Inscription number 57
Abhona Plates of Sankaragana (Kalachuri samvat 347.
(595 AD.)
This Inscription provides an earliest record of Kalachuris as the successor
of Sankaragana, (Buddharaja) was defeated by the Chalukyan king Pulakesin and the Kalachuris were reduced to a state of servitude. This Inscription fills a gap of ancient India’s history as until now, there was a blank in the history of the Kalachuris which extended to more than two centuries after the overthrow of Buddharaja.
The Kalachuri Era was a hindu calendar system started by Abhira king Isvarasena. This system started at some time from 248-250 CE.
Provenance: Abhona village in Kalavana taluka, Nasik district.
Script: Brahmi Southern class.
Language: Sanskrit.
References KB Pathak, Ep.Ind,IX , pp-296-300.
Footnote
1. From the facsimile in Ep-Ind, IX, between pp296, and pp 297.
2. Expressed by the spiral symbol
3. K . B. Pathak प्रताप:
4. Identical with the father of Budharaja, who issued sarsaony grant, which has almost the same wording.
5. From प्रति + भिद
to disclose,, betray, Freedom from प्रातिभेदिका may mean freedom from search and disclosure of assets etc
6. Identical with modern kalavana in Nasik district.
7. Better चिचीषुभि: from षि to accumulate.
चिचीषु from चर to spread.
8 Applies to the oceans also, which is illuminated with jewels.
9. For abhigamika gunas, see the Kamanadakiya nitisara, IV, 6-8.
10. K.B. Pathak (n. 3) opines that Gogga may be the name of
Sankaragana’s queen.
11. Pathak translates, “not to be encroached upon by rogues
and servants who tell lies. For it he cites the authority of Anandajnana’s commentary on sankaracharya’s
Brihadaranyakopani-shadbhashya, (Anandasrama ed.. pp-311ff,
But the commentators explanation of the two words does seem plausible.
English Translation of the inscription
1. Om ! hail !
2. From the victorious camp pitched at Ujjayini. In the lineage of the Katachchiris, which like the
geat ocean is extensive and spotless, as the firmament, clear on the approach of autumn, illuninated by the
mass of rays on the excellences of many jewels of men, which lineage and ocean, is inviolable, because it is the home of beings of great strength (men or marine creatures)full of gravity (or depth and busy preserving.
their stability. there was the glorious Krishnaraja, who illumined the world with his fame charming the hearts
of all people like moonlight; who like the moon, from his birth, was devoted to (or rested on) Pasupati (siva) and caused the splendour of the lotus lake (his own family) to blossom forth, but (unlike the moon) was free from the blemish of spots, who was resorted to
by all virtues which attract men to kings and by other as as if out of temptation to obtain a superior shelter, who had a prosperous circle of subjects; who
had legitimately (or duly) Appropriated to himself, Power and success, who, resplendent with his illustrious
family, the flow of his liberality being ceaseless, and the majesty of his power well-known, roaming fearlessly,
subdued the regions as the chief in a herd of wild elephants with the ceaseless flow of its rutting juice, displaying the greatness of its strength
roaming about fearlessly bends down the rows of forest, whose weapons were for the protection of
the distressed, whose wars were for humbling the pride of his enemies, whose learning was for modesty,
whose acquisition of wealth was for the purpose of gifting away whose gifts were in the cause of dharma (religious
duties) and whose dharna was for obtaining bliss.
3. His son the glorious sankaragana, a great devotee of siva the lord of countries bounded by the eastern
and western oceans and other lands; who meditated on the feet of his parents, who was a matchless warrior
in the world, whose fame was tasted by the waters of the four oceans, whose majesty vas equal to that of
(the gods) Kubera, Varuna, Indra and Yama who had acquired resplendent royal fortune by the prowess of
his arm, to whose great prowess the circle of all the feudal lords had submitted, who pursued religious duty,
wealth and pleasure without allowing them to encroach upon each other whose profound and lofty mind was
well satisfied with mere submission, who acquired virtuous deeds (for reward in the next world) by
bestowing immense wealth, acquired by properly protecting his subjects, who reinstated long uprooted royal families, who were the uprooter of the excessively proud, who granted to the afflicted, the blind and the poor,
the object of their desires, far in excess of their expectations, issues this order to all, The royal feudatories, bhogikas heads of provinces, the heads of states, and villages (Rashtra-Mahattaras and gram
Mahattaras), offcers and others,
4. Be it known to you that for the increase of religious merit and fame of our parents and ourselves, we have granted, at the request of Gogga, with pouring of libation of water, a hundred nivarttanas of land, by a nivarttana measuring forty units on both sides
in the village of Vallisika, situated in the district of Bhogavarddhana, with the right to collect all payments free from all dues forced labour and
search and disclosure (pratibhadika), according to the maxim of bhumichchhidra, not to be entered by regular and irregular soldiers, to be enjoyed by a succession of sons and son’s sons, for as long as the moon, the sun.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Kalachuri dynasty had emerged in the 6 th century AD and it’s influence had extended to Maharastra, Gujarat and parts of Malwa and region around Jabalpur with their capital at Tripuri.
The Kalachuri Empire was the name used by two kingdoms who had a succession of dynasties from the 10th-12th centuries, one ruling over areas in Central India (west Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan) and were called Chedi or Haihaya (Heyheya) (northern branch-Kalchuri Rajput Clan) and the other the southern Kalachuri who ruled over parts of Karnataka. They are supposed to be offshoot of Abhira of Traikutakas dynasty.
About A.D. 250 the Satavahanas were supplanted by the Abhiras in Western Maharastra and by the Vakatakas in Vidarbha. The founder of the Abhira dynasty was Rajan. Isvarasena, the son of Sivadatta. who has left an inscription in Cave IX at Nasik. It records the investment of hundreds of Karsapanas in certain guilds at Nasik for providing medicines for the sick among the Buddhist mendicants residing in the viharas of Trirasmi. Isvarasena started an era commencing in A.D. 250, which later became known as the Kalacuri-Chedi era.