Indian Epigraphy c16.s2.53

c16.s2.53

That the more dignified title *Mahārājādhirāja* was used in the South side by side with *Mahārāja* about the middle of the 4th century A.D. is indicated by the Mayidavolu and Hirahadagalli plates³ of the Pallava king Śivaskandavarman, in the first of which he is called *Yuva-mahārāja* (a modification of the usual *Yuvarāja*, ‘crown prince’) and in the second *Dharma-Mahārājādhirāja*.⁴ The second inscription refers to the unnamed father of Śivaskandavarman as *Mahārāja-bappa-svāmin* (i.e. ‘the *Mahārāja*, the father, the lord’). But the kings of South India belonging to the period upto the 6th century, including the successors of the said Śivaskandavarman, called themselves only *Mahārāja* (sometimes *Dharma-Mahārāja*).⁵ In the Penukonda plates,¹ the Pallava overlords have been called *Mahārāja* while the Gaṅga feudatories have been endowed with the title *Mahādhirāja*. The epithet *Adhirāja* is sometimes known to have been used as a subordinate title.²