South Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE MAIN BRANCH

portion of the grant gives the genealogy of the Guptas and not of the Vākāṭakas. This is also seen in the Poonā plates which were issued when Prabhāvatī was acting as Regent for her minor son Yuvarāja Divākarasēna. The introduction of the Gupta genealogy in the latter grant can be explained as due to the influence of the Gupta officials sent by Chandragupta II to Vidarbha to help his widowed daughter in the government of the Vākāṭaka kingdom. No such explanation will, however, avail in the present case ; for Pravarasēna II was a grown up man when the present grant was made. In all his earlier grants he has given his own genealogy in the introductory portion. The use of the Gupta genealogy here must therefore be attributed to Prabhāvatī’s pride in her descent from the Gupta family.

...The genealogy of the Guptas is given here exactly as in Prabhāvatī’s Poona plates, the only difference being that the imperial title Mahārājādhirāja is here applied only to Chandragupta II, all his predecessors including the grant Emperor Samudragupta being styled as Mahārāja. The Vākāṭaka kings Rudrasēna II and Pravarasēna II mentioned in the grant are also styled as Māhārāja. Prabhāvatīguptā is described as meditating on the feet of the Bhagavat. Like her father, she was a devotee of Vishṇu.

...The plates were issued from the foot-prints of ‘the lord of Rāmagiri’, who is evidently identical with Rāmachandra, an incarnation of Vishṇu. The object of the inscription is to record the grant, by Prabhāvatī, of a field together with a house and four huts of farmers in Aśvatthanagara which lay in the mārga (subdivision) of Kōśika. The donees are not mentioned by name, but are described as Brāhmaṇas, with or without sons, who were of the Parāśara gōtra and the Taittirīya śākhā. The grant is dated, at the end, on the twelfth tithi of the bright fortnight of Kārttika in the nineteenth regnal year of Pravarasēna. As Prabhāvatī was a devotee of Vishṇu, she seems to have made the present grant on the occasion of the pāraṇā (completion) of her fast on the preceding Prābōdhinī Ēkādaśī. Her Poonā grant also was made on a similar occasion. The Dūtaka was Dēvanandasvāmin and the scribe Prabhusiṁha.

...There is one expression in the description of Prabhāvatī which has led to much controversy. Mr. Gupte, who edited the plates, read it as s-āgra-varsha-śata-diva-putra-pautrā and proposed the following two renderings−(i) who has sons and grandson, a life of full hundred years and will (in the end) live in heaven, and (ii) who has renowned sons and grandsons and who has lived a life of full hundred years¹. Mr. Gupte remarked that the expression need not be taken literally and that what was intended was that Prabhāvatīguptā lived for a long time and saw illustrious sons and grandsons. It has since been shown² that the correct reading is –jīva-putra-pautrā, not –diva-putra-putrā. Dr. R. C. Majumdar took the expression literally and understood it as meaning that Prabhāvatī lived for more than a hundred years and had sons and grandsons³. On this interpretation he based his theory of Vākāṭaka chronology. It does not, however, appear to be correct. In the expression cited above, jīva-putra-pautrā means ‘having living sons and grandsons’. Similar expressions jīva-sutā or jīva-putrā occur in the Ṛigvēda, the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa as well as in some old inscriptions⁴. To have living sons and grandsons is regarded as a sign of good
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¹ J.A.S.B., N.S., Vol. XX, pp. 56 and 60.
² This was first pointed out by Prof. Jagan Nath in P.I.H.C., IV, p. 59.
³ J.R.A.S.B., Vol. XII, pp. 1 f.
⁴ Cf. (i)   वयं  जीवा जीवपुत्रा अनागसः । Ṛigvēda X, 36, 9 क्रोधनो न च गृह्लीते वचनं मे सुयोधनः ॥   MBH, V, 144, 2.
(iii) जीवपुत्रे  निवर्तस्व  पुत्रं  रक्षस्व चाङ्गदम्‌।अन्तको  रामस्पेण  हत्वा नयति वालिनम्‌ ॥  Ṛāmāyṇa IV, 19, 11.
(iv) जोवसुताय राजमातुय वचनेन। Nāsik cave inscription, Ep.Ind., Vol VIII, p.73.