North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF MALWA

SHERGAḌH STONE INSCRIPTION OF UDAYĀDITYADEVA

illustrious Bhōjadēva, and finally, the latter’s successor, the P.M.P., the illustrious Udayādityadēva. This portion is an exact copy of the Māndhātā charter issued by Jayasiṁha,[1] the successor of Bhōjadēva of the Paramāra house of Mālava ; and thus there is no room for doubt that the donor of the present inscription also belonged to the same house. So far as the genealogy is concerned, the present record adds only the name of Udayāditya, who is mentioned here to have been a successor of Bhōjadēva. And it is now well known that he was the brother of Bhōjadēva.[2] It may also be observed here that excepting the formal portion, the present record is almost a copy of the Māndhātā grant of Jayasimha, whom we know to have occupied the throne after Bhōjadēva and before Udayādityadēva. Jayasiṁha’s name is omitted here as he was a collateral and moreover a dependent on the Chālukya throne, the occupants of which were the bitter and longstanding enemies of the Paramāras ; and it may well be guessed that the mention of his name may have naturally thought by Udayāditya to be a point of disgrace for the house.

...The object of the inscription is to record the royal endowment of a village situated in the Chachchurōṇī manḍala, by Udayāditya, who was the encamped at the village Karpāsikā, in favour of the god Sōmanāthadēva on the fort of Kōśavardhana. The name of the donated village is partly lost, but it has been restored by Dr. Altekar as Vilāpadraka, though without certainty. The inscription was dated, in words, in 11. 9-10, in the eleventh century ; but it is unfortunate that the aksharas giving the first two digits ( i.e., the unit and the decimal figures) which form the most material part of the year, are also lost at the end of 1.9. The tithi or the lunar day was the fourteenth of the bright half of Chaitra, on the Damanaka Festival.

...Damanaka, as has been pointed out by Dr. Altekar, on the authority of Hēmādri and the Madanaratna, was a spring festival when a branch of the damana tree was offered to god Śiva or Vishṇu and to Madana (Cupid) on the 14th day of the bright half of Chaitra, ‘’for the happiness and felicity of the whole household’’.[3] The day mentioned in the present inscription is quite in consonance with that day.

...In 11. 17 ff. we have the admonition to the villagers to give to the deity all the income, and the usual exhortation to succeeding monarchs, to continue the grant. The existing portion of the inscription ends with a part of the customary verse Sarvān=ētān = bhāvinaḥ pārthivēndrān, etc. etc.

...We have seen above that with the exception of the formal portion the inscription is a copy of the Māndhātā grant of Jayasiṁha, the arrangement of the contents of which is again not different from those of the other charters issued by the Paramāra rulers. In view of this it is reasonable to assume that the missing portion at the end of the present record may have contained not less than two lines which completed the verse already begun, viz., Sarvān =ētān etc., and another with the beginning iti kamala-dal-āmbu-bindu-lōlāṁ, followed by the date in figures and the sign-manual of the king.

...That the inscription which records a grant in favour of a Śiva temple was found in a temple of Lakshmī-Nārāyaṇa is also historically significant. Obviously the stone bearing it must have been originally set up in a Śiva temple which existed at that place in the times of the Paramāras and that some time subsequently and possibly during the time of Shēr Shāh of the Sūr dynasty, who changed the name of the place, it was destroyed and consequently the stone found its place in the present temple.[4] I also agree with Dr. Altekar who stated that since the way of drafting the record is in full agreement with that of a royal charter, the present inscription may have been a true copy of a copper-plate record which is not forthcoming.

...Of the place-names occurring in the inscription, Kōśavardhana (1.7) is the ancient name of Shērgaḍh itself, as we have already seen, and Chachchurōṇī, the headquarters of the maṇḍala (1.6) has been identified by Dr. Altekar with modern Chāchurṇi, or Chāchōṇi as it is spelt in Survey maps. This village is about 40 kms. south-southeast of Shērgaḍh, and situated on the confluence of the Parwān and the Nimaj ; it is now included in the Manōharthānā tehsīl of
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[1] Above, No. 18.
[2] See below, No.28,V.5.
[3] Smṛitakaustubha, pp. 19-23, as noted by Dr. Altekar. On p. 19 the same authority also states that the festival was to be observed two days earlier.
[4] Dr. Altekar also stated that his attention was drawn by the pujārī of the temple to a Śiva-liṅga in a corner of the temple, and this appeared to him to have been the one originally enshrined in the temple of Śiva in which the inscription may have existed.

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