North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA

TWO HARSOLA COPPER-PLATE GRANTS OF SIYAKA

...each, but the mechanical work betrays slovenliness both on the part of the writer and the engraver. Some of the lines of the writing are not straight and on the second plate the letters, which are slightly longer occasionally and more sparsely written than on the first, not only gradually decrease in size but are also compressed in the last 5 or 6 lines, and, in spite of it, a portion which could not be accommodated till the end of the last line had to be engraved in the margin on right side thereof.

....The palaeography of the alphabet which was written by a different hand and naturally shows some variation in form, is also interesting in that some of the letters have assumed an advanced from. The letters kh and g, for example, have totally discontinued their triangular limbs, cf. kharanakha, 1. 3, and pratāp-āgni-, 1.6, respectively. The latter of these two examples also shows that p is distinguished from y, a feature not to be seen in the writing of grant A. Dh almost resembles v as in dhvani-vadhirita, 11. 10-11 ; and t in suta-, 1.6, has assumed the advanced form, but the archaic form of this letter is also occasionally to be seen, as in atula-,1. 12. The letter s too is mostly used in its advanced form, e.g. in sāmaṁta, 1.9 and samaya,1. 15. Ph exhibits its rare form in phala-, 1.26, which is somewhat similar to that of the same letter in Grant A, as already seen above. Unlike the writing of the preceding grant, we find the pṛishṭha-mātrās fully developed here and the use of the mātra-, above the top is also more often resorted to as in kulē and –mōsha-, both in 1.5 ; and vairi, in 1. 6.

....About the language and composition, the same remarks as about Grant A are to be made here too; and orthographical peculiarities also are almost the same. It may be remarked, however, that the slovenliness on the part of the writer and the engraver is responsible for omitting limbs of some of the aksharas and also distorting those of some others, e.g. śva in paramēśvara, 1. 4, and śa in śaṅkha, 1. 10 have their tail separated from the loop; m in mōsha, 1. 5, appears as shōsha ; sakala- in 1. 18 is engraved as makala ; y in nāgarāya, 1.20 appears as sha, and finally, shṭa in adṛishṭa, 1.21, as sṭa.

...As stated above, the plates constitute two grants which were issued on the bank of the Māhī by the Mahārājādhirājā and the crest-jewel among the feudatories (sāmanta-chūḍā-maṇi), the illustrious Sīyaka, who, as we shall see below, belonged to the royal house of the Paramāras. The grant B is an exact copy of A, with the exception of the formal portion. The object is to record the gift of the villages Kumbhāroṭaka and Sīhakā in the Mōhaḍavāsaka vishava, respectively to Lallō- pādhyāya,.[1] son of Gōvardhana, and to Nīnā Dīkshita, son of Lallōpādhyāya, a Nāgara Brāhmaṇa of Ānandapura and belonging to Gōpāli gōtra. The dāpaka or the person who caused these grants to be made and who was probably the officer-in-charge of registering the grants. was the Ṭhakkura, the illustrious Vishṇu. The grants were written by the Kāyastha Guṇadhara. The date borne by both the grants, in the last line of each, in decimal figures only, is Māgha vadi 30, Wednesday, 1005, which, as calculated by Dikshit, regularly corresponds to 31st January, 949 A.C., showing that the year was Kārttikādi and the month was amānta.

Each of the inscriptions opens with the customary symbol for Siddham and a verse invoking the blessings of the god Vishṇu in his boar incarnation. This is followed by the mention of the illustrious Amōghavarshadēva with the birudas Paramabhaṭṭāraka, Mahārājādhirāja and Paramēśvara, and his successor, the P.M.P., the illustrious Akālavarshadēva who had the additional epithets of Pṛithvī-vallabha and Śrīvallabha. These two kings are the well-known sovereigns of the royal Rāshṭrakūṭa house of Mālkhēḍ, These two kings are the well-known sovereigns of the royal (c.878-914 A.C.), or Amōghavarsha III (c. 934-939 A.C.) and his son Kṛishṇa III (c. 939-966 A.C.)[2]
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[1] That the father is here called Upādhyāya and the son Dīkshita goes to show that surnames had not then become stereotyped as in the modern days.
[2] Suggesting both these alternatives and also drawing our attention to the fact the date of the present inscriptions, i.e. V. 1005. which is equivalent to Śaka 870, is just intermediate between those of the Dēolī inscription (E. I., V. p. 188. ff.) and the Karhāḍ inscription (E. I.,IV, p. 278 ff.) of Kṛishṇa III, dated respectively in Śake 862 and 880, the editors of the present inscriptions are inclined to favour the second of these alternatives. Dr. D. C. Sircar also holds the same view, for which, see E.I., Vol. XXXII, p. 144 ; and it also appears to be in consonance with the well-known fact that Kṛishṇa III, or his successor Khoṭṭiga, according to a different view, led an expedition into Mālwā against the Paramāra. ruler Sīyaka. probably necessitated by the latter’s assumption of the title of Mahārājādhirājapati (11. 12-13) in the present grants and thus proclaiming his independence. That Kṛishṇa III was the overlord of Sīyak is known from the title Mahāmāṇḍalika-chūḍāmaṇi, also attached to his name in the present records; and it is possible that the overlord was given the honour.