Indian Epigraphy c11.t6.9

c11.t6.9

Gradually the invocation became more and more elaborate, and it ran from mere symbols and words to more or less big sections in prose and verse in praise of the favourite deities of the grantors or the writers of the document. Thus the charters of the Early Western Gaṅgas begin with the symbol denoting *siddham*, followed by a passage hailing the god Viṣṇu in the words: *jitaṃ bhagavatā gata-ghana-gagan-ābhena Padmanābhena*.¹ A still more elaborate type of invocation is illustrated by records like the Rewah plates of Trailokyamalla, which begin with *Oṃ namaḥ Śivāya Gaṇapataye namaḥ*, followed by three invocatory verses, the first in praise of the god Kṛṣṇa, the second of the god Śiva and the third of the goddess Sarasvatī.² Sometimes the same stanza is found in many records of the same family or area³ and such a verse may be borrowed from a well-known work.⁴ In the charters of some dynasties, e. g., the Pālas of Bengal and Bihar and the Imperial Gaṅgas of Orissa, an invocatory stanza as well as the genealogy of the donor in verse was copied by him from his predecessors' grants. As in the case of most dynasties, this invocatory verse refers to the deity worshipped by the donor's family. But in charters like those of the Early Kadambas of Banavasi, the different grants of the same ruler often begin with invocation to different deities. In such cases, the deity referred to in the invocation seems to have been worshipped by the particular scribe who drafted a charter.⁵