North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF NORTH KONKAN

.. And this has been written by me, the illustrious Joupaiya, the nephew of the Treasury officer, the great poet, the illustrious Nāgalaiya, by the order of the illustrious King. It has been engraved by Mānadharapaiya, the son of Vēdapaiya.

Whatever is written here−in deficient or redundant syllables−all that is authoritative.

No. 9 : PLATES XXII-XXIV
BHĀṆḌUP PLATES OF CHHITTARAJA : SAKA YEAR 948

..AN extract from these plates was published in 1885 by Mr. Wathen in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (first series), Vol. II, p. 383. He gave a reading of the text with a partial translation, but the plates were first critically edited with an English translation but without facsimiles by Dr. Bühler in the Indian Antiquary, Vol. V, pp. 276 f. Later, they were published with facsimiles and an English translation by Dr. Fleet, in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XII, pp. 250 f. The plates are now deposited in the British Museum. I edit them here from the facsimiles in the Ep. Ind., Vol. XII.

.. The plates were found on the land belonging to Mr. Hormusji C. Ashburner at Bhāṇḍup in the island of Bombay. “They are three in number, and are connected by a very stout ring with a seal bearing Garuḍa, the cognizance of the Śilāhāras. Each plate measures 71/2 (19.05 cm.) inches by 41/2 (11.43 cm.). The first and the last are inscribed on the inner side only, and the second on both sides. They are well preserved[1].”

.. The characters are of the Nāgarī alphabet as in other grants of the Śilāhāras. The language is Sanskrit and record is written partly in verse and partly in prose. One of the verses[2] is incomplete, only the first half being given here and that too incorrectly. As regards orthography, the only peculiarities worth noticing are the reduplication of the constant following r (as in ripu-darppa-marddī, line 5) and the use of the dental s for the palatal ś (as in Sivō, line 2).

.. The inscription refers itself to the reign of the Śīlāra (also called Śilāhāra in line 17) Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara Chhittarāja. The object of it is to record the grant, by Chhittarāja, of a filed belonging to Vōḍaṇibhaṭṭa (which the king had evidently purchased from the owner) in the village of Nōura to the Brāhmaṇa Āmadēvaiya, the son of Nōḍamaiya, who belonged to the Parāśara gotra and the Chhandōga Śākhā (i.e. Sāmavēda). The village was comprised in the Shaṭshashṭi vishaya, including Sthānaka. The flied was bounded on the east by the boundary of the village Gōṁvaṇi, on the south by that of Gōrapavalī, on the west by a royal road and on the north-east by the boundary of the same village Gōṁvaṇi. The object of the grant was to provide for the performance of the usual six duties of the Brāhmaṇas, of the obligatory and occasional rites and of bali, charu, vaiśvadēva and agnihotra.

.. The genealogy of the donor Chhittarāja is given as in his other grants. Unlike the Grants[3] of some of his predecessors, this grant of Chhittarāja does not give in the beginning the genealogy of the Rāshṭrakūṭas, who were formerly the suzerains of the Śilāhāras. Nor does it mention the supremacy of the Later Chālukyas. The genealogy of the Śilāhāras is given here beginning from the mythical Jīmūtavāhana as in other grants. The following princes are
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[1] Ind. Ant., Vol, p. 276.
[2] cvbnm,.//.,mnb verse 10. Besides, it is written incorrectly and therefore misled scholars for a long time. It occurs in a correct form in the Divē Āgar plates of Chhittarāja, No. 10.
[3] Above, Nos. 4-7.