South Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE MINISTERS AND FEUDATORIES OF THE
VATSAGULMA BRANCH

...(V. 6). His son of brilliant fame . . . . . . . . became well known as Kācha (II). Then to that king was born Kṛishṇadāsa, who augmented the splendour of (his) race and line.

...(V. 7). His wife was Atichandrā,¹ the daughter (of) . . . . . . clad in garments as white as the rays of the moon, whose face resembled the full moon and whose ornaments were modesty and virtuous conduct.

...(V. 8-9). [He] obtained (her) who brightened the land in the form of suppliants² . . . . From her he had two sons resembling Pradyumna and Sāmba, who had longish, lotus-like eyes and lovely bodies like burnished gold . . . . . . . . The elder (of them) bore the title of a king, while the second bore the appellation Ravisāmba.

...(V. 10). Having subjugated prosperous countries such as Aśmaka . . . . . . [the two princes] whose prowess had become fruitful, shone like the sun and the moon.

... (V. 11). While they, whose honour was dependent on . . . . . and whose creeper- like affection and glory had grown very much, were living always in concord and happiness,-

... (V. 12). [Fate] . . . . . . . . . whose decree is not to be evaded even by superhuman beings and whose dread power was produced by the deeds done in a previous life³, announced the thunderbolt of impermanence in the case of the younger (brother).

... (V. 13). [Having oversome] as if with firmness, the diseases of the body and the mind, [the elder brother] . . . . . . . . ., having always the consciousness of transience,⁴ made thereafter the great tree of religious merit grow.

...(V. 14). He served those⁵ who . . . . , who possessed great learning, liberality, compassion, contentment, friendship, forgiveness, courage and wisdom, and who felt pleased with . . . .

... (V. 15). He, who was of pure conduct, habitually imitated in his deeds honourable kings of noble conduct . . . . . . .

... (V. 16). He made . . . . . . . . The suppliants being satisfied (with gifts) spread, in the same way, the fame of other suppliants⁶.
______________________

¹ Bühler restored the queen’s name as Suchandrā. That the name ended in chandra is certain, but the first part of it was probably ati, rather than su. See above, p. 125, n. 4.
¹² The description is probably suggested by the queen’s name Atichandrā (one who has surpassed the moon).
¹³ Bhagvanlal took this as the description of the elder brother who, he thought, murdered the younger brother, but Bühler rightly inferred that the meaning of the verse was that the younger brother perished suddenly by an accident or died of a disease.
¹⁴ The use of the word sachiva in anitya-sachivaḥ has misled all previous editors. They took anitya, achintya or achitya as the name of the minister who, they thought, had donated the Vihāra. But why the minister should come in abruptly here has not been stated. The Amarakōsha gives two senses of sachiva : (i) a minister, and (ii) an associate. Cf. Mantrī sahāyah sachivau (Amarakosha, III, 207 ). At the end of a compound, sachiva conveys the sense of ‘assisted by’ or ‘provided with’ (Monier-Williams). To illustrate this sense the St. Petersberg Dictionary cites the following passage from Śaṅkara’s Bhāshya on the Chhāndōgya Upanishd (1, 2) –doshavad-ghrāṇa-sachivatvāt viddhā ghrāṇa-dēvatā. Anityasaṁjña-sachivaḥ, therefore, means that the elder brother was always conscious of the transitoriness of life. Anitya-saṁjñā (Pali, anichcha-saññā) is mentioned in Buddhist literature as an object of meditation, which destroys the sense of ahaṅkāra (Pali, asmi-māna). Cf. anichcha-saññā bhāvetabbā asmi-māna- samugghātāya (Udāna, IV, 1). The verse therefore states that the elder brother, being always mindful of the impermanence of existence, engaged himself in the acquisition of religious merit. The donor of the Vihārā was this elder brother of Ravisāmba, not his minister.
¹⁵ These were probably Buddhist monks.
¹⁶ The meaning of the verse seems to be that the king bestowed so much wealth on suppliants that they themselves made munificent gifts to others which made them famous.