South Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE MAIN BRANCH

royal fortune by the grace of Chakrapāṇi (Vishṇu). His son from Prabhāvatīguptā, the daughter of Māhārājādhirāja Dēvagupta, was Mahārāja Pravarasēna II, who was a devout worshipper of Mahēśvara. As stated before, this Dēvagupta is none other than Chandragupta II - Vikramāditya, the illustrious Emperor of the Gupta dynasty.

..The object of the present inscription is to record the grant, by Pravarasēna II, of the village Kōthuraka which was situated in the āhāra (territorial division) of Supratishṭha. The village lay to the west of the river Umā, to the north of Chiñchāpallī, to the east of Bonthikavāṭaka and to the south of Maṇḍukigrāma. The donee was the celibate Brāhmaṇa Kāluṭtaka, who belonged to the Kauṇḍinya gotra and the Taittirīya śākhā of the Black Yajurvēda. The grant was made at the victorious place of religious worship (Vaijayika dharmasthāna) and is dated on the twelfth tithi of the bright fortnight of Āśvina in the second regnal year. The Dūtaka was Chakradēva, and the scribe Nāgavarman.

... The donee of the present plates is called gaṇa-yājin. It may therefore be conjectured that the grant was made on the occasion of a gaṇa-yāga at which he officiated as a priest. The Manusmṛiti (III, 164) enjoins that a sacrificer of the Gaṇas should be avoided at a Śrāddha. The expression gaṇānām yājakaḥ is variously interpreted by the commentators of Manu¹, but Bühler’s suggestion² , that the reference may be to the gaṇa-hōmas mentioned in the Baudhāyana-Dharmasūtra seems to be preferable. These gaṇa-homas were to be performed by a person for himself. A Brāhmaṇa is, however, allowed to perform the rite for his teacher, father and mother, but for none else. If he performs it for others through greed, he is tainted by sin and perishes like one who has swallowed poison. Baudhāyana, however, says later on (IV, 8, 10) that through a desire of removing one’s guilt one may cause these oblations to be offered by men who have been engaged for money in case one is unable to do it ; a man need not torment himself. This means, as explained by the commentator Govindasvāmin, that the wealthy man who engages a priest for the performance of the rite will be freed from sin, but the latter will be tainted by guilt³. This explains why the priests who performed gaṇa-hōmas for others out of greed were avoided at a śrāddha. Naturally few persons must have come forward to do the rite and those who did it received a high reward. The case is analogous to that of the first annual śrāddha in honour of a dead person or to that of a śrāddha at an eclipse. The donee of the present plates seems to have performed such a gaṇa-hōma for Pravarasena II, from whom he received a village as his sacrificial fee.

... As for the localities mentioned in the present grant, Nandivaradhana has already been identified with Nandardhan or Nagardhan near Rāmṭēk in the Nāgpur District. Kōthuraka, the donated village, cannot now be traced. Its site seems to have been occupied by Māṇgaon on the right bank of the Wunnā, about 2½ miles north by west of Jāmb, since all the boundary villages mentioned in the present plates can be identified in its vicinity in their respective directions. Thus Chiñchāpallī is Chichōlī which also is situated on the right bank of the same river Wunnā, half a mile to the south of Māṇgaon ; Bōnthikavāṭaka is now called Bōthaḍ and Maṇḍukigrāma, Māṇḍgaon. about 3½ miles to the north by west and 2 miles to the north respectively from Māṇḍgaon. The Wardhā District Gazetteer records a tradition that Māṇḍgaon is named after one Māṇḍō Ṛishi who is said to have done penance on the Wunnā river. The present grant, however, shows that the ancient name of the place
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¹ For other interpretations of gaṇa-yāga, see Ep. Ind., Vol. XXVI, pp. 157 f.
² See his Laws of Manu, S.B.E., Vol. XXV, p. 106.
³ See Gāvindasvāmin’s commentary on Baudhāyana-Dharamasutra, IV, 8, 9.