North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA

...The language of the record is Sanskrit ; and, excepting two verses in the beginning, two in 11. 11-14 and five imprecatory and benedictory in the end, which are all customary, the record is composed in prose,– The orthographical peculiarities of the record are as follows : (1) the use of the sign for v to denote b as well, e.g, in vibhartti, 1. 1 ; (2) the consonant following r is doubled, as in sarggāya, 1.1, but there are certain exceptions, e.g. narēndrair = dānāni, 1. 25 ; (3) the dental sibilant is employed for the palatal perhaps only in a singular instance –yaso-, 1. 19, whereas the palatal for the dental occurs as many as four times, viz, śamupagatāṁ, 1.8, śnātvā, 1.10, Vaśisṭha, 1. 18 and śāśanēna, 1.20 (excluding two instances in saṁsārasy = ¬āsāratām, 1.11, where a combination of both the sibilants is to be seen) ; (4) medial dipthongs denoted both by mātrās at the back and above the consonant, the latter being used not less than two dozen times ; (5) the avagraha is improperly used to indicate the merging of a into ā, in 11. 10 and 22, though better instances to show this have been ignored, e.g. in vṛiddhayē adṛisṭa, 1.19, where sandhi is not performed ; (6) the tendency to use anusvāra in place of class nasals, even at the end of the second and the fourth feet of a verse, see 11.1 and 2. Occasionally the daṇḍa is ornamental, assuming the form of r ; see the first of the daṇḍas after jaṭāḥ and piṅgalāḥ, 11.2 and 3 respectively.

...The inscription is one of the Paramāra Bhōjadēva of Dhārā. The object of it is to record the donation of one hundred nivarttanas[1] of land, mentioned both in figures and in words, in the village Vaṭapadraka, situated in the Ghāghradōra (or Ghāghradaura ?)[2] bhōga (district) of the Sthalī Maṇḍala (province), by Bhōjadēva, to a Brāhmaṇa of the name of Bhāila, who was the son of Vāmana and of the Vasishṭha gōtra, Vājimādhyandina śākhā and one pravara, and whose ancestors had hailed from Chhiñchchhā-sthāna. The occasion when the grant was issued is stated to have been Koṅkaṇa-vijava-parvva, i.e., on the event of his conquest of Kōṅkaṇa (1. 10), the full significance of which[3] has been discussed above, while dealing with the Beṭmā grant which immediately precedes and which too contains somewhat similar expressions

...To note the contents of the inscription, its initial and concluding portions are completely identical with those of the Mahauḍī and Bēṭmā grants, dealt with in the preceding pages, and the variation is to be noticed only in the lines mentioning the details of the grant and the date. Like both these inscriptions, the present one, after paying obeisance to Śiva under the name of Vyōmakēśa and Smarārāti in two stanzas, in anushṭubh, goes on to mention the genealogy of the house (of the Paramāras giving the names of Paramabhaṭṭāraka, Mahārājādhirāja and Paramēśvara, the illustrious Sīyakadēva, the P. M. P. the illustrious Vākpatirājadēva, the P. M. P. the illustrious Sindhurājadēva and the P. M. P. the illustrious Bhōjadēva (11. 3-7), in succession. Then the record mentions the details of the grant, as noted above, and after this we have the five customary and benedictory stanzas, exactly the same as in the Mahauḍī inscription. This portion of the record is followed by the mention of the date, in line 31, which is the fifth of the bright half of the month of Māgha in the year 1076 (expressed in decimal figures only) of an unspecified era. The date must evidently be referred to the Vikrama era as in the case of the other Paramāra records. It cannot be verified, but taking the year 1976 to be kārttikādi expired, as we find in the Ujjain grant of the same king,³ it corresponds to 3rd January, 1020 A.C.[4]

...As for the localities mentioned in the present grant, the territorial division Sthalī (1. 8) is generally taken as roughly corresponding to Vāgaḍa, the common name given to the region com. prising the modern districts of Bāṅswāḍā and Dūṅgarpur in Rājasthān[5] . The maṇḍala was so known probably after the place Thalī (Sthalī) which lies about 2 kms. straight north by east of
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[1] See n. 9 below, in the text. One of these villages is mentioned as Vaṭapura and Vaṭanagara, below in No.61. 11. 12-13 and 15. respectively. It lies in the same region.
[2] For the reading of the name, see text, n, 5.
[3] Below No. 12.
[4] See Ep. Ind., Vol. XI, p. 181.
[5] I.G.I., Vol. XI, p. 380.

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