North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA

forms ; see iti jagataḥ, 1.10 and Śrī-Bhōjadēvaḥ, 1.5. The loop forming the left limb of k is occasionally joined to the vertical by a horizontal stroke, as in bhaktyā, 1. 16, and in rare cases it is replaced by the stroke itself, as in kshiti in the same line. Sometimes this letter is imperfectly drawn, its right limb being altogether omitted ; see-kṛitim, 1. 1. Dh, which more often resembles v, has occasionally developed a horn on its left limb ; see rājādhirāja, 1. 3 and vidhēyaiḥ, 1.17. The letter p is often confounded with y, as in prati, 1. 6 ; and the letters t, d ,h and s often end in a tail, a tendency not to be found in the Bāṅswāḍā, plates. R as a latter member of a conjunct consonant appears in its full form engraved below the first member ; see mātra, 1. 8, and –agra, 1.9, gōtra, Viśvāmitra and pravarāya, all in 1. 14.

...The language of the record is Sanskrit ; and with the exception of two stanzas in the beginning, two in the middle in 11. 8-10 and five imprecatory stanzas in the end, which are all indentical with those of the Mahauḍi and Bāṅswāḍā grants, the record is composed in prose. The stanzas, as mentioned above, are not numbered.

...The orthographical peculiarities are almost the same as to be found in the other two grants, viz. (1) the use of the sign for v to denote b as well, e.g. in viṁdu, 1. 9 ; (2) the occasional use of the dental for the palatal sibilant, as in sirasā, 1.1 ; (3) the reduplication of a consonant following r ; cf. sarvvādāya, 1. 12 ; (4) dropping the visarga after vilōpyāḥ, ending a verse before the following initial i in 1.26 ; (5) the use of anusvāra at the end of a hemistich, with certain exceptions, as in tāṁ but not in kṛitim, both in 1.1 ; (6) the general use of the pṛishṭha-mātrā, with a few exceptions. It may be noted here that this and some of the former tendencies are more developed in the present than in the Bāṅswāḍā plates. (7) Errors in spelling are to be noted in triṇāgra for Tṛiṇāgra, 1.9, triḥ pravarāya for tripravarāya, 1. 14, and aṇya for anya, 1. 18.

...The inscription is one of the Parama-bhaṭṭāraka, Mahārājādhirāja and Paramēśvara, the illustrious Bhōjadēva, whose pedigree mentioned here is practically identical with that in the preceding grant and who therefore can safely be taken as belonging to the Paramāra house of Mālwā. The purpose of the charter is to record the grant of a village, as we shall presently see.

...Like the other two inscription, as seen above, the present one too opens with the auspicious symbol, followed by two anushṭubh verses glorifying Śiva ; and then appears the genealogical portion, which too is identical, as we have seen. The new portion that the present record has is about the grant. Lines 6 ff. state that Bhōjadēva, after he had performed the daily duties and worshipped the venerable Bhavānī-pati, announced before all the royal officials and the other residents of the village of Nālataḍāga falling in the territory of Nyāyapadra-seventeen, that the village was perpetually donated by him to Paṇḍita Dēlha, a son of Bhaṭṭa Thaṭṭhasika of the Kauśika gōtra with three pravaras, viz. aghamarshaṇa, viśvāmitra and kauśika and belonging to the Mādhyandinī śākhā, who had come from Sthāṇvīśvara and whose forefathers were residents of Viśāla-grāma. The special occasion of the grant is stated to be Kōṅkaṇa-grahaṇa-vijaya-parvva (1.15), the significance of which we shall discuss below. Thereafter, in 11. 17-19, close the address, as usual ; and finally appear the customary imprecatory and dedicatory verses, which too are the same as in the preceding inscription.

...In 1. 26 of the grant is mentioned the date, in words, which is the fifteenth day of the bright half of Bhādrapada of the (Vikrama) Saṁvat 1076. We have no further details by which the date can be verified ; however, taking the year as commencing with the month of kārttika, as indicated by the custom prevalent at the time[1] , the month and the year correspond to September 1020. If the line of thought followed here is correct, we are justified in agreeing with the editor who observed that the present grant is about nine months later than the Bāṅswāḍā grant, which was issued on the fifth of the bright half of Māgha in the same yare and which corresponds to 3rd January, 1020. This view, however, does not seem to be conclusive for we do not know that the custom of taking the year as commencing from Kārttika was then equally prevalent in both the different regions around Bēṭṃā and Bāṅswāḍā. Moreover, the day on which the Bāṅawāḍā grant was issued was sacred to the goddess of Learning, and it may have specially
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[1] The practice is known best from the Ujjain grant of Bhōja himself (No.12, below), which states that the donation was made Māgha in 1078 but the charter was actually handed over to the donee in Chaitra in 1078. This clearly shows that the month of Māgha preceded Chaitra in the same year; and this is possible only when we hold the year commencing with Kārttika. That this was then the current practice is shown by Nos. 9 and 10.

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