History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v2.c30.3

v2.c30.3

Professor Velankar of Wilson College, Bombay has recently discovered a copper-plate grant made by a Śilāhāra king of Thana in Śaka 915 or A.D. 993, which will shortly be published by him, but which we have had an opportunity of inspecting before publication; and we were surprised to find therein not only a complete genealogy of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas of Malkhed, who were the overlords of these Śilāhāras of Thana but a correct reflection of the political condition of India in the tenth century A.D. It must be remembered that this grant was made after the fall of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa dynasty in about 974 A.D., and the grant actually contains expressions of sorrow over the destruction of Ratta-rājya by Tailapa. This clearly shows how the rule of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas was popular even among the feudatory chiefs; for who would be disposed to deplore the downfall of their overlords after the destruction of their power? The genealogy given in this copper-plate grant, of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas does not differ from the one we have given. Thus we are assured that the genealogy hitherto accepted is substantially correct. The grant highly extols king Kṛṣṇa, grand-father of Kakkala in whose reign the Rāṣṭrakūṭa power came to an end and declares that his sovereignty was accepted by the whole of India from the Himalaya to Ceylon and from the western to the eastern ocean. As this eulogy comes from a grant made by an entirely different line of kings and after the loss of their power by the Rāṣṭrakūṭas, it may be taken to be based on substantial truth. In the following śloka* the exact political condition of India at this time is portrayed. "The Chola trembled with fear and the lord of