Epigraphia Indica Vol 23

SR No.: 032577
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1935
Total Pages: 436
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 145

104
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XXIII.
name Khajuriya is very common around Ujjain. Madhupalikā may be same as Majhowli, a village-name common to U. P. There is thus & vast amount of information regarding the original places of Brāhmaṇas in the present plates which will be of great importance to the social history of this period. .
The date of the donation of the grant B is mentioned as the full-moon day of Kärttika in the (Vikrama) year 1038, on the occasion of a lunar eclipse, which is equivalent to Sunday, the 16th October, A.D. 981. The date on which the grant was actually written and conveyed appears to be nearly nine months later, being mentioned as the tenth day of the bright half of the second Ashādha of V. S. 1038. Obviously the year is to be considered as Kārttikādi or Southern and the equivalent date accordingly is July 3, Tuesday, A.D. 982, as there was no intercalation in the month of Ashādha in Samvat 1038 according to the Northern reckoning. The second grant (C) was made at the winter solstico (Udagayana) in the year 1043 V. S. which fell on 22nd December, A. D. 986, while the charter was issued on the thirteenth day of the dark (half) of the month of Māgha which is equivalent to Friday, the 31st December, A.D. 986 taking the month to be Purnimanta. The dates of these plates slightly advance our knowledge of the reigning period of Väkpatirāja for whom we already have 1031 and 1036 V.S. as the dates of his Dharampuril and Ujjain piates; but the tragic end of Vākpatirāja in the Chālukya capital must be dated several years later than the date of the second grant.
The plates are all engraved only on one side, the last plate in grant B containing on the back only the words Vanikā-grāma-šāsanaṁ tāmrapatrāņi cha tri(tri)ni stating that the plates of the charter for the village Vaņikā were three in number. On the first plate the obliterated Rāshtrakūța inscription (A) consists of 22 lines. The inscription fortunately contains all the most important information about the record, although there must have been at least two more plates in the beginning, one giving the genealogy and possibly one more at the end containing the concluding portion and the imprecatory verses. The donor Suvarpavarshadēva (Govinda IV) is stated to be the son of Nityavarsha (Indra III). The date of the grant is mentioned in detail as Sunday the full-moon day of Māgha in the Saka yoar 851 Vikrita-samvatsara, when the moon was in the constellation of Aslēshā and there was an eclipse of the moon. This date is identical in every particular with that of another Kannada inscription of the same ruler, viz., the Kalas inscription and is equivalent to Sunday, the 17th January, A.D. 930, when there was an eclipse of the moon. The inscription records that on the great occasion of the lunar eclipse, the king after having made grants of land, learning, food, desire-fulfilling tree, medicine, etc., and having weighed himself (against precious commodities) ordered the donation of the village of Payalipattana situated in the western boundary of Minyakhēta or Malkhed the Rashtrakūta capital. The object of the donation was to establish & sattra or charitable feeding house where a thousand Brāhmaṇas belonging to different denominations were to be fed ; thus 360 were the Karnāțaka Brahmaņas of Malkhed; 300 belonged to the Kaņva-säkhā, 240 were Brāhmaṇas from Karabataka (apparently those now known as Karhādā Brāhmaṇas in Maharashtra); 72 were Brahmaņas of the Chatus-Charana or all the four Charanas and 28 Brähmaņas are mentioned as Sahasrasāmänya or common to the thousand. The reference to the donations of this king in the phrase prati....prayachchhată = daily giving away (to Brāhmaṇas, etc.) incessantly
1 Ind. Ant., Vol. VI, pp. 48 ff. : Ibid., Vol. XIV, p. 160, Above, Vol. XIII, PP. 329 ff.