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DYNASTY OF HARISCHANDRA
while Navasārikā, modern Navsāri in the Surat District, was the capital of Śryāśraya-Śīlā-ditya
and Avanijanāśraya-Pulakēśin. The grant of K. 421 was made by Śryāśraya
Śīlāditya while residing at Navasāri. This was also probably the place of issue
in the case of Pulakēśirāja’s Navsāri plates, though there is no specific mention
to that effect.
The Gujarat Chālukyas were patrons of Hinduism. They were devout worshippers
of Mahēśvara. All their known grants were made to Brāhmanas for the maintenance
of the five great sacrifices and such other rites.
THE DYNASTY OF HARISCHANDRA
Two sets of Anjaneri plates1 recently discovered have brought to light a new feudatory
family which ruled over Northern Konkan and the Nasik District in the seventh
and eighth centuries A. C. This family claimed descent from Hariśchandra, doubtless
the famous legendary king of the solar race. Svāmichandra, who heads the genealogical
list in both the Anjaneri grants, rose to power during the reign of Vikramāditya I. The
Anjaneri plates inform us that the Chālukya Emperor loved him as his own son, and it
was doubtless by his favour that he became the ruler of ‘the entire Konkan country consisting
of fourteen thousand villages.’ As one of the Anjaneri grants of his grandson
Bhōgaśakti is dated in 710-11 A. C., Svāmichandra must have flourished about 660 A. C.
Vikramāditya I seems to have appointed him first to rule over Konkan.2 Svāmichandra’s
descendants continued to mention gratefully this favour of Vikramāditya I,
though they made no reference to the contemporary Chālukya suzerain Bādāmi.3
Three generations of this family are known from the Anjaneri plates––Svāmichandra,
his son Simhavarman and the latter’s son Bhōgaśakti alias Prithivīchandra (the
Moon on the earth) who made the two grants. The name of the last prince recalls similar
names of Sēndraka princes which also end in śakti. The question, therefore, arises if
these princes belonged to the same clan as the Sēndrakas. It must, however, be noted
that as Bhōgaśakti traced his descent from Hariśchandra, he could not have belonged to the Sēndraka family which claimed connection with the Nāga race. The lion seal of
the Anjaneri plates and the use of small circles to embellish the tops and corners of the
letters incised on them indicate some sort of connection with the Kadambas; for we find
these peculiarities in the Bannahalli plates of the Kadamba king Krishnavarman II.
Of the two copper-plate inscriptions of this family edited here, that which is dated
K. 461 (710-11 A. C.) records the grant of eight villages and certain rights, dues and taxes
__________________
1 Nos. 31 and 32.
2The Sanjān plates, edited by Mr. Jackson in J. B. B. R. A. S., Vol. XX, pp. 40 ff., purport to record
the grant of Buddhavarasarāja, a younger brother of Pulakēśin II, on the occasion of a solar eclipse in the
month of Pausha. The plates are not dated, but as the genealogy of the Imperial family is carried down to
Vikramāditya I, they purport to belong to his reign. The only year during the period from 645 A. C. to
680 A,C. in which there was a solar eclipse in the amānta Pausha was 660 A.C. Buddhavarasa may, therefore
be regarded as a predecessor of Svāmichandra in Northern Konkan; but the plates are probably spurious;
because (1) though Buddhavarasarāja claims to be a Chālukya, the emblem on his seal is the figure of a lion and
not that of a boar; (2) the grant is very incorrectly written and contains two long expressions borrowed
verbatim from II. 10-11 of the Bagumrā grant of Allaśakti. The record seems to have been fabricated with
the help of Chālukya and Sēndraka grants, and the seal was formed on the model of that of Bhōgaśakti’s
grants. Prof. Sten Konow also, who has re-edited the grant in Ep. Ind.,Vol. XIV, pp. 144 ff., regards the
plates as spurious.
3 In 671 A.C. Vikramaditya I appears to have transferred Thana and some other districts of North
Konkan to Dharaśraya-Jayasimha. See above, p. lx.
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