North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF NORTH KONKAN

with facsimiles by Dr. M.G. Dikshit in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXXVII, pp. 247 f. They are edited here from the same facsimiles.

..The copper plates are three in number, strung together by means of a ring which carries the usual Garuḍa Seal of the Śilāhāras. Each plate measures about 22.5 cm. by 17.5 cm. The first and the third plate are inscribed on the inner side and the second on both the sides. The inscription consists of 88 lines, which are equally distributed on the four inscribed faces of the three plates. The rims of the plates were slightly raised for the protection of the writing, which consequently is an excellent state of preservation. The plates, ring and seal together weigh 3250 gm.

.. The characters are of the Nāgarī alphabet. The following peculiarities may be noted. The letter a has now assumed the form noticed in Hindi, (see agnēr-, line 50), but i still retains its old form (see iti, line 54). In initial ē, the left curve has not yet been detached from the right vertical. Kh has not yet developed its left limb as in modern Nāgarī. Dh shows no horn on the left. The palatal ś is distinguished from the dental s, by having its left portion separated from the right vertical; but in many places the latter is written for the former and vice versa also in one case. The form of figure 9 in recording the date 961 is noteworthy.

..The language is Sanskrit, and the record is partly in prose and partly in verse. Verses 1 to 18 descriptive of the predecessors of the ruling king Nāgārjuna and repeated from the earlier grants of his elder brother Chhittarāja. The next two verses descriptive of Nāgārjuna are new. They are seen repeated in the subsequent grants of his successor Mummuṇirāja. The charter was written by the Treasury Officer Jōgapaiya, the nephew of another Treasury Officer, the Mahākavi Nāgalaiya. He had written the Ṭhāṇā plates of Arikēsarin and the Bhāṇḍup, Divē Āgar and the Berlin Museum plates of Chhittarāja. He continued to serve Mummuṇi, the successor of Nāgārjuna, as his Ṭhāṇā plates also were written by him. There-after, Nāgalaiya did the work of the scribe. The Māhāmātya was Daddhapaiya and the Mahāsāndhivigrahika was Sōḍhalaiya.

.. The plates refer themselves to the reign of the Śilāhāra king Nāgārjuna, the younger brother and successor of Chhittarāja. This is the only known inscription of that king. Before its discovery it was known from the Udayasunadarīkathā of Sōḍḍḥala that he had succeeded Chhittarāja. He is described in the present plates like other Śilāhāra princes who preceded him, but has one more biruda viz. Kōdaṇḍa-Sahasrārjuna, not noticed in their case.

.. The object of the present plates is to record the grant, by Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara Nāgārjuna, of a plot of land in the village Muñjavalī to Mādhava Paṇḍita, son of Gōkarṇa Paṇḍita, of the Pārāśara gotra and Yajurvēda Śakhā. He had hailed from Hastigrāma in Madhya Pradēśa (Central India). Most of the donees of the grants of the Śilāhāras were Brāhmaṇas of the Ṛigvēda Śākhā who had come to Koṅkaṇ from Karahāṭa, modern Karhāḍ, but the donee of the present grant is of a different type. He was a Yajurvēdin, who had hailed from Central India.

..The grant is dated in Śaka 961, expressed both in words and figures, on the fifteenth tithi of the dark fortnight of Śrāvaṇa, Wednesday, the cyclic year being Pramāthin, with a solar eclipse. The date corresponds regularly to the 27th August A.D. 1039, when there was a solar eclipse visible in India, as stated in the grant.

..In stating the boundaries of the donated village Muñjavalī the following particulars have been mentioned. The village was situated in the Group Kōriyala-12. To its east lay the village Dōṇā, to its south Vāiṅgaṇī village, to its west Dhavalā village, and to its north a river and Kuḍisavarā village. Most of these villages can still be identified. Muñjavalī has now disappeared, but it seems to have been situated near Vāṁgaṇī, a station on the Central Railway, which is evidently Vāiṅgaṇī mentioned in the present grant. Kōriyala, the chief