|
The Indian Analyst
|
North Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF NORTH KONKAN
..Whoever, with his mind clouded by the mass of the darkness of ignorance, would confiscate (this gift ) or would allow it to be confiscated, would incur the five major sins together with the minor ones.
(Line 74). And it has been said by the holy Vyasa:â .. (Line 82). The Mahāmaṇdalēśvara, the illustrious Aparājitadēva records his approval of the gift as detailed above by the hand of the scribe. “This has been approved by Me, the illustrious Aparājitadēva.â .. While the illustrious Saṅgalaiya is the Mahāmātya and the illustrious Sīhapaiya is the Mahāsāndhivigrahika, by the order of the King, who is the illustrious title-holder, this charter has been written by Annapaiya, the son and deputy of Saṅgalaiya, who has obtained the (royal) permission. And it has been preserved at Sthānaka. .. Whatever is written here—right or wrong—all that should be regarded as authoritative. It should be managed hereafter accordingly. .. The guild [1] should, year after year, pay two hundred and sixty drammas—in figures 260—to the royal family as a gift of veneration. [2] .. May there be happiness and great prosperity !
No. 8. PLATE XXI
..THESE plates recording a Śilāhāra grant, the first to be discovered, were found ‘in digging
for some works at the Fort of Tanna (Ṭhāṇā) the capital of Salset.’ As none of the Gujarat
Brāhmaṇas in Bombay could explain the inscription, General Carnac took them to
Calcutta, where he translated them as explained by Ramalochana Pandit and published
the translation without the text and fascimiles of the plates in the Asiatic Researches, Vol. I
(1788), pp. 957 f. The Volume was reprinted in England in 1801, with a fascimile of the first
plate only facing p. 357. From the letter that Carnac wrote to Sir William Jones, President of
the Asiatic Society of Bengal, on the 15th February 1787, it appears that two grants were found
at Ṭhāṇā, each consisting of three plates fastened together by a ring, but only one of them
which is edited here was published in the form of a translation in the aforementioned Volume
of the Asiatic Researches. As shown below, this is the only known grant of the Śilāhāra prince
Arikēsarin and is, therefore, of exceptional importance. Many scholars have, therefore regretted that it was not properly deciphered and its text published. [3] Dr. Altekar, for instance,
has remarked, “This inscription requires to be re-edited as it is deciphered from a far from
faultless lithograph at a time when the knowledge of ancient history was in its infancy.” [4] But
the plates have since become untraceable. Carnac says in the aforementioned letter to Sir
William Jones that he had taken them to Calcutta ‘under promise of restoring them to the
proprietor,’ and doubtless they must have been so restored when done with. So there is now
no prospect of their being available for re-editing. It is, however, possible to restore their text [1] Nagara is a Kannaḍa word meaning ‘a guild’. It is used with hanja (ya) mana (an artisan) in several inscriptions of the Śilāhāras of North Kōṅkaṇ. See e.g. No. 9, line 26.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| > |
|
>
|