North Indian Inscriptions

A CONTEMPORARY YADAVA INSCRIPTION

APPENDIX II

No. 65
KHIDRĀPUR STONE INSCRIPITON OF THE YĀDAVA KING SIṄGHAṆA : ŚAKA YEAR 1136

.. THE stone bearing this inscription is placed outside the southern door of the Gūḍhamaṇḍapa of the temple of Kōppēśvara at Khidrāpur[1] in the Shiroḷ tālukā of the Kolhāpur District. It is 160.02 cm. high and 69.85 cm. broad. As in some other stone inscriptions of the Śilāhāras of Kolhāpur, the stone has at the top a liṅga and a priest in the centre, a curved sword on their right, and a cow with a calf on their left, with the sun in the upper corner. Below these, there is the present inscription in twenty-eight lines.

.. The characters are of the Nāgarī alphabet, and the language Sanskrit. The object of the present inscription is to record the grant, made in Dēvagiri by the Yādava king Siṅghaṇa, of the village Kūḍaladāmavāḍa near the confluence of the rivers Kūḍalakrishṇavēṇi and Bhēṇasī in the Miriñji-dēśa for the aṅga-bhōga[2] and raṅga-bhōga[3] of the svayambhū Śiva-liṅga Kōppēśvara in the temple situated at the confluence of the Kṛishṇa- vēṇī and Kuvēṇī. It is further recorded that the income, previously granted, of the villages Jugula and Siriguppa should be utilised for the repairs of the temple of the god Kōppēśvra.[4]

.. The inscription is dated Monday, the solar eclipse in the month of Chaitra in the Śaka year 1136, the cyclic year being Śrīmukha. As in some other inscriptions from the Kolhāpur region, this Saka year must be taken as current. Then only it would correspond to the cyclic year Śrīmukha according to the southern luni-solar system. In that year there was a solar eclipse on the new-moon day of Chaitra and the week-day was Monday as stated in the present inscription. The corresponding Christian date is the 23rd April A.D. 1213[5]. Kielhorn has shown that the solar eclipse on this date was visble in India.

.. As for the localities mentioned in the present grant, Dēvagiri is modern Daulatābād in the Marāṭhwāḍā Division of Mahārāshṭra. Fleet[5] identified Kūḍaladāmavāḍa with Kurundwāḍ near the confluence of the Kṛishṇā and the Pañchagaṅgā, about 24 miles east of Kolhāpur. Jugula has already been shown to be identical with a village of the same name in the Athaṇī tālukā of the Beḷgaon District. Siriguppi also retains its old name and is situated not far from Khidrāpur. It is now included in the Beḷgaon District. Miriñji is, of course, Miraj in the Sānglī District. Of the rivers mentioned in the present record, the Kūḍala-
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[1] This village was previously included among the inām villages of the Śaṅkarāchārya of Śaṅkēsvara Maṭha.
[2] Aṅgabhōga denotes the worship of a deity including the naivēdya (offering of food).
[3] Raṅga-bhōga denotes the entertainment of the deity with music, singing and dancing.
[4] The construction of the temple seems to have commenced in the reign of Gaṇḍarāditya, the Śilāhāra king of Kolhāpur. It was incomplete even in the reign of his grandson Bhōja II, and has remained in the same condition till today. Siṅghaṇa ordered that the income of the previously granted villages should be utilised for its repairs, but he took no steps to complete its construction. He may have constructed the present modest śikhara of the garbha-gṛiha, but the ceiling of the so-called sarga-maṇḍapa and the śikhara on both the Gūḍha-maṇḍapa and the Svarga-maṇḍapa were never constructed.
[5] Fleet has given A.D. 1214-15 as the Christian year corresponding to the Śaka year 1136 mentioned in the present inscription, but he could not verify the date. He was not then as well versed in the calculation of Indian dates as he became later on. He has, however, stated that ‘according to the table of Carnatic, Chronology, Śrīmukha corresponds to Śaka 1135 and Śaka 1136 is the Bhava Saṁvatsara.’ J.B.B.R.A.S., Vol. XIII (old series), p. 9. Kielhorn has given the exact date in his Inscriptions of the Southern India, No. 339.