North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA

MAHAUḌĪ COPPĒR-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF BHOJADEVA

(7) changing a letter or sign at the end of a hemistich in view of the one that immediately follows it ; e.g. in 1.11. phalam, the last word of v. 4 is joined with the initial i in 1. 27 ; the visarga of the last word vilōpyāḥ of v. 9 is dropped in view of the following initial i which is the first syllable of a word ;and the visarga of bhiḥ at the end of a hemistich in 1. 20 is changed to r, in view of the following ya which begins the third foot of the same verse.

...The object of the charter is to record the donation made by Bhōjadēva, of the village of Dugāyī (Dugāryī ?)[1] which was situated in the western 52-village-group in Bhūmi-gṛiha, to Mārkaṇḍa-śārman, son of Bhaṭṭa Śrīpati and son’s son of Bhaṭṭa Gōkarṇa, a religious student of the Vājasanēya śākhā and belonging to Vatsa gōtra, with the five-fold pravaras and hailing from a place known as Śravaṇabhadra, situated in Gauḍa-dēśa. The donation was made on the occasion of a lunar eclipse which fell, as expressed in words only, on the full-moon day of Śrāvaṇa of the year 1074, which of course, must be referred to the Vikrama era, and the corresponding Christian date, accordingly, is 30th July, 1018 A.C. But according to Swamikannu Pillai’s Indian Ephemeris, there was no lunar eclipse on the night, and, as pointed out by Dr. sircar, the date must be taken to be irregular.[2] Sircar also observes that the week-day was Wednesday and not Thursday, as mentioned in the record.[3] But in this respect it may be indicated that following the custom that the parva-day of a lunar eclipse when donations are made is always to be observed the next morning after the time of the eclipse is over, the announcement of the gift was made actually by the king in person on Thursday and thus the use of gurau can be justified. The use of the past particile also indicates that the eclipse was then already over.[4]

...The inscription begins with two verses eulogising the god Śiva, under the names of ‘Vyōmakēsa’, or ‘he who has the sky for his hair’ (1.1), and ‘Smarārāti’, or ‘the foe of the god of love’(1.2). It then introduces the Paramabhaṭṭāraka, Mahārājādhirāja and Paramēśvara, the illustrious Bhōja- dēva, meditating on the feet (was a successor) of the P.M.P., the illustrious Sindhurājadēva, who again, had meditated on the feet (was a successor) of the P.M.P. the illustrious Vākpatirājadēva, who, in his turn, had meditated on the feet (was the successor) of the P.M.P. the illustrious Sīyakadēva (11.2-5). The following lines (5-15) describe the object of the record, as noted above.

...The record proceeds to say that on this occasion, the king, who was then residing at Dhārā, took bath, and after performing the daily duties, announced his donation of the village before all the officials including the paṭṭakila and the people of the village and ordered them to render to the donee all the taxes in cash (hiraṇya), share of the crop produce (bhāga), periodical offerings and the additional taxes (upari-kara) and including all dues. The formal part of the grant is followed by five of the customary benedictive and imprecatory verses (in 11. 19-27) ; and after this the syllable chha, intended to express auspiciousness, is engraved three times. In 1.28 the charter records another date, in figures only, viz., the fifth of the bright half of Āśvina of the (Vikrama) Saṁvat 1074. Taking the year beginning with the month of Kārttika, this date corresponds to the 17th September, 1018 A.C., when the royal order was actually put on the plates which were handed over to the donee. Following this, in 1.28 it is stated that it was the order of the king himself ; and wishing great fortune and recording the sign-manual of the king and the name of Jāsaṭa who caused him to execute the grant, the record comes to a close.

...The present charter is the first of those issued by a Paramāra king in the Bhopāl territory, whereas all the other grants made before this one were in the Gujarāt area or in the Ujjain region. Thus we know that this part of the region was included in Bhōja’s kingdom before the date of the present grant, i.e., 1018 A.C., and even before 1020 A.C. when the Bēṭmā and the Bāṅswādā grants were issued, as to be seen below. The reason why the king visited the region mentioned in the present grant in 1018 A.C. remains unknown,[5] thought it may be surmised that he may have been leading an expedition against his enemies in the east, who were most probably
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[1] Sircar reads Dugāryī, but I do not find the superscript r in the rubbing with me.
[2] Sircar, op. cit., p. 216.
[3] Ibid.
[4] See below, No.44,1. 12, which shows that the gift was made after offering arghya to the moon, of course after the eclipse time was over. The śāstras of course allow gifts to be made in the night on an eclipse, for which, see H.D., Vol. II, Pt, ii. p. 583.
[5] This view is based on the presumption of Bhōja’s actual presence (by way of camp) in the region around the donated place, and in that case, the expression Dhār-āvastthitair- in 1.7 has to be taken to denote that it was his capital. But it is also possible that he may have issued the grant from the capital itself.

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