North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF KOLHAPUR

who has reached the other shore of the ocean of Nyāya, and has destroyed the undeserved greatness of other disputants.

..(V. 18) Appōja, who has mastered the science of architecture, and knows fully the art of engraving [1], and who has written several inscriptions even as pond has many lotuses, has written this charter.

..(V. 19) May the charter of the illustrious Śilāhāras be of sure victory as long as the Moon and the Sun and also the oceans endure !

Sri; Sri.

No. 46 : PLATES XCVII AND XCVIII
KOLHĀPUR PLATES OF GAṆḌARĀDITYA : SAKA YEAR 1037

.. THESE plates belonged originally to Prof. R. N. Apte of Kolhāpur. He made them over to Prof. K. B. Pathak of Poona, from whom they were obtained by Mr. G. H. Khare for decipherment and publication. They were published by him with facsimiles, first in Marathi in his Sources of the Mediaeval History of the Deccan (Marathi), Vol. I, pp. 33 f., and later in English in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXVII, pp. 176 f. They are edited here from the same facsimiles.

.. “The set consists of three plates, measuring 101/2” (26.67 cm.) by 71/8” (18.10 cm.), strung on a circular ring with a diameter 21/2” (6.35 cm.). The two ends of the ring are soldered into the bottom of a rimmed rectangular seal, which bears in relief the figure of a flying Garuḍa facing front, with a cobra in his left hand. The first and third plates are written on the inner side only, while the second is inscribed on both the sides. The rims of the plates being raised, the writing is well preserved. The whole set together with the ring and the seal weighs 278 tolas. (3242.55 gr.)

.. The characters are of the Kannaḍa alphabet. The initial i appears in two forms, one in which there are two curves over two dots as in ity-ākhyāṁ, line 29, and the other in which the lower portion is cursive in Iḍuvarādityaḥ, line 41. The Dravidian r occurs in Maruvakka, line 39. Punctuation is indicated by means of a spiral both in verse and in prose.

.. The language is Sanskrit with a mixture of Kannḍa words. As usual, the record is partly in prose partly in verse. The orthography shows the usual peculiarities of the reduplication of the consonant following r (as in Vishṇōr-vvārāhaṁ, line 1), the substitution of b for v in tībra, line 30, and of s for ś as in Saka, line 45, and vice versa in Maruvakkaśarppaḥ, lines 13 and 39). As usual, the lingual ḷ is used for the dental l in several places (as in sakaḷa-, line 3), but not always (see, e.g, Lakshmī-, line 2).

.. The inscription refers itself to the reign of the Śiḷāhāra king, the Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara Gaṇḍarāditya. He bears here most of the birudas noticed in his other grants, including that which describes him as the lord of Tagara, the best of towns, but some others, e.g. Gaṇikāmanōja, Haya-Vatsarāja, Śaucha-Gaṅgēya and Satya-Rādhēya, are noticed here for the first time.

.. The inscription gives, in the beginning, the genealogy of Gaṇḍarāditya, which contains several valuable references to his and his ancestors’ exploints. The first member of the Śilāhāra family mentioned here as in other cognate records is Jatiga I. He is described as the lord of the Gōmantha fort, and the maternal uncle of the Gaṅga chief Pērmānaḍi. Both these details are of great historical importance. As Khare has shown, Gōmantha fort is pro-
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[1] Kaṇḍaraṇa is a Kannaḍa word meaning ‘engraving’.