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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
or âlords of Tagara, the best of cities’ (Tagarapuravarādhīśvara)[1]. This, in accordance with the interpretation of similar expressions,[2] must be taken to mean that they originally hailed from Tagara. This place has been variously identified. In the Asiatic Researches, Vol. I, p. x, which published the first known Śilāhāra grant, Wilford suggested its identification with Dēvagiri or Daulatābād. Other identifications were as follows:− Junnar in the Poonā District proposed by Bhagvanlal,[3] Dhārur in the Bhīr District by R. G. Bhandarkar,[4] Tavangīr, twelve miles north of Kanakagiri in the former Hyderābād State, by V. K. Rajvade,[5] and Karavīra (Kolhāpur) by Fleet.[6] Later, Fleet changed his view and correctly identified it with the village Ter in the Osmānābād District now included in the Marāṭhwāḍā Division of Mahārāshṭra.[7] Tagara, like Pratishthana, was an important market-town on the highways from places om the eastern coast like Nāgārjunakōṇḍa, Viṇukōṇḍa, Veṅgī etc. to Barygaza (Broach) in the west and Ujjayinī in the North via Paiṭhaṇ and Nāsik. From Broach merchandise such as common cloth, muslin and mallow cloth was transported to western countries. Both Ptolemy and the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea mention Tagara, but while the former places it in a north-easterly direction from Baryagaza,[8] the latter says that it required a ten-day journey to the east from Paiṭhaṇ.[9] Ter is about 95 miles from Paiṭhaṇ. The Greek writers apparently committed a mistake is stating the direction of Tagara from Broach or Paiṭhaṇ. The identification of Tagara with Ter has now been generally accepted. It has been supported by the existing ancient temples and inscriptions at Ter and also by the excavations recently done at the place.[10] Ter contains an old apsidal temple of Trivikrama, which is supposed to have originally been a Buddhist Chaitya, dating back to the fourth century A.D. Another temple dedicated to Uttarēśvara, consisting of a garbhagṛiha, a maṇḍapa and a porch, probably belonged to the sixth century A.D. Inscriptions discovered at Ter written in Sanskrit. Kannaḍa and Marāṭhī range in dates from the eleventh to the fourteenth century A.D. Excavations at Ter have brought to light pottery, terracotta and coins of the Sātavāhana period from about the second cen. B.C. to the third cen. A.D.[11] Recently, a tiny copper coin with the legend Tagara in the Brāhmī characters of about the first cen. B.C. has been found in the Marāṭhwāḍā Division of Mahārāshṭra.[12] All this shows that Ter was a flourishing town in the time of Ptolemy and the Periplus, and its identification with ancient Tagara seems unquestionable.
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As stated before, two of the three Śilāhāra branches whose records are edited here state
that they were previously ruling at Tagara. This is supported by literary evidence. The Sanskrit
work Bṛihatkathākōśa of Harishēṇa (10th cen. A.D.)[13] and the Apabhraṁśa work Karakaṇḍachariu
[1] This is noticed generally in the records of the Śilāhāras of Kolhāpur, Bijāpur and Akkalkoṭ. Other branches
used slightly different expressions such as Tagaranagarādhīśvara (in the records of the Eḷamēla family)
and Tagarapuravarēśvara (in those of Kurnul branch). Ep. Ind., Vol. XXVII, p. 70, n. 9.
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