North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF NORTH KONKAN

The inscription is very carelessly written and engraved, the letters in the first two lines being more than double the size of those in the remaining lines. The sense is, therefore, obscure in several places. As regards orthographical peculiarities, we may note the reduplication of the letter following r as in pūrvvaṁ, line 2, and the use of the dental s for the palatal ś in Silāhāra in lines 3-4.

..The inscription refers itself to the reign of the Śilāhāra king Aparāditya, who bears here the usual birudas assumed by the Śilāhāra kings of North Koṅkaṇ, including Paśchimasamudrādhipati, ‘the Lord of the Western Ocean’. From the date discussed below, it will be evident that he is the first Śilāhāra king of that name.

..The inscription mentions as usual some royal officers, viz. the Mahāmātya Śrīmālī Khētaya Ṭhākura, the Mahāsāndhivigrahika, Śrī-Amuka, the Senior Treasury Officer (Prathama-chhepāṭī) Srī-Lakshmaṇēyaprabhu, and the Junior Treasury Officer (Dvitīya-Chhēpāṭī) Śrī-Amuka. Some of these officers find mention in other records of the period also. For instance, the Senior Treasury Officer Lakshmaṇaiyaprabhu is mentioned in both the Vaḍavalī grant[1] and the Panhāḷe plates[2]. His name occurs also in the Chānje stone Inscription[3]. The Junior Treasury Officer Amuka is mentioned in the Chānjē Inscription[4], but his name has become indistinct in the Panhāḷe plates. The Mahāsāndhivigrahika was Amuka[5], whose name also occurs in the Chānje inscription in the same capacity, but it become indistinct in the Panhāḷe inscription, and also in the earlier Vaḍavalī grant.

.. The object of the inscription is to record that the houses, thirteen in number, of certain persons apparently connected with the temple of the goddess Jōgēśvarī such as the maṭhapati, the pujārī (worshipper) etc. were exempted from the house-tax which was usually levied on houses in North Koṅkaṇ[6]. The royal order was issued in the presence of certain officers of the Karaṇa or Secretariat of Shaṭshashṭi, viz. Divākaranāyaka, Vishṇubhaṭṭasēna and Mahalū Ṭhākura. The king Aparāditya was then encamped outside Dēṇaka, a place included in the vishaya (district) of Aṇitapallā. The houses were probably situated in the village Purī, evidently different from the well-known ancient capital of that name in North Koṅkaṇ.

..The grant was made by the king on the twelfth tithi of the bright fortnight of Chaitra in the Śaka year 1059, the cyclic year being Piṅgala[7]. This date does not admit of verification for want of the necessary details, but it may be noted that the cyclic year corresponding to Śaka 1059 was Piṅgala according to the Southern luni-solar system. The corresponding Christian date is Monday, the fifth April A. D. 1137, when the tithi śu. di. 12 of Nija-Chaitra ended 45 m. after mean sun-rise. There was an intercalary Chaitra in that year, but the grant must have been made in the Nija-Chaitra, evidently at the time of the pāraṇā after the last on the previous ēkādaśī, though this is not stated explicitly in the present inscription. This is perhaps the only grant made on such an occasion by a Śilāhāra king.

..None of the localities except Shaṭshashṭi (modern island Sāshṭī) can now be identified.
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[1] No. 20, line 43.
[2] No. 23, lines 44-45.
[3] No. 22, line 7. He may or may not be identical with the Mahāpradhāna Lakshmaṇaprabhu mentioned in lines 7-8 of the Āgāshī inscription dated Śaka 1072, (No. 25).
[4] No. 22, line 8.
[5] The present inscription has the name as Śrī-Aka, but the correct reading was probably Śrī-Amuka, since that name of the Mahāsāndhivigrahika occurs in line 6 of the Chānje inscription (No. 22). It seems that Amuka was a popular name in that period.
[6] See that a similar exemption from the house-tax is also mentioned in lines 5 and 7 of the Māhul inscription (No. 26).
[7] The same Śaka year and also the cyclic year are mentioned in line 14 of the Rānjalī inscription (No. 24), while recording a previous grant.