North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA

MĀNDHĀTĀ GRANT OF JAYASIṀHA

...The first of the verses which is in the Vasantatilakā metre, as already stated, eulogises Chandrārdha-mauli (i.e. the god Śiva) and Bhōja, who is called [Rājādhi]rāja and Paramēśvara. The deity and the monarch may have been introduced, as already pointed our by Sircar, by a word like jayati, which cannot be traced in the extant portion of the inscription. But the palaeography and the titles of the king go to suggest that the record refers to the Paramāra king Bhōja I. The second verse which is in the Upajāti metre, mentions the object of the record. It states that the image, evidently the one on the pedestal of which the inscription was noticed, was installed by a person of the name of Sāgaranandin and also that the installation ceremony was performed by the learned Jaina monk Nēmichandra.

...The record is of interest as it shows that while installing a Jaina image it invokes the god Śiva in its beginning, and thus it goes to show that the person who installed the image was equally devoted to both these faiths. We have some other instances of the type, for which reference is invited to the Arthūṇā stone inscription of the time of Chāmuṇḍarāja, dated V. 1159, [1] which begins with paying homage to Vītarāga but the very first verse of it is indirectly also applicable to the god Śiva.

...In view of the fact that the record containg the name of Bhōja was found at a place associated with his name, it appears probable, as also observed by Dr. Sircar, that the place was named after the king.

No geographical name occurs in the existing portion of the record

TEXT [2]
[ Metres : Verse 1 Vasantatilaka ; v. 2 Upajati ].

1 ––––––– [3] [का]रे चंद्रार्द्धमोलिरसमःसम –u-u [।*] - - u - uuuमद्भुतकी[र्त्ति] - - [4] ; - - uराजपरमेश्‍वरभोजदेवः ॥[१॥*]
2 –––––––––– रः साग [5] रनंदिनामा । स नेमिचं[द्रो]विदधे प्रतिष्‍टां [6] [सु]दुर्ल्लभः सा(शां)तिजिनस्य[सूरिः] ॥[२॥*]

No. 18 ; PLATE XX
MĀNDHĀTĀ GRANT OF JAYASIMHA
[Vkrama] year 1112

...THIS inscription is incised on two plates of copper which are said to have been found at or near Māndhātā, [7] an island in the Nārmadā in the East Nemāḍ (Khaṇḍwā) District of Madhya Pradesh. The record has been edited before, from an impression prepared by Cousens, Superintendent of the Archaeological Survey of Western India, by F. Kielhorn, in the Epigraphia Indica, Volume III (1894-95), pp. 46 ff., with text in Nāgarī characters (pp. 48- 50) and facsimiles facing p. 50. The whereabouts of the plates are unknown today ; [8] and the inscription is edited here from the facsimiles accompanying Kielhorn’s article.

...As stated above, they are two plates of copper, each measuring about 33.65 cms. broad by 25.40 cms. high and they are incised on the inner side only. From his examination of the
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[1] Below, No. 87.
[2] From an impression.
[3] It is expected that the Siddham symbol was engraved at the beginning. Along with that, twelve syllables are lost here.
[4] The two aksharas lost here may been राशिः and the following three aksharas राजाधि- (D.C.S.).
[5] This akshara is damaged. Fifteen syllables are lost at the beginning of this line.
[6] The slanting middle bar of the superscript of this letter is not engraved. Read -ष्ठां.
[7] Māndhātā (22° 15’ N. Lat. and 76° 9’ E. Long.) is 51 kms. north-west or Khaṇḍwā and 11 kms. from Morṭakkā station on the Ajmer-khaṇḍwā branch of the Western Railway.
[8] In his article in op. cit. Kielhorn wrote that the original plates were then at Māndhātā, on the authority of C. Gran’s Gaz. of Central provinces, second edn., p. 257. But all my attempts in search of them were futile and no impression too is now forthcoming.

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