North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF NORTH KONKAN

No. 7 : PLATES XVIII-XX
BHADĀNA GRANT OF APARĀJITA : ŚAKA YEAR 919

..THE copper plates on which this grant is inscribed were found in 1881 with the headman of Bhērē, a village about ten miles north of Bhivaṇḍī, the chief town of the Bhivaṇḍī tālukā of the Thāṇā District in the Mahārāshṭra State. They were edited by Dr. Kielhorn with facsimile plates in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. III, pp. 267 f. They are edited here from the same facsimiles.

..These are three copper-plates, the second and third of which are engraved on both sides, while the first is on one side only. Each plate measures about 101/8” (25.72 cm.) broad by 73/8” (18.44 cm.) high. Their edges were fashioned thicker, so as to serve as rims to protect the writing; and, with th exception of a few short passages on the first sides of the second and third plates, the inscription really is in a state of excellent preservation. The plates are held together by a circular ring, about ¼” (.64 cm.) thick and 23/4” (6.97 cm.) in diameter. The ends of the ring are socketed in a seal, of which the surface is circular, about ¼” (.64 cm.) thick and 21/2” (6.35 cm.) in diameter. The seal has, in high relief on a countersunk surface, a representation of Garuḍa, with the body of a man and the face of a bird, squatting full front, with the hands clasped on the breast. The weight of three plates is 224 tolas (2612.70 gm.), and of the ring and seal, 321/2 tolas (379.08 gm.), total 2561/2 tolas (2991.78 gm.). The engraving is bold and good. The plates being substantial, the letters, though fairly deep, do not show through on the reverse side at all; the interiors of some of them show marks of the working of the engraver’s tool. The size of the letters is about 5/16” (.80 cm.).’

..The characters are Nāgarī. The following peculiarities may be noted :− The initial i (short) consists of a curve below two dots (see iva, line 8); kh has developed a slight tail in its left limb (see Khōṭṭigadēva, line 41); the rare jh occurs in Jhaṁjha, line 26; the subscript ṇ is cursive (see Svarṇṇavarshasya, line 11; the left limb of the palatal ś has not yet been separated from the right one (see śrī-Gōvindaraja, line 9), and the letter h has developed a short tail (see sihāsanī line 10). The sign of avagraha occurs in tanayos vatatāra, line 21. The language is Sanskrit, and the record is written partly in verse and partly in prose. After the initial salutetion to Vināyaka, which is in prose, there occur 24 verses, of which the first two are maṅgala ślōkas in praise of Hara, Hari and Vēdhas (Brahmā), while the remaining are descriptive of the Rāshṭrakūta Emperors and their feudatories, the Śīlāra princes. Thereafter, we have the formal portion of the grant in prose, which, again, contains in lines 49-50 a verse on the vanity of life, and in lines 74-82 seven benedictory and imprecatory verses of the usual type. As regards orthography, we may note the use of v for b as in vala for bala, line 10; that of ś for s as in subhaṁ, line 3 and vice verse as in āśīd, line 3; and that of n for the guttural nasal as in Kōnkaṇa, line 56 and for the palatal nasal as in kānchana in line 78. The birudas Malagalagaṇḍa ‘a conqueror of mountains’ and Nannisamudra ‘a sea of truth’ which are of Kannaḍa origin are noteworthy.

.. The inscription refers itself to the reign of the Śīlāra prince Aparājita. The object of it is to record the grant, by Aparājita, of the village Bhādāna to the god Lōṇāditya at Lavaṇētaṭa in the Śaka year 919.

.. The inscription gives first in lines 3-12 the genealogy of the Rāshṭrakūṭas who were the suzerains of the early Śīlāra or Śilāhāra princes, and mentions seventeen kings, viz. 1. Gōvindarāja (I); 2. Karkarāja (I); 3. Indrarāja (I); 4. his son Dantivarman; 5. Karkarāja’s son Kṛishṇarāja (I); 6. Gōvindarāja (II): 7. younger brother Dhruva; 8. his