North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA

KĀLVAN PLATE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF BHOJADEVA

...To resume the thread of the contents of the record, 11. 7-8 introduce a ruler of the name of Yaśōvarman, who was enjoying, due to the favour of Bhōja, one half of the town of Sēlluka (?) along with 1,500 villages. The record is silent about the lineage of this prince and his name appears here only to indicate that the grants, the details, of which are noted below, were made in his province, [1] by Rāṇaka Amma, who is stated to have been a Sāmanta, but his overlord’s name is not mentioned here. Lines 10-12 and 15-17 inform us that Rāṇaka Amma, while in the village of Muktāpalli in the Audrahādi Vishaya, which consisted of eighty-four rentfree villages, having heard dharmma and adharmma from the illustrious Śvētāmbara Ammadēvāchārya (and) being made to understand by him, by words, [2] that no other dharmma expect that of the Jina is capable of providing good results in this world and in the next, made certain grants to the sage, after washing his with water poured from a kamaṇḍalu by his lawful wife, the queen Chachchāī, who born in the Chālukya family.

...According to 11. 17 ff., there plots land, having well-defined boundaries, were granted as a permanent endowment to the illustrious Muni-Suvratadēva. They are as noted below :––

1. Forty nivarttana [3] at Mahishavu(bu)ddhikā. at the holy tīrtha of i in the north of i to the north of the village of Māhuḍalā. The plot was bounded by a river(?) in the east, by the uncultivated boundary-land of the village of Hathavāḍa in the south, by the descent in the west and by the hill in the north (11. 17-19).

2. Twenty-five nivarttanas on both the sides of the precipitous hill on the north (kumārikā-stana-dōṅgara) [4] which had been previously donated by Kakkapairājā (11. 17-19).

3. Thirty-five nivarttanas in the vicinity of the town of Saṅgāma, beginning from the town of Baka-aigala and others (11. 21-22).

...In addition to these pieces of land, certain other objects of gift are also mentioned. They are two nivarttanas of land for flower gardens, fourteen shops of merchants (vaṇik-haṭṭa) and fourteen drammas, to defray the expenses of worship (pūjā), sprinkling (abhishēka), offering of nēshu). All these donations were made to muni-Suvrata in the Jaina temple situated in Muktāpallī, which too was repaired (11. 22-26). We are further informed that this order was passed in the presence of royal officials at that locality, viz., Dēsilaka, Grāmaṭaka, Gōkulika, Chaurika, Śaulkika, Daṇḍapāśika, Prātirājyika, Mahattama, householders, and some others (11. 27-28).

...This account is followed by a prose portion stating that it is a royal command that the grant is perpetual (11. 29-31), and then in 11. 32-44 are quoted eight customary imprecatory and benedictory stanzas, all numbered and ascribed to Vyāsa (uktaṁ cha bhagavatā Vyāsēna). In the end we are told that the inscription was composed by the minister of Peace and War, the illustrious Jōgasvara (Yōgēśvara) of the twice-born race (11. 44-45).

...The inscription is important as it indicates that Bhōja’s kingdom included in it the region around Nāsik and also for the reason that it is sectarian, belonging to the Śvētāmbara sect, as a very few Jaina grants are so far known.

...Of the geographical names mentioned in the inscription, Dhārā (1. i) and Karṇāta, Lāṭa, Chēdi and Koṅkaṇa (1. 6) are all well known. Kalakalēśvara tīrtha (1. 12) has already been identified by Banerji with the place which is about 16 kms. west of Kālvaṇ where the temple of Śiva exists. Of the rest of the names, some have been identified by D.B. Diskalkar, e.g., Selhuka (1. 7) with the modern Satane, near Kālvaṇ ; Muktāpallī (11. 8 and 17) with Mohadi in
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[1]The text here uses the word vishaya twice, in 1.8 (tasmin vishayē) and again in 1.9 (Audrahadi vishayē) . From the language used it is not known if the latter has to be taken here as signifying a smaller territorial unit (upa-vishaya).
[2] In 11. 10-11 the reading is prabōdhita-chihēna, which, as it appears to me, has to restored to –chittēna. i.e., whose mind has been awakened or enlightened, Banerji’s reading is -chihnēna, and he translates the expression as ‘by words as well as by signs.’ (op. cit., p.74); but while printing the article in the Ep. Ind. the editor remarks that ‘chittēna would be more likely’ (p. 72, n. 4). As far as I think, the vertical of the sixth letter u is broken in two parts and wrong combination thereof makes it appear as hē, as actually read by Banerji.
[3] The dictionary meaning of nivarttana is 20 rods and one rod is equal to 6 feet, 71/2 inches, i.e., about 2.44 meters. See S.K. Maity. The Economic Life of Northern India, p. 36. Also see No. 11 above. The measure intended here, however, appears to be of 40 daṇḍas on either side, i.e., 1.600 square daṇḍas, as we find in the Abhonā plates of śaṅkaragaṇa, coming from the same tālukā of Kālvaṇ in which present plates were discovered. See C.I.I., Vol. IV, p. 43, n.6.
[4] It is not known to me if the name used here has been sanskritised or has to be taken in its figurative meaning.

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