North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF NORTH KONKAN

..and for his own spiritual welfare, donated a share of 4 drammas[1] out of the proceeds of an orchard in Sthānakīya-pāṭṭana on (each) occasion of a gift, and in addition, 24 drammas out of the produce of the whole rice-field.

.. The gifts are to be made on the (following) five holy occasions of worship, (viz.) Chaitrika[2], Pavitrika[3], Śivarātri, Dakshiṇāyana (and) Uttarāyaṇa.

.. Hail ! To the illustrious Chāhāḍadēva.[4]

No. 32 : PLATE LXI
PAREḶ STONE INSCRIPTIONS OF APARĀDITYA II : ŚAKA YEAR 1108

THE stone bearing this inscription was found at the village Māhavalī near Kurlā in Greater Bombay. It was later removed to the Governor’s old bungalow at Pareḷ, and so it is named after Pareḷ. It is now preserved in the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay. The inscription was first noticed briefly and incorrectly by Mr. Wathen in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. V (Old Series) (No. 7 in Wathen’s Collection). It was next edited with a facsimile by Pandit Bhagvanlal in the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XII (Old Series), p. 332 f. He read the date of the present inscription as Śaka 1109. Kielhorn has included it in his List of Inscriptions of Southern India, (No. 313), p. 56, with the same date. The correct date was first given in Ep. Ind., Vol. XXIII, p. 277, n. 4. The inscription has been edited with a facsimile by Dr. S. G. Tulpule in his Prāchīna Marāṭhī Kōrīva Lēkha, pp. 80 f. It is edited here from the same facsimile.

..The stone bearing this inscription measures 6’ 9” (205.74 cm.) by 1’5” (43. 18 cm.). It has at the top a maṅgala-kalaśa in the centre with the Moon on the left and the Sun on the right. At the bottom, it has the usual Ass-curse. The inscription is in a fair state of preservation. It consists of 25 lines, of which the last is half.

..The characters are of the Nāgarī alphabet. It may be noted that the initial i shows a developed form, different from that in the previous inscriptions, in it-yādi, line 7. The forms of th in Vaidyanātha, line 10, and of Śrī in Srī-karaṇē, line 5, are also noteworthy. The language in lines 1-22 is Sanskrit, more correct than in other inscriptions of the Later Śilāhāras. Except for two imprecatory verses in lines 19-22, the whole record is in prose. As regards orthography, the consonant following r is reduplicated in -sarggēṇa, line 14. The lines 22-34 are in Marathi.

.. The object of the inscription is to record the grant, by the Śilāhāra king Aparāditya (II), of twenty-four drammas out of the proceeds of an orchard belonging to one Anantapai in the village Māhavali situated in the Shaṭshashṭi (vishaya) in favour of the divine Vaidyanātha of Darbhāvatī. He beras the imperial titles Mahārājādhirāja and Kōṅkaṇa-chakravartī in this record. The inscription is dated on the paurṇimā of Māgha in the Śaka year 1108, the cyclic year being Parābhava.[5] The date cannot be verified for want of the necessary details, but
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[1] The four drammas were to be given to the god on five holy occasions mentioned below, while the 24 drammas were to be paid at the time of the harvest.
[2] See above, p. 159, n. 5.
[3] See above, p. 159, n. 6.
[4] See above, p. 160, n. 6. He may have received the gifts on behalf of the god Sōmanātha of Saurāshṭra.
[5] As stated before, Bhagvanlal and Kielhorn read the date as 1109, but that the last figure is 8, not 9, is shown by the Chipḷūṇ and Bassein stone inscriptions of Mallikārjuna, dated Śaka 1078 and 1083 respec- tively, in which the same figure is used to denote 8. In the formea, the date is shown in words also, which leaves no doubt about its signification. Kielhorn took the Śaka year 1109 as current.