The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c29.s2.165

v2.c29.s2.165

(1) *Benares grant.*—This was found at the bottom of a well in the old fort of Benares. It consists of 48 lines and is engraved on two brass plates, joined by a ring, to which is affixed the royal seal containing the figure of the four-armed *Gaja-lakṣmī* sitting cross-legged. Below the goddess the seal contains the legend—*Śrī-Karṇa-deva* and below the legend was engraved the figure of a bull. Excepting a verse in line 13 which is in Mahārāṣṭrī Prakrit, it is written as usual in Sanskrit verse and prose. The inscription opens with *Oṁ namaḥ Śivāya* and a verse in honour of Śiva. It then traces the genealogy of the Haihayas from Kārtavīrya down to Karṇa. In the prose part of the inscription (lines 33-41) we are told that *Pb.-M.-P.-Vāmadeva-pādānudhyāta - Pb. - M. - P.-Paramamāheśvara-Trika-liṅgādhipati-Karṇadeva* from his *Vijaya-skandhāvāra*, situated at Svasāga (?), after having bathed in the river Veṇī, worshipped the god Trilocana (Śiva), and performed the annual funeral ceremony in honour of his father Gāṅgeyadeva, granted *Kāsi-(bhūmy)-anta(rga)ta Susi-grāma*, to the learned Viśvarūpa, whose ancestors had come from the village of Vesāla. The date, (K.) *Saṁvat* 793 (A.D. 1042), comes at the end of the inscription.¹