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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF NORTH KONKAN
No. 36 : PLATE LXXIV
..THE stone bearing this inscription was found in 1882, lying in an open filed on the outskirts of the village Chaudharapāḍā, near Lōnāḍ in the Bhiwaṇḍī tālukā of the Ṭhāṇā District. The record was first noticed by Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji in the Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. I (old ed.), part ii, p. 20,n. 3, and Vol. XIV (old ed.), p. 212. He read its date as Śaka 1161. It was subsequently noticed by Dr. D.R. Bhandarkar in the Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, Western Circle, for 1905-6, p. 30. Bhandarkar read the date as Śaka 1162. Dr. A.S. Altekar has given the date as Śaka 1161, evidently relying on the Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. I, part ii, p. 20, n. 3; for he says, “The present whereabouts are unknown.[1]” The inscription was first edited, without a facsimile, by Dr. M.G. Dikshit in the Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Vol. XXIII, pp. 98 f. He read the date as Śaka 1162. The correct date of the record is discussed later. I am editing the inscription here from an estampage kindly supplied by Mr. V. G. Khobrekar, Director of Archieves, Mahārāshṭra. ..âThe inscribed stone measures about 187.96 cm. by 43.18 cm. in length and breadth, and about 25.40 cm. in thickness. The writing covers a space 38.10 cm. broad and 71.12 cm. high. At the top of the stone are figured in low relief the representations of the Sun, the Moon and a kalaśa in the centre. Below the inscribed portion appears the Ass-curse, very often noticed in the Silahara and Yadava inscriptions of the medieval period. .. The inscription consists of 22 lines of writing. The letters are deeply carved and carefully executed, but the surface of the stone, which was originally not made quite smooth, has been damaged by exposure to weather, and several letters, especially in the latter half of it, have been defaced and have become illegible.[2]â
..The characters are of the Nāgarī alphabet. The language is Sanskrit, more correct
than that in several other later Śilāhāra inscriptions. The orthography shows the usual
peculiarities of the reduplication of a consonant after r, the use of v for b in some places, and of
sha for kha in lēshka, line 22. The inscription is composed partly in verse and partly in prose.
There are six verses in all of which are numbered. After the opening obeisance to Vināyaka,
the inscription has one verse in praise of the god Shumpēśvara. This is followed by another
eulogising the reigning king Kēśirāja, son of the Śilāhāra king Apharārka (i.e. Aparāditya
II.). The inscription then proceeds to state that in the Śaka year 1161 (expressed in figures
only), the cyclic year being Vikārin, on the holy occasion of Śivarātri which fell on
Tuesday[3], the fourteenth tithi of the dark fortnight of Māgha, during the reign of the
Mahārājādhirāja and Koṅkaṇa-chakravartin, the illustrious Kēśidēva, adorned with all royal
titles, while the following ministers were carrying on the administration, viz. the MahāmātyaJhampaḍaprabhu, the Mahāsāndhivigrahika Rājadēva Paṇḍita and the Treasury Minister
Anantaprabhu, the King Kēśidēva donated Brahmapurī to the following four Brāhmaṇas
viz. Sōmanāyaka, Sūryanāyaka, Gōvindanāyaka and Nāūnāyaka[4]. The king further
donated, for the maintenance of the worshippers of the god Śiva, the hamlet of Māñjasapallī
included in the village of Bōpagrāma. The inscription closes with the king’s appeal to all
ministers and others to preserve the gift, which is followed by an imprecatory verse stating
the punishment of hell for those who take away the gifts of gold, a cow and land of even a
finger’s breadth.
[1] Indian Culture, Vol. II, p. 431. Altekar calls it the Lōnāḍ (Bhiwaṇḍī Tālukā) inscription.
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