North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF NORTH KONKAN

slab and at least thirteen on the other, the first and the last few lines of them being now last completely. Some more lines and words have become illegible on the second side of the stone.

.. The characters are of the Nāgarī alphabet. The following peculiarities may be noted :− the initial i still retains its old form, see Jōipai, line11; a and th have attained the modern Nāgarī forms, see atra, line 10, and tathā, line 11; dh has developed a horn on the left, see sūdha, line 4; still the two verticals of dhā are joined by a short horizontal line as in older records, see Dhātā in line 3, ṇ and l are alike in form, the latter having only ashort vertical stroke joining the horizontal line at the top. The language is incorrect Sanskrit considerable mixed with Marathi. See kēlēṁ, lines 8 and 9, gheyāvēṁ, lines 9 and 10, and hēyāṁ, line 11. The benedictory and imprecatory verses inscribed on the second side of the slab are generally in good Sanskrit. The remaining portion is in prose. The orthography does not call for any remark.

.. The inscription refers itself to the reign of the Mahāmaṇḍalēśvarādhipati, the illustrious Mallikārjuna, who is evidently the Śilāhāra king of that name. It is dated in the Śaka year 1078, expressed both in words and figures, on the akshaya-tṛitīyā of the bright fortnight of Vaiśākha, on the holy occasion of Yugādi, when the week-day was Tuesday and the nakshtra Mṛigaśiras, in the cyclic year Dhātṛi. As shown by Kielhorn, the date corresponds regularly to Tuesday, the 24th April A.D. 1156. [1] The inscription mentions in the beginning the deity Lakhumādēvī and Tilabhāṇḍē installed at Gaṅgākhēḍē.

.. The object of the inscription is to record the appointment of one Suprayā. as the Daṇḍādhipati (Administrator) of the Prānālaka-dēśa. He was ordered to make the town of Panalā his headquarters. It is also provided that his eldest son should succeed him and make the same city his headquarters.

..Among the royal officers are mentioned the Mahāpradhāna Nāraṇanāyaka and the Sāndhivigrahika Anantugi, son of Laksmaṇaiprabhu. Some persons are next mentioned in lines 10-11 evidently as witnesses.

.. As for the places mentioned in the present inscription, no town or village named Gaṅgākhēḍe is known to exist now in the Ratnāgiri District. Dikshit identified Prānāla (which he read as Praṇāla ) with the fort of Panhāḷā in the Kolhāpur District, and Tulpule with Panvēl in the Kolābā District. Both the identifications appear unlikely; for stone inscriptions are not generally transported far from their original places, and Mallikārjuna is not known to have extended his sway to the Kolhāpur reigion. Prānālaka or Panalā is evidently identical with Panhāḷe in the Dāpoli tālukā of the Ratnāgiri District, which was the capital of Southern Koṅkaṇ. (See No. 23, above.)

Text [2]
First Face

[1] “Śaka 1078 expired, which, by the southern luni-solar system, was Dhātṛi, Tuesday, 24 th April, A.D. 1156; the third tithi of the bright half ended 13 h. 58 m., and the Nakshatra was Mṛigaśīrsha up to 13 h. 47 m. after mean sunrise”−Kielhorn in Ind. Ant., Vol. XXIII, p. 117. This tithi marks the commencement of the Trētā Yuga. Altekar wrongly read the date as Śaka 1079. Again, his reading of the tithi as Pausha va. di. 14, Monday, is wrong. He has confused the tithi of the next inscription (No. 29) with that of the present one. See Ind. Cul., Vol. II, p. 415.
[2] From the facsimiles between pp. 64 and 65 in J.U. Bom., Vol. XIII.
[3] This word which is usually expressed by a symbol is almost clearly written here.
[4] I have adopted Tulpule’s reading, but its sense is not clear.
[5] The figures of the date noteworthy. The last figure is used to denote 8 in No. 29 also.