Note 30 — Chapter XI · THE RÁSHṬRAKÚṬAS (a.d. 743–974.)

Chapter XI. The Ráshṭrakúṭas, a.d. 743–974. Indra Nityaṃvarsha, a.d. 914. Indra Nityaṃvarsha, a.d. 914.Kṛishṇa or Akálavarsha had a son named Jagattuṅga who does not appear to have come to the throne. Other plates show that he went to Chedi the modern Bundelkhand and remained there during his father’s lifetime. By Lakshmí the daughter of the king of Chedi, Jagattuṅga had a son named Indra also called Nityaṃvarsha Raṭṭakandarpa. In both of Indra’s Navsárí copperplates (a.d. 914) Indra is mentioned as Pádánudhyáta, Falling at the feet of, that is successor of, not his father but his grandfather Akálavarsha.30 One historical attribute of Indra in both the plates is that “he uprooted in a moment the Mehr,”31 apparently referring to some contemporary Mehr king of North Káthiáváḍa. Both the Navsárí plates of Śaka 836 (a.d. 914) note that the grants were made under peculiar conditions. The plates say that the donor Indra Nityaṃvarsha, with his capital at Mányakheta, had come to a place named Kuruṇḍaka for the paṭṭabandha or investiture festival. It is curious that though Mányakheṭa is mentioned as the capital the king is described as having come to Kuruṇḍaka for the investiture. Kuruṇḍaka was apparently not a large town as the plates mention that it was given in grant.32 At his investiture Indra made great gifts. He weighed himself against gold or silver, and before leaving the scales he gave away Kuruṇḍaka and other places, twenty and a half lákhs of dramma coins, and 400 villages previously granted but taken back by intervening kings. These details have an air of exaggeration. At the same time gifts of coins by lákhs are not improbable by so mighty a king as Indra and as to the villages the bulk of them had already been alienated. The fact of lavish grants is supported by the finding of these two plates of the same date recording grants of two different villages made on the same occasion, the language being the same, and also by a verse in the late Ráshṭrakúṭa Kardá plate (Ś. 894, a.d. 972) where Indra is described as making numerous grants on copperplates and building many temples of Śiva.33 The date of Indra’s grants (Ś. 836, a.d. 914) is the date of his investiture and accession. This is probable as the latest known date of his grandfather Kṛishṇa is Śaka 83334 (a.d. 911) and we know that Indra’s father Jagattuṅga did not reign.35 Umvará and Tenna, the villages granted in the two investiture plates, are described as situated near Kammaṇijja the modern Kámlej in the Láṭa province. They are probably the modern villages of Umra near Sáyan four miles west of Kámlej, and of Tenna immediately to the west of Bárdoli, which last is mentioned under the form Váraḍapallikâ as the eastern boundary village. Dhruva II.’s Bagumrá plate (Ś. 789, a.d. 867) mentions Tenna as granted Chapter XI. The Ráshṭrakúṭas, a.d. 743–974. Indra Nityaṃvarsha, a.d. 914. by Dhruva I. to a Bráhman named Dhoddi the father of the Nennapa who is the grantee of Dhruva II.’s a.d. 867 Bagumrá grant, whose son Siddhabhaṭṭa is the grantee of Indra’s a.d. 914 grant.36 The re-granting of so many villages points to the re-establishment of the main Ráshṭrakúṭa power and the disappearance of the Gujarát branch of the Ráshṭrakúṭas.37