North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF NORTH KONKAN

TRANSLATION

..Success! Hail ! May there be prosperity ! This day, here during the beneficial and victorious reign of the Mahārājādhirāja (and) Kōṅkaṇa-chakravartī, the illustrious Sōmēśvaradēva, who is adorned with all royal titles, while the government consisting of the Mahāmātya, the illustrious Jhampaḍaprabhu, the Mahāsāndhivigrahī, the illustrious Taijaparbhu, (and) the Śrīkaraṇī[3], the illustrious Dādaprabhu is bearing the burden of the cares of the administration of the whole maṇḍala entrusted to it by (i.e. the King’s) favour—at such a time—in the Śaka year 1181, the (cyclic) year being Siddhārtha, on the 15th tithi of the dark fortnight of Chaitra—on this occasion the King, having invited the illustrious Dāmōdarabhaṭṭa and his brother Vāsudēvabhaṭṭa, has, by offering them two cocoanuts[4], donated, by pouring water on their hands, to Dāmōdarabhaṭṭa and his brother on the Saṅkrānti sacred to the Sun, as common fields, one in the Khaṇḍapalāsthāna[5] included in the village Uraṇa-Paḍivasē and all the produce of the Dēulēkhaṇḍa, the fields thus being three.

.. May there be happiness and great prosperity!

No. 39 : PLATE LXXVI
CHANJE STONE INSCRIPTION OF SOMESVARA : SAKA YEAR 1182

..THE Stone bearing this inscription was found at Chānje near Uraṇ in the Panvel tālukā of the Kolābā District. It was first briefly noticed by Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji in the Bombay Gazetter, Vol. I (old ed.), part ii, p. 21, n. 1. The inscription was edited, without a facsimile, by Dr. H. D. Sankalia and S.C. Upadhyaya in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXIII, pp. 279 f. It is included, with a good facsimile plate, by Dr. S. G. Tulpule in the Prāchīna Marāṭhī Kōrīva Lēkha, pp. 161 f. If is edited here from an estampage kindly supplied by the Chief Epigraphist and the plate in Dr. Tulpule’s aforementioned book.

..“The stone measures 3’5” (104.14 cm.) py 1’ 7” (48.26 cm.), and the inscribed portion is 1’6” (45.72 cm.) by 1’5” (43.18 cm.) and contains 18 lines ; the average size of the letters is ¾” (1.90 cm.). Below this, in a rectangle 16” (40.64 cm.) by 11” (27.94 cm.) was an ass-sculpture as in No. 38, but now it is completely worn out. Above the inscription, between the Sun and the Moon, on a pedestal is a pūrṇa-kalaśa ; on its bulging part is a band and leaves on either side. The kalaśa is crowned with what looks like a smaller kalaśa and may be a cocoanut. [6]”

.. The characters are of the Nāgarī alphabet. It is noteworthy that the form of śrī in lines 4, 5 etc. appears to have been formed by adding the medial ī to the akshara a ; dh shows a horn on the left (see saṁvaṁdha, line 13) ; the initial i and ē still retain their old forms (see Māināku, line 6, and ēvaṁ, line 12). The language is Sanskrit mixed with Marathi, and except for a verse in praise of Lambōdara (Gaṇapati) in the beginning and an imprecatory one at the end,
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[1] These two words are repeated unnecessarily.
[2] Read संक्रांतीं (Marathi) meaning ‘on the sun’s passing into another zodiacal sign’.
[3] Śrīkaraṇī probably means the Head of the Secretariat.
[4] २ नारियलें देणें निमित्तें probably means ‘having given them two cocoanut fruits as a token of the gift’.
[5] Khaṇḍapalāsthāna probably corresponds to khaḍavala, mentioned in some inscriptions of the Śilāhāras of Kolhāpur. See No. 60, lines 10 and 18. It may have been derived from Sanskrit khēṭakavalaya, and perhaps signified an open space round a village or a house.
[6] Ep. Ind., Vol. XXIII, pp. 279 f.