South Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE MAIN BRANCH

the victorious place of religious worship (vaijayika-dharma-sthāna)¹. The donated village was situated in the Bēṇṇākārpara-bhōga and lay to the north of Vaṭapūraka, to the west of Kiṇihikhēṭaka, to the south of Pavarajjavātaka and to the east of Kōllapūraka. The village adjoining it was named Karañjaviraka. The grant was made on the 12th tithi of the bright fortnight of Phālguna in the eighteenth regnal year (expressed in words) of Pravarasēna II. The Sēnāpati at the time was Bāppadēva. The charter was written by Āchārya.

....The localities mentioned in the present plates remained unidentified for a long time. Fleet suggested the identification of only one of them. viz., Kōllapūraka which he thought was possibly identical with ‘the modern Kōlāpoor of the map, twenty-one miles south of Ilichpur’. This is incorrect; for, the real name of the place is Khōlāpur and it was founded by Khōleśvara, a well-known general of the great Yādava king Siṅghaṇa, who named it after himself and granted it as an agrahāra to Brāhmaṇas², Again, none of the other villages can be identified in the vicinity of Khōlāpur. While editing the Pāṭṇā Museum plate of Pravarasēna II, Dr. Altekar suggested that Brahmapūraka named in it to define the boundary of the donated village Śrīparṇakā was identical with the village of the same name granted by the present plates. He identified it with Brāhmaṇwāḍā near Achalapur³. This identification also is open to the same objection; for, none of the other villages can be identified in the vicinity of Brāhmaṇwāḍā. The statement in the present grant that Brahmapūraka was situated in Bēṇṇākāpara-bhōga is important. Like Bēnnākaṭa of the Tirōḍī plates⁴, this bhōga also must have derived its name from the river Bēṇṇā, modern Waingaṅgā⁵, and must have included the territory in the vicinity of that river. With this clue I could identify most of the villages mentioned in the present grant. Kārañjā, about 6 miles from Āmgaon, a railway station on the Calcutta-Nagpur line of the South-Eastern Railway, is probably the ancient Karañjaviraka. Brahmapūraka, the donated village, is Bāhmnī, about three miles from Kārañjā. Kōllapūraka of the plates is now represented by Kulpā near Kārañjā, about 5 miles to the west of Bahmnī. Pavarajjavāṭaka and Vaṭapūraka. may be the modern Paraswāḍā and Baḍgaon near Bāhmnī⁶. These places lie within 20 to 30 miles from the eastern bank of the Waingaṅgā and were in all probability included in the Beṇṇākārpara-bhōga mentioned in the present plates.⁷

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¹This expression generally occurs in the grants made at the royal capital.
² Cf.खोल्लपूराभिधंचक्रेग्रोग्रहारमनुत्तमम्‌।तीरेपयोण्ण्याविपुलं तथान्यद्धस्तिनापुरम्‌ ॥ G.H. Khare, Sources of the Mediaeval History of the Deccan, p. 64.
³ J.B.O.R.S., Vol. XIV, P. 472.
⁴ See No. 11, line13.
⁵ This river is called Vēṇā in the Mahābhārata (Sabhāparvan, Adhyāya 31, v. 12), Padmapurāṇa (svargakhaṇḍa, adhyāya, 30, vv. 30-32, and adhyāya 114, vv. 27-28). The Mārkaṇḍēayapurāṇa and the Matsyapurāṇa call it Vēṇyā. Vēṇvā in the Vāyu (ad. 45, v.102 ) and Kūrma (ad, 47, v. 32) are evidently corrupt forms of the Sanskrit name Vēṇyā.
⁶ Paraswāḍā and Baḍgaon do not lie to the north and south of Bāhmnī as stated in the plates, but are situated in the opposite directions. The official who drafted the present charter must have been res- ponsible for the mistake.
⁷ The identifications of these places wore first suggested by me in the Nagpur University Journal No. I, pp.1 ff.
⁸ From the facsimiles facing pages 248 and 249 in Flret’s C.I.I., Vol. III.