The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c31.529

v2.c31.529

(10) *Veraval stone-inscription of Śrīdhara.*—Reported to have been originally found by Tod and Postans on a (stone) pillar at Somnath, near the Qāzī's house. At present the slab bearing the record is 'built into the wall of the fort, to the right of the great gate of the town' of Veraval. The inscription contains 47 lines of fragmentary and damaged writing. It opens with (*Om namaḥ*) *Śivāya*, and a *maṅgala* addressed to Śiva (Vs. 1-3). Then follows a eulogy of the temple and town of Somanātha, 'which the moon founded in order to escape the intolerable disease of consumption' (Vs. 4-5). Next comes a eulogy of certain members of the Vastrākula family and the Caulukyas of Aṇhilvad.¹ Śrīdhara of the former family² we are told, was honoured amongst the officials of king Bhīma II. By his counsel he quickly made again stable the country that had been shaken by the war elephants of Mālava and protected Devapattana by his power. He made like so much grass the host of the heroic Hammīra. The proper object of the inscription is probably to record that this person constructed two temples at Somanātha, one of these a Vaiṣṇava shrine raised in memory of his mother, and the other a Śaiva temple, in memory of his father. The date, V.S. 1273 (A.D. 1216) is given in the last line.³