North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PARAMARAS OF VAGADA

ARTHŪNĀ STONE INSCRIPTION OF CHĀMUNḌARĀJA

(prati) of which is said to have been prepared by Yaśōdēva, some other servants and by others headed by Kīrtirāja, [1] on the fifteenth of Chaitra. The imposts are as follows (duly classified) :-

... (1) On imports and exports :

... A varṇikā [2] on each load (bharaka) of candy sugar and jaggery and a rupee on each load of Indian madder, thread and cotton. (v. 69).

.. (2) On what is sold in the bazar :

... One fruit on each load of cocoanuts; one mānaka [3] on each mūṭaka of salt; one areca-nut on every thousand ; and one palikā [4] on each ghaṭaka (ghaṭa ?) of butter and sesamum oil (vv. 70-71.) One and a half rupee on each kōṭikā of clothing fabric; two pūlakas (bunches) on a jālaka (load?); one-fourth of a rupee (pāilī ) on each anna-chhadma (or anna-chhatra ?) ; (v. 72).

... (3) In Utthapanaka (the town as to be presently seen) :

... One dramma on the Chaitra festival and one on the Pavitraka festival, from each trader’s house; one dramma, per month, from each brazier’s shop; four rupees on each tumbaka [5] of the distillers; one dramma on every house of the population; two rupees on a gambling house; two hundred leaves from each load; one paṇaka [6] on each karsha of oil; one vṛishaviṁśōpaka [7] on each load of cattle-fodder; and one dramma on each traders’ association (vv. 73-77).

...Verse 77 tells us that all these imposts were to be collected on the fourteenth of the bright half of every month. And the following two verses again mention some taxes imposed on certain articles in the region known as Ardhāshṭama-śata. These taxes are; one dramma on each ikshu-tavaṇi; [8] a hāraka of barley on a water-wheel; a load over twenty packs of load grain; and once chhaṅga (?) on a bharaka.

... The next two verses of the inscription (80-81) inform us that the king also constructed a town with white-(washed)house and furnished it with gardens and donated it to the god with a piece of land which was duly measured with its boundaries. The deity is obviously the same as installed in the temple. The king also assigned one citron (bϊja-pūraka) [9] from each lagaḍa, a vāpa from a mūṭaka of barley on an āṭavika (mountain-dweller). In the following two verses (82-83) we find the request of the king to the future kings to continue the donations.

... The next three verses are devoted to mention the name of the poet with his lineage. Here we are told that in the Sādhāra family was born one Sumati, an ear-ring of eh goddess Bhāratī (Sarasvatī), and his son was Vijaya, whose younger brother Chandra composed the praśasti. The last foot of verse 86 also mentions the year, in words, as we have seen above. Verse 87 states that the praśasti was written (on the stone) by Āsarāja, a son of Śrīdhara, a Kāyastha belonging to the Vālabhya (hailing from Valabhī) caste. Śrīdhara and Āsarāja are obviously identical with the homonymous persons mentioned as the father and the son in 1. 38 of the immediately preceding record. The following prose portion gives the name of the engraver as Gundāka who was a son of Nannā; and with the date, which is repeated here in decimal figures, and thereafter, with the expressions meaning ‘auspicious, great fortune,’ the inscription ends.

... The genealogical portion of the present record is practically identical with that of the preceding inscription; but its date, which is 20 years later, adds to our historical information. The last known year of Chāmuṇḍarāja is 1100 A.C., which is furnished by another inscription which too was found at Arthūṇā; [10] and in view of this date, it appears that this ruler may not have come to throne much earlier than that of the present inscription. Assigning him a period of 25 years, as to each of the other generations flourishing in the house, D.C. Ganguly
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[1] It is possible that some of the persons who prepared the list were royal servants and the others selected from the public.
[2] A local word which is not known to the dictionaries.
[3] It was a measure about which nothing is known to me.
[4] Popularly known as Palī, a spoon with a handle. It is still used in villages in Rājasthān and Mālwā.
[5] See text, n. on v. 74.
[6] A measure of capacity.
[7] See n. on the word in the text below.
[8] ‘Pile of sugar’ (Barnett).
[9] The dictionary meaning of this word is ‘citron’, but I am more inclined to take it it to mean ‘a pomgranate’, as the word is used in the Mālavikāgnimitra, Canto I.
[10] No. 86, below.

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