South Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE MAIN BRANCH

line 5 and -atisṛīshṭō in line 15 the curve turns to the right. The jihvāmūlīya occurs twice in lines 12 and 15, and the upadhmānīya once only in line 6. The language is Sanskrit and except for two verses, one on the seal and the other of the usual imprecatory type at the end, the whole record is in prose. As regards orthography, we may notice the reduplication of the consonant after r as in Nāndivarddhanāt in line 1 and the use of ri for ṛi in drishṭen in the margin of lines 2-3.

...The record commences with dṛishṭam, ‘seen’. The plates were issued from Nandivardhana by Prabhāvatīguptā, the chief queen of the Vākāṭaka Mahārāja Rudrasēna (II) and mother of the Yuvarāja Divākarasēna. She was then acting as Regent for her minor son. The plates record the grant of the village Daṅguṇa which the dowager queen made to Āchārya Chanālasvāmin on the twelfth tithi of the bright fortnight of Kārttika, evidently after observing a fast on the preceding Prabōdhinī Ēkādaśī. Prabhāvatīguptā is described as a fervent devotee of the Bhagavat (i.e. Vishṇu). She first offered the gift to the foot-prints of the Bhagavat, who is probably the same as Rāmagirisvāmin mentioned in her later Ṛiddhapur plates, and then made it over to the Āchārya. The donated village was situated in the Supratishṭha āhāra and lay to the east of Vilavaṇaka, to the south of Śīrshagrāma (Śirīshagrāma?) and to the north of Kadāpiñjana. The grant is dated in the thirteenth year evidently of the boy-prince’s reign. The scribe was Chakradasa.

... It is noteworthy that though Prabhāvatīguptā describes herself as the Chief Queen of the Vākāṭaka Mahārāja Rudrasēna (II), she gives the genealogy of the Guptas and not of the Vākāṭakas in the introductory portion of the present grant. This is also noticed in her later grant recorded in the Ṛiddhapur plates¹. She was evidently very proud of her descent from the imperial Gupta family.

... The genealogy begins with Mahārāja Ghaṭōtkatcha, the first king of the Gupta (dynasty). His son was Mahārāja Chandragupta (I); the latter’s son from the Mahādēvi Kumāradēvī was Mahārājādhirāja Samudragupta, the daughter’s son of the Lichchhavi (chief), who performed several aśvamēdha sacrifices; his son was Mahārājādhirāja Chandragupta (II) a devout worshipper of the Bhagavat; the latter’s daughter from the Mahādēvī Ku- bēranāgā who was born in a Nāga family was Prabhāvatīguptā. She was the chief queen of the Vākāṭaka Mahārāja Rudrasēna (II) and mother of the Yuvarāja Divākarasena.

... It will be noticed that the description of Prabhāvatī’s Gupta ancestors given in the present grant does not agree completely with that noticed in genuine Gupta records. In the first place it makes no mention of Gupta, the founder of the dynasty. Secondly, Chandragupta I is mentioned with the lower title of Mahārāja, not with the imperial one of Mahārājā- dhirāja as in Gupta records. Thirdly, some of the epithets used here to describe Chandragupta II were usually applied to his father Samudragupta². Notewithstanding these differences, the grant is undoubtedly genuine as we find that the genealogy given here is repeated verbatim in the Ṛiddhapur plates of the dowager queen³.

...The importance of the present grant lies in this that it placed for the first time the Vākāṭaka genealogy on a sound basis. In the Vākāṭaka grants discovered before (viz., the Chammak, Siwani and Dudiā plates of Pravarasēna II ) Prabhāvatīguptā was described as the daughter of Mahārājādhirāja Dēvagupta. Fleet identified this Dēvagupta with
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¹ No. 8, below.
² See e.g. the Allāhābād stone pillar inscription of Samudragupta and the Bhiṭātri stone pillar inscription of Skandagupta
³ In the Ṛiddhapur plates, Samudragupta also is mentioned with the lower title of Maharaja See No. 8, line 4.