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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE MAIN BRANCH
Vakāṭakas1. It is not unlikely that while in Vidarbha, Kālidāsa was attached to the office of the Sēnāpati as stated in the present record. He may therefore be identified with the writer of this grant. ...But a close examination of the present record shows that this view is untenable. The scribe of the present plates had a very imperfect knowledge of Sanskrit. As pointed out above, there are numerous orthographical and grammatical mistakes, for most of which the writer, not the engraver, must have been responsible. On the other hand, Kālidāsa had a great command over the Sanskrit language. He has emphasised the importance of correct speech in one of his similes2, and his works contain fewer instances of solecisms than those of his predecessors and successors. It is incredible that such a great poet as Kālidāsa would commit so many mistakes of orthography, sandhi, syntax, nominal and verbal forms, etc., which disfigure the present record. Disappointing as it is, one has to admit that the scribe was only a namesake and a contemporary of, but not identical with, the prince of Sanskrit poets. We may note here that similar names ending in dāsa were current in Vidarbha in the age of the Vākāṭakas. Thus we know of Namidāsa, a Sēnāpati, Chamidāsa, the Chief Minister, as well as the writers Chakradāsa, Gōladāsa and Māradāsa.
... As for the localities mentioned in the present grant, Varadākhēṭa is probably Warūḍ in the Mōrsī tahsil of the Amarāvatī District, about 12 miles south of Paṭṭan. Lohanagara-, the headquarters of an ancient division, may be represented by Lonī, about 9 miles southwest of Warūḍ. The name of the village Aśvatthakhēṭaka, in which the donated land was situated, can no longer be traced; its site seems to be occupied by the modern village Paṭṭan. Tradition says that the ancient village, the site of which is now included in Paṭṭan, was turned upside down and buried underground by the curse of a Muslim saint Sulaiman Shah3. Even now when excavations are made, large-size bricks, beads of onyx and old coins are found there, which also shows that the modern village is occupying an old site. It may, again, be noted that Paṭṭan lies on the way from Multāi to Warūḍ (ancient Varadākhēṭa), and may, therefore, have been included in the mārga (territorial division) of Varadākhēṭa. ______________________
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