMAN

bhūmir=iyaṁ, which possibly indicates that particular plot of land where the assemblage took place.

...The donee of the present grant is the same as of the two of the two preceding grants, [1] viz., the Brāhmaṇa Purōhita Gōvindaśarman. Here he is given the additional title of Paṇḍita. His genealogy, gōtra and pravaras too are mentioned to be the same as in the preceding grant. But the additional term mentioned in the donation here is ghaṭṭādāya, which means the tax collected for passing, landing or transporting goods on the ghāṭ, which is quite appropriate as the gift village Hathiṇāvara lies on the Narmadā on its north bank ; and it is interesting to note that it was in those days a ferry station.

... The portion dealing with the grant is followed by the imprecatory and other concluding verses, as in the previous grant, with an additional stanza-Vātābhra-vibhramam=idaṁ, etc. (v.23). After this, the date, as seen above, is repeated in figures, followed by the auspicious symbol chha and some others, and, in the end we are told that the record was composed by the Rājaguru Madana, who also composed the two preceding records, with the consent of Rājā Salakhaṇa, [2] who was then the mahā-sāndhi-vigrahika (expressed in its short form). The grant, after this, bears the royal signature Sva-hast=ōyaṁ Mahārājaśrī-Arjunavarmadēvasya, stating in the end of that it was engraved by Paṁ , i. e., Paṇḍita Bāpyadēva, who is the same person who engraved the preceding record.

...The geographical names mentioned in this inscription are : (1) Narmadā (2) Kapilā, (3) Amarēśvara tīrtha, (4) Hathiṇāvara and (5) Pagārā. Of these, the river Narmadā is well known, and Kapīlā can be identified with the stream now known as Kolār which joins the Narmadā near Amarēśvara, which is the well known place Ōṁkāra-Māndhātā in the east Nēmāḍ District of Madhya Pradesh. It is interesting to note that this stream is the same as Kuvilārā, mentioned in the Dēwās grant of Naravarman. Hathiṇāvara is the same as the modern village of the name of Hatnāwar, situated about 3 kilometres west of Dharampurī in the Manāwar parganā of the Dhār District, in Lat. 22o 9’ N. and long. 75o 21’ E. The village takes its name from a stone-figure of an elephant in the centre of the Narmadā opposite the village. [3] Pagārā, which is mentioned as a pratijāgraraṇaka in the present grant, may be identified with the village of the same name, lying about 12 kilometers north of Dharmapuri. [4]

TEXT [5]
[Metres : Verses 1-19 ; 21-22 Anushṭubh ; v. 20 Vasantatilakā ; v. 23 Śālinī ; v. 24 Pushpitāgrā].

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[1] Nos. 47-48. above.
[2] This person is evidently the same as the father of Anayasiṁha. the donor of the Māndhātā grant of V.S. 1331 (No. 60. below) which gives him the credit of vanquishing the army of Siṁghaṇa of Dēvagiri and winning some other battles for his master Arjunavarmadēva (vv. 59-60). These he is called sādhanika, in 1. 126.
[3] Western States Gazetteer, Malwa, p. 501.
[4] This view, however. is not conclusive. for as suggested by Shri J. Dube. a Lecturer at Hardā. there are two other villages bearing the names Hathṇāpur and Pagārā. lying on the north back of the Narmadā, in the south-eastern border of the Bhopāl District, just opposite to Guvāḍā-ghaṭṭa mentioned in Udayavarman’s inscription dated V. 1256 (No. 46. 1. 13) ; and they may equally be taken to be identical with the two places mentioned in our record. There is no conclusive evidence on the point. In any case, D.C. Ganguly’s suggestion identifying Pagārā with the village Pagar near Pachmarī in Hoshaṅgābād District (H.P.D., p. 202) cannot be upheld, since, besides being very distant. it is on the south bank of the river and not on the north. as mentioned in our inscription.
[5] As transcribed by Hall in J. Am. Or. Soc.. Vol. VII. pp. 25 ff. His transcript is not line by line.
[6] Probably denoted by a symbol.
[7] In the preceding grant the seventh syllable was read as yō.

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