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Studies- on

Odishan Epigraphy

Edited by

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6

Jayarampur Plate of GopacandraSome Reconsideration

Sayantani Pal

Three land grants from Faridpur in Bangladesh, Mallasarul(Bardhaman Dist. of West Bengal) and Jayarampur (Balasore Dist. ofOdisha) bear the name of Gopacandra as the ruler. All of them havebeen regarded as the same person. Thus historians believe that thisGopacandra was a powerful ruler exercising authority over a wideregion between Faridpur in Bangladesh to Jayarampur in Odisha inthe 6th century. The justification for this identification primarily standson palaeographic grounds. Several other important issues like thedate of the end of Gupta authority in Odisha, the extent of the kingdom<ofGopacandra, etc., isbased on this identification. The paper attemptsto reconsider these issues and aims to understand how far the

identification of Gopacandra of the Jayarampur plate with those ofthe Faridpur and Mallasarul plates can be justified.

Among the three charters, the Faridpur plate was the earliest tobe discovered together with other two plates in 1891-92. TheMallasarul plate was found in 1929and the Jayarampur plate is thelast to be discovered in 1960 from the village of Jayarampur in theBhograi tahsil (subdivision) of the Baleshwar District of Odisha. Th~charter is dated in the very first year of Gopacandra.

From the very beginning scholars generally identified Gopacandraof the Faridpur charter with that of the Mallasarul plate.! After thediscovery of the Jayarampur plate it was edited from time to time bya number of scholars like S.N. Rajguru, P.R. Srinivasan, D.C. Sircarand Snigdha Tripathy.z P.R. Srinivasan observed its palaeographical

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66 Studies on Odishan Epigraphy

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I: similarity with the Faridpur plate. At the same time he noticedsimilarity wIth the Khoh plates of maharaja Samk$obha of the year209 in case of the occurrence of 'prominent dash like strokes at thetop of each character' and also with the Karitalai plates of mahariijaJayanatha of the year 194, the Khoh plates of maharajaSarvanatha ofthe year 193 and Eran Boar inscription of ToramaDa. The point ofsimilarity in all these cases is the occurrence of the tripartite form ofya with the left arm being curved up slightly or fully. However healso noted that none of these plates, like the Faridpur charter, containthe three forms of ya (Altogether three forms of 'ya' appear in theFaridpur charters. Pargiter suggests that the first is early, the middleis intermediate and the third is the new form of 'ya'3). Thus he datedit to the early part of the 6th century. In respect of some other featuresalso the Jayarampur plate resembles the above mentioned charters.

A discussion on the content of each charter is necessary tounderstand their connection. The Jayarampur plate has been datedin year 1 of Gopacandra. The seal is not clear. It has an indistinctfigure.4 Gopacandra has been represented the son of Dhanacandraand Giridevl. He has been described as mahariijadhiraja andparamiimahesvara. It records the grant of Svetavalika grama withinDaDQabhukti by mahiisamanta maharajaAchyuta for a vihiira built byhim. Thus it is a combined deed of sale and grant. In it the localnotables like hirarJyalabha-samudayika,gramavafakas, mahamahattaras,pradhanas and adhikararJasof 20 agraharas saluted the officers likekartakrtika, uparika, kumaramatya, rajanaka,viEjayapati,and tadayuktakasand informed them that they received the application for the purchaseand donation of land by Acyuta.

The Faridpur plate of Gopacandra is similar in shape, seal andcontent to two charters of Dharmaditya and Samacaradeva from thesame place. The circular seal contains gajalakEjmImotif and the legendis 'Varaka-marJcJala-viEjayadhikararJasya'.The top of the letters have asmall wedge shape often and quite often they are almost like a line.Dental and cerebral sa are generally distinguished but on seal cerebralEjahas a different form like DevanagarJ:. The developed form of yaoccurs in this charter. Gopacandra bears the title mahiiriijadhiraja.AbrahmarJaadministrative officer donates land to another briihmarJa.

The Mallasarul plate issued in year 33/3 of Gopacandra has a

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]ayarampur Plate of Gopacandra : Some Reconsideration 67

Buddhist affiliation. It begins with invocation to god Lokanatha,Dharma and santa~ (Buddhist sangha) and then refers to the rule ofmaharajadhirajaGopacandra. The seal, however, belongs to maharajaVijayasena, the donor. Apparently he was a subordinate ofGopacandra in Vardhamanabhukti, the place of land grant. The sealshows a standing figure of the two armed god with a cakra in thebackground. Some scholars regard the deity as the BuddhistLokanatha and others as vaifPJavaCakrapuru~a. D.C. Sircar, however,points out that in this age the identification of Buddha and Vi~DUbecame popular and the conception of Cakrapuru~a seems to indicatea rapprochement between the sudarsana cakra of Vi~DUand theBuddhist dharmacakra.5 It may also be noted that the readingGopacandra can not be confirmed as N. G. Majumdar, the editorsuggests. The relevant part is damaged.6 D.C. Sircar reads 'Gopa' butputs 'candra' within third bracket following the restoration of N.G.Majumdar.7

The Mallasarul plate records the sale and donation of 8 kulyavapasof land in the village of Vetragartta within Vakkattaka vIthi ofVardhamana bhukti to a brahma1Jaby mahiiriija Vijayasena whose sealis attached to the charter.8 Like the Jayarampur plate the local notableslike mahattarasand agrahiirins of different agrahiiraswithin the vIthiaccompanied by others like khiigi (swordsman), viihaniiyaka, etc.,saluted the officers like kiirtiikrtika,kumiiramiityaetc. and informed themabout the application of Vijayasena. The difference is that here thelocal notables belong to a vIthi adhikara1Jawhich conducted the processof the transfer of land. They accepted the application of Vijayasenabecause they ascertained that a part of the religious merit of this piousdeed would accrue to them as well as the king. Again land in thiscase was not tax-free and dues were to be paid to the treasury of thevIthi most probably by the donor. Here the pustapiilais not the verifierof application but he appears as one who heated the plate.

It is thus clear that while the Jayarampur and the Mallasarul plateshave some similarity in the process of the transfer of land, the Faridpurcharter is totally different in this respect and it resembles the othertwo charters from Faridpur.9

As regards the format of the Jayarampur and Mallasarul charterswe can compare them with another charter, viz., the Panchrol (Egra)

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68 Studies on Odishan Epigraphy

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plate of Sasanka.lO They have similarity in terminology also. Hereagain the local notables like mahamahattaras of different agraharas,pradhanas, bhattas together with karaJ]-ika,pustapiila, sthaylpala orderrespectable persons like kiirtakrtika, uparika, etc., after bowing downtheir head to them. Antaranga Do~atUIi.gaapproached them with anapplication for the donation of 100 dror;avapasof land to a brahmar;a.The price rate was 4 par;aspar one dror;avapa.The authority agreedbecause the said plot was lying fallow and its reclamation, thoughwould not add revenue to the treasury, would accrue religious meritto the king.

The above analysis is based on some remarkable observation onthe Panchrol copper plate by R. FuruiY He points to the associationof local landed magnets together with the clerical staffs like karar;ika,pustapala,etc. and their power in the matters relating to land transferin their area. Though they recognized the king still the state had apassive role in the process since they were only informed about thedecision of this local group. Thus D01?atUIi.ga(Panchrol plate) who~as an antaranga (close to the king) had to approach them with hisapplication. This observation may also be applicable to the other twoplates where influential persons like mahasamanta maharaja Acyutaand maharaja Vijayasena had to approach similar group of localnotables. These three charters dated from the middle of the 6th to the

1st half of the 7th century are again the latest known combined deedsof sale and donation of land from south western Bengal. They pointto the strong presence of a group of landed magnets inVardhamanabhukti and DaD4abhukti, both to the west of Bhagirathi-Hoogly channel, their alliance with the clerical staffs of the localityand the power of this group in deciding local matters. The cohesionamong them is also remarkable.

I would thus like to argue that Gopacandra of the Jayarampurplate was different from his namesake of the Faridpur group.Maharajadhiraja Gopacandra of the Faridpur plate does not bear theepithet paramamahesvara. Neither his ancestry has been mentioned init. Under this circumstance the identification of Gopacandra of theJayarampur plate with that of the Faridpur appears to have been toofar-fetched.

Even if we accept that the Mallasarul plate indicates the extension

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Jayarampur Plate of Gopacandra : Some Reconsideration 69

of Gopacandra's authority in Vardhamanabhukti, it was nominal,since Vijayasena was a maharajawho issued the charter with his ownsea1. The situation can be compared with that of Samatata (southeastern Bengal). The Comilla copper plate of Lokanatha and one ofthe Ashrafpur plates of Devakhac;lga refer to Paramesvara andBrhatparamesvara respectively. He appears to be the overlord of allthe rulers of the Natha, Rata and Khac;lgafamilies exercising authorityin Samatata and issuing land grant charters in their own names andseals.12

As the Jayarampur plate is dated in the 1st regnal year ofGopacandra, R.C. Majumdar thought that DaDc;labhukti, the place ofland grant formed a part of the original kingdom of Gopacandra.13Next he places the Mallasarul plate in the chronological order whilehe thinks that the Faridpur plate of year 18 indicates that Gopacandra'sauthority was recognised in Vailga in the later part of his reign.

H. Sastri refers to a seal which reads [Bhalgavaccandrawhoaccording to him is the son of the sister's son of Gopacandra. Heidentified him with Gopacandra of the Faridpur plate. He even thinkstJ1at this Gopacandra went to Faridpur in the face of the HliDaonslaught and established a kingdom there.14

The view of H. Sastri reflects the north centric attitude of the

historians who were always in the attempt to identify local rulerswith north Indian rulers bearing the same name. Thus they tried toidentify Vainyagupta, a local ruler of south eastern Bengal in the 6thcentury with Vainyagupta Prakasaditya, the Gupta emperor. As wehave seen that name endings like '-gupta', '-candra', '-varman', etc.,were common among the rulers in ancient India and even South EastAsia, some names became popular among them. Thus Gopacandraof the seal from Nalanda and Gopacandra of Faridpur copper platemight be entirely different and there is no justification in equatingthem.

The Jayarampur plate states that Gopacandra was raised tosupremacy by the people (prajabhir=aropit=adhirajya?,1.7-8). R.c.Majumdar thus attributed him the credit of finding the firstindependent kingdom of ancient Benga1.ISIn our opinion this indicatesthat he was the first prominent ruler of his dynasty who wanted to

70 Studies on Odishan Epigraphy

~gauttma)m'or]he]:onlSC~alhe

justify his right to rule in this manner. This again shows that he wasdifferent from Gopacandra of the Faridpur plate who, in all probabilityruled after Dvadasaditya and Dharmaditya and was the third ruler. .In succeSSIOn.

There is also hardly any justification in identifying Gopacandraof the Mallasarul plate with that of Faridpur or Jayarampur plates.The Mallasarul plate begins with in"'lOcation to Lokanatha which inview of D.C. Sircar refers to Buddha, Dharma and Samgha.16 In ourview all these three Gopacandras were different and they were localrulers with subordinates ruling under them. This rather refers to ahierarchized polity in parts of Bengal and Odisha which was acharacteristic feature of the Early Medieval period.

REFERENCES

b.e'lCO'disereX)ld:

15

1. RK. Mookerji identified Gopacandra of the Mallasarul plate with that ofthe Faridpur charter, See Mookerji, R K.1973. The Gupta Empire,Delhi, 127.

2. Rajguru, S.N. 1963. OdishaHistoricalResearchJournal,XI,no.4, 206-09,plate;Srinivasan, P. R 1985. 'The Jayarampur Plate of Gopacandra', EpigraphiaIndicaXXXIX,141-148, plate; Sircar, D.C. 1993. Select Inscriptions BearingonIndian History and Civilization,voLl, Delhi, 530;Tripathy, S. 1997.InscriptionsofOdisha, voLI, 174-79. J

3. Pargiter, F.E. 1910. 'Three Copper Plate Grants from East Bengal', IndianAntiquary XXXIX,258.

4. Srinivasan, P.R 1985 op.cit.; Tripathy, S. 2010. Descriptive TopographicalCatalogueof Odishan Inscriptions,New Delhi, 76-77.

5. Sircar, D.C. 1993, op.cit:372, fn.6.6. Majumdar, N.G. 1984 (Reprint), 'Mallasarul Copper Plate of Vijayasena',

EpigraphiaIndicaXXIII,155-161.7. Sircar, D.C. 1993, op.cit. 373.8. Majumdar, N.G. 1984, op.cit.9. We have altogether 6 charters from Faridpur now; among them 5 have,

been published. They belong to four rulers: Dvadasaditya, Dharmaditya,Gopacandra and Samacaradeva. See Pal, S. 2013. 'Reconsidering theChronology of the Rulers of Faridpur', Journalof BengalArt, vol. 18,115-121.

10. Furui, R 2011. 'Panchrol (Egra) Copperplate Inscription of the Time ofSasaitka', Pratnasamiksha,New Series,Vol.2,119-30.

11. Ibid.

12. Snigdha Tripathy has not discussed about the identity of Gopacandra. P.R Srinivasan draws comparison with Gunaighar plate of Vainyaguptawhich also refers to land grant to a vihara of Avalokitesvara. Probably hethinks of the same connection between maharaja Vijayasena ruling in

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Jayarampur Plate of Gopacandra : Some Reconsideration 71

Vardhamanabhukti of the Mallasarul plate with the dutaka, maharajamahasamantaVijayasena of the Gunaighar grant, earlier suggested by D.CSiracar. See Tripathy, S. 1997, op.cit; Tripathy, S. 2010, op.cit.; Srinivasan,P.R 1985, op.cit.; Sircar, D.C 1993,op.cit. 372, fn.6.

13. Majumdar, RC 1971.History of Ancient Bengal,Calcutta, 42-43.14. Sastri, H. 1942. Nalanda and its Epigraphic Material, Memoirs of the

Arcaheological Survey of India, 66, 29-30.15. Majumdar, RC 1971. 'A Note on King Gopacandra of Bengal', Journal of

the Asiatic Society, XIII, nos.I-4, 189-91.16. D.C Sircar, 1993, op.cit p. 373, f.1.

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