North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF NORTH KONKAN

chief among artisans, traders and Karaṇikas, merchants such as Alliya, Mahara, Mahumata and so forth, the chief townsmen, the Śrēshṭhin Kēsari, the goldsmith Kakkala, the merchant Uva, the goldsmith Sōmaiya, and also Vēvvalaiya, the Collector of the Vishaya, the chief among the managers of the Śalā (Residential Hall) such as Yājñika, Ratnamaiya, Kshitalakshaiya Dēlaiya, Kēsavaiya and others, the members of the Mahāparshad such as Agasti, Śavī, Sīluva, Bhāskara, Arjuna, Dinakara, Dēvēti, Ārya Sindūra, Ādityavarṇa and others as follows :-

..“Be it known to you that realising that prosperity is unsteady, youth is momentary and life lies in the jaws of Death, it is a great wonder that men are indifferent to the attainment of the other world, I, the illustrious Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara Chāmuṇḍarāja −having bathed at an excellent holy place on the new-moon day in the dark fortnight of Bhādrapada when nine hundred years increased by fifty-six have passed by the era of the Śaka King, the cyclic year being Bhava, in figures, the year 956, the dark fortnight of Bhādrapada, the 15th (tithi), and having worshipped gods−have donated, with great devotion, as a gift free from all taxes, an oil mill together with the oil and oil-cakes produced therein, in favour of the Kautuka-maṭhikā for the burning of a lamp in front of the divine Bhagavatī and for the smearing of the feet of the scholars and of the Brāhmaṇas that may visit (the temple), by pouring out water on the hand of the scholar Vīhaḍa.

.. (Line 20). Wherefore, none should cause any obstruction while he is using this oil mill or allowing others to use it −(the mill-area ) not to be entered by chāṭas and bhaṭas and not to be assigned and not to be attached.

(Here follow three benedictory and imprecatory verses.)

..Having known these saying of the sages, all future kings also should entertain a strong desire only for acquiring the religious merit accruing from the protection of this gift. None should be notorious for the taint in the form of the sin due to the confiscation of it. He who, though thus requested, will allow it to be confiscated, with his mind clouded by the darkness of ignorance through greed, shall incur all the five sins together with the minor sins and shall experience for a long time (the pangs of ) the hells such as Raurava and Andhatāmisra.

.. He who will confiscate this oil-mill will not get rid of the consequent sin by making gifts of thousand gardens, a hundred tanks and a crore of cows.”

.. (Line 29). And as it is, the giver of the charter records his approval: “This has been approved by Me, the illustrious Chāmuṇḍarāja, the Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara and Ornament of the three worlds, the son of the illustrious Vijjarāṇaka, the Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara. who has sixty-four black horses, who has the right to use the musical instruments[1] and who is Ahava-nīla (the hero of battles).

..This charter has been written by the Dhruva (Revenue-collector) Mammalaiya by his own hand. Whatever is written here−in deficient or redundant syllables−all that is authoritative.

No. 13: PLATES XXXV and XXXVI
ṬHĀṆĀ PLATES OF NĀGĀRJUNA : ŚAKA YEAR 961

..THESE plates were discovered in a tank in the locality called Pancha Pākhādī outside the town of Ṭhāṇā in 1965. They are now deposited in the Department of Archaeology and Archives, Government of Mahārāshṭra, in Bombay. The plates were first edited
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[1] The text has in line 30 the expression vādya-prōddāma-ttrakkisa-tūrya, the meaning of which is not clear. Perhaps the sense is the same as in the title samadhigata-pañcha-mahasbada.