Sangli plates of Govinda IV

The Sangli plates are a grant of the Rashtrakuta king Govinda IV.¹² Their long genealogy is one of the main sources for the later kings of the dynasty.¹² It names Vingavalli as the place where Amoghavarsha I defeated the Chalukyas.¹² J. F. Fleet took these Chalukyas to mean the Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi.¹²

The plates

J. F. Fleet edited the grant in the Indian Antiquary in 1883.³ At that time the plates belonged to a family at Sawantwadi.³ They had first been published by General Sir George LeGrand Jacob, when they belonged to a Brahmin family living near Sangli.³ Fleet concluded that they had been found in that part of the country.³

There are three plates, each about thirteen inches long and nine broad.³ They are inscribed so that “they turn over like the pages of an English book”.³ They have no raised rims, but the writing is perfectly preserved.³ The plain ring had been cut and soldered again, and no seal survives.³ Plates and ring weigh 13 pounds 3 ounces.³ The language is Sanskrit throughout.³

Contents

Fleet noted that this was the first inscription to place the Rashtrakuta family in the lineage of the Yadus.³⁴¹ The family tree runs from Dantidurga through Krishna I, Govinda, Nirupama (Dhruva) and Jagattunga (Govinda III) to Amoghavarsha I.³⁴¹ It goes on to Akalavarsha (Krishna II), his son Jagattunga, Jagattunga’s son Indra III and Indra’s son Govinda IV, the donor.³⁴¹

The grant claims that Govinda IV showed “no forbidden cruelty” towards his elder brother.¹⁵ Fleet later read this as a sign that Govinda set aside the elder brother, Amoghavarsha II, who did not reign.¹⁵ It says that the rivers Ganga and Yamuna “do service to his palace”.³ Fleet took this as a figure of speech recalling Govinda III’s capture of the Ganga and Yamuna emblems from the Chalukyas, “whether Western or Eastern”.³

The grant was made while the king was “permanently settled at his capital of Manyakheta”.³⁶⁷ It gave a village in the Ramapuri seven-hundred to a Brahmin named Kesava-dikshita, whose father had come from the city of Pundravardhana.³⁶⁷ It is dated on the full-moon day of Sravana in the Saka year 855, the cyclic year Vijaya, a Thursday.³⁶⁷ Fleet later gave the equivalent as Thursday, 8 August 933.³⁶⁷

Vingavalli

In Fleet’s translation of 1883, the verse speaks of “the restraint of pleasure that had been caused by the incomparable Chalukyas and Abhyushakhas and others”.¹ Amoghavarsha I is the king “by whom” this restraint “was angrily allayed at Vingavalli”.¹

In 1896 Fleet summarised the same verse.² He said that Amoghavarsha “conquered the Chalukyas,—i.e. the Vengi branch of the family,—at a place named Vingavalli”.²

The Cambay plates of 930, another grant of Govinda IV, contain the same verse.⁸ D. R. Bhandarkar translated it as Amoghavarsha gratifying Yama (the god of death) at Vingavalli “with unprecedented morsels of cakes (which were) the Chalukyas”.⁸ The place has not been identified.²

Govinda IV and Vengi

In his edition, Fleet set beside the Sangli grant an Eastern Chalukya grant, then owned by Sir Walter Elliot.⁹ It says that Chalukya-Bhima II, unaided, slew a list of enemies.⁹ Among them was “the terrible and fierce army that was despatched by Govindaraja”.⁹ Fleet identified this Govindaraja with Govinda IV.⁹ (See the Kaluchumbarru grant.)

Footnotes

1. Fleet, “Rashtrakuta grant of Govinda-Suvarnavarsha” (1883), p. 253, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

2. J. F. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts”, Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency I, pt. II (1896), p. 402 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. J. F. Fleet, “Sanskrit and Old-Canarese Inscriptions”: Rashtrakuta grant of Govinda-Suvarnavarsha, Saka 855, Indian Antiquary XII (1883), p. 248 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹

4. Fleet, “Rashtrakuta grant of Govinda-Suvarnavarsha” (1883), p. 252, translation (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 416 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

6. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 417 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

7. Fleet, “Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts” (1896), p. 418 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

8. D. R. Bhandarkar, “Cambay Plates of Govinda IV; Saka-Samvat 852”, Epigraphia Indica VII (1903), p. 43, translation of verse 12 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

9. Fleet, “Rashtrakuta grant of Govinda-Suvarnavarsha” (1883), p. 249 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴