referenceto

naya

(sameas

nTti)

and

vikrama

as

twoworthy

qualificationsofaruleris

made,perhaps

forthefirsttime

in

aPalarecord,

in

the

Bhagalpurcopperplateinscription

of

Narayanapala

of

hisregnal

year

17.

SeeHultzsch,

IndianAntiquary,

Vol.

Xv,

pp.304-10;Maitreya,

Gaucjalekhamiflif,

pp.55ff.;Sircar,

Select

Inscriptions,

Vol.

11,

pp.

80ff.Inthe

Bhagalpui

inscription,vakpala,the

youngerbrotherof

Dharmapalaisdescribedas,(line

9)

yah

srzmifn=naya-vikram-aika-vasatir=bhriftuhsthitah

si fsane,

Le.

he,

the

illustriousone,

who

was

ｴｨｾ

unique

seatofrightpolicy

and

prowess,remaining

atthecommand

of(his)

brother

...

9

AftertheBhagalpur

grant

thispassageoftenoccured

in

otherPalagrants,forexample,Bangarhcopperplate

grant

ofthetimeofMahlpala

(I)

(seeMaitreya,p.93,lines9-10;

Kielhorn,

JASB,

LXI,

pp.

77-87,etc.);Amgachi·

copper

plate

grant

of

the

.time

of

Vigrahapala

 111

(see-

Maitreya,p.123,line

7,

etc.);

andManahalr

copperplate

grant

ofthetimeofMadanapala(seeVasu,p.

69,

line

5;

Maitreya,p.149,line

5,

etc.).SeealsoBiyala(BoguraDist.,Bangladesh)copperplategrantof

the

regnal

year

3

of

Mahlpala

(I)

(Bhattacharya,p.

6,

lines8-9),

and

the

two

Rajibpur(Bangarh)

copper

plategrantsoftheregnalyears2(1145-46AD)

and

32

(1175-76AD)ofMadanapala(seeMukherji,p.

8,

line5

and

p.IS,line5respectively).This

passage

qualifying

V-akpala

which

occuredrepeatedly

in

thePalainscriptionsfromtheBhagalpurcopperplate

grant

of

the

timeofNarayanapala

onwards

has

itsecho

in

the

Jagjibanpur

copperplategrant

of

thetime

of

Mahendrapala,

but

herethetwo

qualificatjons,viz.

naya

and

vikrama

areattributedtoDevapala.

And

instead

of

naya,

thefeminine

termn

nzti

hasbeen

used;similarlythemasculine

term

vikrama

hasbeenmade

feminine

vikrama

onthe

analogy

of

nTti,

and

the

two

termsare

taken

to

be

two

females

but

nevertheless,

meaningtwo

qualitiesas

theyappear

in

thelater

records

(Le.

naya

vikram-aika-vasatih).10

It

is

veryunfortunate

that

theSanskrit-knowing

modernIndian

authorscould

not

follow

the

implicationof

thepassage

and

took

vikrama

aswife

of

Dharmapala

and

motherof

Devapala,ignoring

the

epigraphicevidence

Dharmapala s

queen

was

Ra:rma-devT,

whowas

themotherofDevapala,as

we

havementioned

at

the

beginningofthisarticlereferringtothe

Munger

and

Nalandacopper

plategrantsofthe.regnalyears

33

and

35

respectively

of

thePalarulerDevapala.

Notes

1.

Diacriticalmarks

have

not

beenused

for

modern

placenames.

2.

WhileI

was

atthespot

with

DebalaMitra

the

localpeople

pronounced

thename

asJagajjibanpur,

but

85