The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c15.62

v1.c15.62

The Nowgong grant is the only known inscription of the reign of Balavarman. It consists of three copper-plates, and is said to have been found by a cultivator of Sūtargāo, a village in Mauza Khātoālgao, on the right bank of the Kalang, opposite Puranigudam, in the Nowgong district in Assam. The ring, seal, and the general appearance of the inscriptions are very similar to those of Gauhati plates of Indrapālavarman. The heart-shaped seal contains in relief the figure of an elephant. Below this runs the legend: *Svasti Śrī-Śrī-Prāgjyotiṣādhipānvayō Mahārājādhirāja-Śrī-Balavarmadevaḥ.* After invocation of Rudra and Lauhitya, the inscription as usual refers to the birth of Naraka from Upendra and Vasumatī. Naraka conquered Kāmarūpa and founded the city of Prāgjyotiṣa. He had two sons, viz., Bhagadatta and Vajradatta. After the reign of their descendants there ruled Sālastambha and his descendants, Pālaka, Vijaya, (?), and others. Then arose the great king Harjara, his son Vanamāla, his son Jayamāla-Vīrabāhu, who had through his queen Ambā, the *Parameśvara-Parama-bhaṭṭāraka-Mahārājādhirāja-Śrī*-Balavarmadeva. The donee was the Yajurvedī Brahman Devadhara. The gift consisted of a piece of land known as Hēmsivā in the Dijjinnā-*Viṣaya* in the *Dakṣiṇakūla* (of the Brahmaputra ?), producing 4,000 (measures) of rice (*dhānya-catussahasrōtpattimatī*). There appears to have been a date at the end of the inscription, but it is illegible. An interesting feature of the plate appears to be the numerous plagiarised passages from Kālidāsa's well known *Raghuvaṁśa*. The grant was given from the 'ancestral camp' of Hāruppeśvara. Palaeographically the inscription has been referred to by Hoernle to a period not later than 975 A.D.¹ Kielhorn however placed Balavarman in about the first quarter of the 10th century A.D. It is difficult to say how long this dynasty lasted, or whether there were any more princes after Balavarman and before Tyāgasiṁha who, according to the Bargaon grant of Ratnapāla, immediately preceded Brahmapāla.² We have already seen that, according to Hoernle's calculations, based on the palaeographic evidence of the grants of Ratnapāla, Brahmapāla is to be placed in the neighbourhood of 1000 A.D.³ If Tyāgasiṁha, as seems not improbable, belonged to the line of Prālambha, then this dynasty appears to have reigned in Kāmarūpa from *c.* 800 to 1000 A.D. During this period Kāmarūpa sovereigns seem to have come into contact with the Pālas of Bengal and Bihar. In the Bhagalpur grant of Nārāyaṇapāla we are told that Jayapāla, at the command of his cousin, king Devapāla, undertook various expeditions ‘for the conquest of the quarters.’ The king of Prāgjyotiṣa ‘enjoyed peace at last surrounded by friends, only when he bore on his exalted head the command (of Jayapāla) that set at rest all talk of warfare.’¹ As Devapāla is usually referred to the period *c.* 815-54, it was probably Harjara or his son Vanamāla² who was the contemporary of Jayapāla. The Pālas appear to have grown very powerful under Dharmapāla and Devapāla. It is therefore not at all unlikely that Pāla arms really crossed the Karatoya and forced the princes of the Brahmaputra valley to acknowledge their hegemony.