Dharampurī Grant of Vākpatirājadēva (Trivedi no. 4). Metadata.
Creators: name: Trivedi, H. V.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 1978
Subjects: IN060018

description: Dharampurī Grant of Vākpatirājadēva (Trivedi no. 4). Metadata.



Found at Dharampurī, District Dhār, Madhya Pradesh.

Coordinates: 22°10'12"N, 75°21'0"E

 
description: Selected bibliography:



Trivedi (1978) 10-12, no. 4
description: DHARAMPURĪ GRANT OF VĀKPATIRĀJADĒVA

[Vikrama] Year 1031

This inscription is incised on two copper-plates which are stated to have been dug out by a farmer in his field at Dharampurī [1][6] , the chief town of a parganā in the former State of Dhār, which is now the headquarters of a District of the same name in Madhya Pradesh. Some time after, the plates were sent to Indore in the Archives Office of the Central India Agency. The record was first brought to light, in 1861, by Fitz Edward Hall, who tranalated it and commented upon it in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Volume XXX, pp. 195-210. Subsequently. in 1877, the inscription was edited by Nīlkanṭha Janārdana Kīrtanē, with his own reading of the text, in Nāgarī, and a fresh translation, in the Indian Antiquary, Volume VI, pp. 48 ff. and Plates, showing full size facsimiles (facing pp. 51 and 52).[2][7] The plates are now in the India Office, London. The record is edited here from the facsimiles published in the Volume of the Indian Antiquary, referred to above.

...As stated above, the plates are two in number, each engraved on one side only and each measuring 12” (30.5 cms.) wide and 8.6” (21.60 cms.) high, and contain 18 and 16 lines respectively, the last line containing only a part of the sign-manual of the king. The lower left corner of the second plate, in a rectangular space of about 9 cms. high by 8 cms. broad, shows the figure of a flying Garuḍa, in human from and facing left, holding a snake in the left hand. The figure measures 7 cms. broad by 8.5 cms. high The lower edge of the first plate and the upper of the second contain two round holes, each about 1 cm. in diameter and obstructing the continuity of writing in a line, showing that both the plates were originally held together by two rings which are now not forthcoming.

The writing is bold and from the facsimiles it appears to be in a perfect state of preservation. The height of individual letters is between .5 and .8 cms. The characters belong to the tenth century A.C. and they bear a general resemblance to those of the Harsōlā Grant A. The new forms of letters exhibited in the present record, however, are as follows. The initial a is engraved so as to resemble p with the sign of medial u attached to its left limb, see, e.g., agāra, 1. 11 and asmat, 1.27. The vertical stroke of k is turned above at its lowest extremity so as to form the loop, see kuśalī, 1. 8 ; the rare chh in Ahichchhatra, 1. 20, appears as a hollow circle with a tail below; the loops of ch, dh and v are almost similar, the first of these letters occurs in chaṅchad, 1.2. and the other two in vāridhēr-, 1.3., and all the three letters are found in one single instance and exhibiting the same form in cha vōdhayati, 1. 10. In some instances, however, ch resembles r, see anuchintya and cha, both in 1. 31. The form of the rare ñ can be seen in chañchala, 1. 28. Bha in 1. 1 is confounded with ru ; and the formation of r and s is almost as in modern Nāgarī, see, e.g., sarasī, 1. 3. It is also interesting to note that the top-strokes of several letters are triangular, with the vertex below, as in kaṭhōra, 1.2.

The language of the record is Sanskrit, and with the exception of two verses in the beginning, two in the middle and five in the end, it is composed in prose. In respect of orthography, the points that call for notice are these:- (1) the use of the sign for v to denote b as well ; (2) the doubling of a consonant following r and of t that precedes it, as in Narmmadā, II. 8-9 and sarvvadā, 1.24 ; and in pavittraka, 1. 14, māttra, 1. 16 and attra, 1.33 ; (3) the dental s occurring for the palatal only in two instances, viz. Pisācha, 1. 13 and chaturddasyāṁ, 1. 14 ; (4) the sporadic use of the mātrā before a letter and above it and the other two dipthongs denoted by one mātrā before the letter and the other above ; (5) the occasional use of avagraha to denote the merging of a in ē, cf. in vṛiddhayē’=dṛishṭa, 1. 22, and in ō, cf. in samētō’hi-, 1. 20, but also to denote the merging of a in ā in vudhvā’smat, 1. 25, and not in some other instances for which see taḍārōyam, 1. 11 and sāmānyōyaṁ, 1. 30, where it may rightly be expected ; (6) the wrong use of the sign for anusvāra in place of m at the end of a hemistich, as in gataṁ, 1. 4, śriyaṁ, 1. 17, phalaṁ, 1. 18 and 1. 26 ; (7) the consonant n engraved with the vertical stroke and then marked halanta in –smin 1. 14 ; and (8) some wrong spellings as saṁvatsarē appearing as samvatsarē, 1. 14, śrēyāṁsi as śrēyānsi and ārdritaṁ-vā-as ārdritam-vā,both in 1. 3, truṁśa for triṁśa, 1. 13 ; and finally, local influence is to be seen saiṅhikāya, 1. 2, and Vairisiṅha, 1. 6.

The inscription contains a few grammatical and other errors. The rule of sandhi is violated in –nī uttarasyāṁ, 1. 9 ; diśau is wrongly put for diśi in 11. 12 and 13, though in 1.12 we find diśi also. A superfluous u is engraved in tathō uttarasyāṁ, 1. 11 and tīrtha is spelt as ttirtha in 1. 13, evincing carelessness of the writer or the engraver.

It is a royal charter and its object is to record the donation by Vākpatirāja, of a taḍāra (?) of the name of Pipparikā, connected with Gardabhapānīya situated in the region (bhōga) of the name of Gardabhapānīya on the Narmadā, from his stay at Ujjayanī (11. 9 ff). The date, which is expressed in words in lines 13-14 and again in figures in lines 32-33, is the fourteenth day of the bright half of Bhādrapada in the year 1031, which, for the Chaitrādi expired year, would correspond to 3rd September, 974 A.C. and for the kārttikādi expired, to 23rd August, 975 A.C. [3]

To note the contents of the record, it opens with a symbol denoting siddham, and following it, it has two maṅgala-ślōkas. The first of these stanzas purports to eulogise the beauties of the manly throat of Śrīkaṇṭha (Śiva), desiring him to increase our happiness, and the second, to describe the body of Mura-ripu (Lord Kṛishṇa), with a request to him to protect the world. Then begins the genealogical portion of the grantor, which is in prose (11. 5-8) . It mentions the name of the illustrious Vākpatirājadēva. otherwise known as Amōghavarshadēva, bearing the epithets Pṛithvīvallabha and Śrīvallabha, who was the lord paramount meditating on the feet of the Paramabhaṭṭāraka, Mahārājādhirāja and Paramēśvara Sīyakadēva, who meditated on the feet of the P.M.P. Vairisiṁhadēva, who, in his turn, meditated on the feet of P.M.P. Kṛishṇarājadēva. The record does not mention the name of the house to which these kings belonged, but from the names given in it and also from the Garuḍa symbol engraved at the end, it can obviously be known to be that of the Paramāras of Mālwā.

Lines 9 ff. state the donation of a taḍāra (?) of the name of Pipparikā, situated on the banks of the holy Narmadā, to the north of the portion of waters called the Gardab ha-Pānīya [4]; it was bounded on the east by Agāravāhalā, on the north by the ditch (or descent ) belonging to (of) Chikhillikā, on the west by the river Gardabha(ī) and on the south by the Piśāchadēva-tīrtha. The donation was made by the king from his stay at Ujjayanī (Ujjain) to increase the merits of his parents and of himself, to the learned Brāhmaṇa-philosopher, the illustrious Vasantāchārya, the son of Paṇḍita Dhanika[1] and hailing from Ahichchhatra into the southern region.

Lines 23-25 record the usual condition of the grant ; and then are quoted five imprecatory and benedictory verses, followed by the date in figures, as seen above, and also the mention of the name Kaṇhapaika who passed on the (royal) orders. He appears to be the same person as mentioned in the preceding grant. Here the inscription ends with the sign-manual of the king– sva-hast-ōyaṁ Śrī-Vākpatirājadēvasya (in 11. 34-35).

The present grant is the first of those issued by Vākpatirāja alias Muñja and is dated (V.) S. 1031, which is equivalent to 957 A.C.; and as his father Sīyaka’s last grant shows the year which corresponds to 969 A.C., it is evident that Vākpatirāja occupied the throne of Mālwā some time between the two dates. It is also interesting to note that the present one is the first royal charter issued by a member of the house from Mālwā, all the previous ones being issued from Gujarāt.

Of the geographical names mentioned in the inscription, Ujjayinī (1. 14) and Narmadā (11. 8-9) are well known ; and Ahichchhatra, the original place of the donee (1. 20) has been identified with Rohelkhand.[5] Pipparikā (1. 9), which has so far remained unidentified, appears to be identical with the modern Pīprī (E. Long. 75⁰ 12’ ; N. Lat. 22⁰ 9’) in the Manāwar tahsīl of the Dhār District, about 6-7 kms. north of the Narmadā. Kīrtane identified Chikhillikā (1. 12) with the modern town of Chikhaldā which is about 28 kms. south-southwest of Pīprī ; but besides its great distance from Pīprī, this identification goes against the direction of the other places mentioned in the inscription. This place rather appears to have been more likely the village Chīkhlī, about 15 kms. north-northwest of Pīprī. The stream Mān, which is a northern tributary of the Narmadā, follows a meandering course, first flowing to the east of Chīkhlī and then taking a sudden bend to the north of Pīprī, before it pours its waters into the Narmadā ; thus it shows the donated taḍāra to its west and is very probably to be the vāhalā (stream ?) stated to form its eastern boundary. About 8 kms. north-northwest of Chīkhlī flows another stream known as Kharjā, which, as rightly recognised by Kīrtane from the identical meaning, may be the Gardabha-nadi (1. 9), forming the western boundary of the taḍāra, as stated in the inscription. The tīrtha by the name of Piśācha-dēva, as it is known even today, is on the Narmadā, just to the south of Pīprī ; and the bhōga of Gardabha-pānīya refers to the region around the prosperous village Gandhvānī (N. Lat. 22⁰ 21’ ; E. Long. 75⁰ 3’) about 40 kms. south-west of Dhār and about 45 kms. north-west of Dharampurī where the plates were found.[6] And finally, Śiva-taḍāga, mentioned in 1. 15, where the king took his bath before making the grant, appears to be the cistern in the precincts of the Mahākāla temple at Ujjain where he is stated to be then residing. The Navasāhasāṅkacharita (I, v. 48) describes it as a pious lake.

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[1] Dharampurī of the maps, situated in 75° 27’ E. Long. and 22° 10’ N. Lat. The place is of some historical and archaeological importance and lies on the north bank of the Narmadā. about 96 kms. south-southwest from Indore and about 77 kms. straight south of Dhār, the capital of the former State of that name and controlled by the Central India Agency.

[2] The following are some of the points which show that Kīrtanē’s reading of the text is not quite correct. though from the point of history it makes little difference. The syllables sī, rā and ka, which the plate shows as closing the lines 3. 29 and 30 respectively, are written by him at the beginning of each of the following line: he wrongly put two avagraha signs after cha in chāśvāsitaṅ, 1. 4: on the last letter in bhagavantaṁ, 1.15, the sign of anusvāra, which is clear on the plate. is omitted by him; in pavitraka, 1.14 and Ahichchhattra. 1.20. he read a single t for double; and in 1.25 he read dharmāwhereas the facsimile does not show the medialā.

[3] The date cannot be verified.

[4] As translated by Kīrtanē on p. 53 of the Ind. Ant., Vol. VI. This, however, appears to me to be the western boundary of the gift place.

[5] See N. L. Dey: G. D. A. M. I. under the same name. Hall thinks that Ahichchhatra may not have been far from the Vindhyas ; but the place has now been definitely identified.

[6] Hence the plates are also known after the name of this place.