Ghotiya Baloda Bazar
| Author: Laxman Burdak IFS (R) |
Ghotiya () is a village in tahsil Palari of Baloda Bazar district in Chhattisgarh.
Variants
- Ghôtiâ (घोटिया)
- Gôthadâ (गोठड़ा) = The inscription Ghotia Plates of Prithvideva II: (Kalachuri) year 900 (= 1148 AD) refers itself to the reign of Prithvideva II of the Kalachuri Dynasty of Ratanpur. It purports to record the royal donation of the village Gôthadâ (गोठड़ा) in the Sâgatta (सागत्त) (Sâmanta ?)-mandala on the occasion of an unspecified sankrânti (verse-16).
Jat Gotras Namesake
- Ghotia (Jat clan) = Ghotiya. Ghotiya is a village in tahsil Palari of Baloda Bazar district in Chhattisgarh. Ghotia Plates of Prithvideva II: (Kalachuri) year 900 (= 1148 AD) were found at Ghôtiâ (घोटिया), a village 10 miles due south of Baloda Bazar in Chhattisgarh. [1]
Location
History
Ghotia plates of Prithvideva II: (Kalachuri) year 900 (= 1148 AD)
[p.478]: These copper-plates were found by a cultivator in his field at Ghôtiâ (घोटिया), a village 10 miles due south of Baloda Bazar, the head-quarters of a tahsil of the same name in the Raipur District of Madhya Pradesh. They were brought to notice by Rai Bahadur Hiralal who discussed their contents in the Indian Antiquary, Vol. LIV, pp. 41 ff. His article was accompanied by negative facsimiles of the plates and the seal. The plates are now deposited in the Central Muséum, Nagpur.
The copper-plates, two in number, are in a state of excellent preservation,.....The characters are Nâgarî....The language is Sanskrit. Except for the opening obeisance to Brahman and the particulars about the engraver and the date at the end, the inscription is metrically composed throughout. It consists of 26 verses, all of which are numbered. The first eleven verses in the eulogistic portion occur in the Amôdâ plates (first set) of Prithvïdêva II. The twelfth verse, which is in praise of Prithvîdêva II, occurs also in the Daikôni plates of the same king. Besides, four benedictive and imprecatory verses and a verse about the
[p.479]: scribe Vatsarâja1 are common to the Amôda plates (first set) of Prithvïdëvall, dated K. 900.
The orthography does not call for any special notice.
The inscription refers itself to the reign of Prithvîdëva II of the Kalachuri Dynasty of Ratanpur. It purports to record the royal donation of the village Gôthadâ (गोठड़ा) in the Sâgatta (सागत्त) (Sâmanta ?)-mandala on the occasion of an unspecified sankrânti (verse-16). The donee was the Brâhmana Gôpâla, the son of Rihila and grandson of Hari, who belonged to the Alavayana (आलवायन) gôtra with the three pravaras, Vasishtha, Maitrâvaruna and Kaundinya.2
The genealogy of the donor Prithvideva II is given here as in the Amôdâ plates of the same king. There is nothing new in the description of him and his ancestors as all the verses are repeated from the earlier grants.
The record purports to have been written by Vatsarâja, the son of Kïrtidhara, of the Vâstavya family, who owned the village Jadera. Both Kïrtidhara and Vatsarâja are known from other records. The former, who is mentioned as the lord of the Jandera Village, wrote the Sarkhô plates of Ratnadëva II, while the latter was the scribe of the two sets of Amôdâ plates (dated K 900 and 905) of Prithvîdëva II. The present charter is said to have been incised by Chândâka who is plainly identical with Chândârka, the engraver of the Amôdâ plates (second set) of the same king Prithvîdëva II.
The present grant purports to be dated in the year 1000 on Thursday in the bright fortnight of Bhâdra[pa*]da. There is sufficient space left for cutting the tithi in the beginning of the last line, but as in so many other cases, the lacuna has not been filled up. The era, to which the year 1000 refers, is also not specified. It cannot evidently be the Kalachuri era, for the date would, in that case, be about a hundred years later than those of the aforementioned two sets of Amôdâ plates of Prithvîdëva II himself. Nor can the date be referred to the Vikrama or the Saka era ; for in either case it would make Prithvîdëva II flourish earlier than even Ratnadëva I, his great-great-grandfather. It is clear, there-fore, that there is some mistake here, as in so many other places in the present record, due to the carelessness and ignorance of the copyist and it may be conjectured that the original date was 900 which he wrongly copied as 1000. As the tithi has not been specified the date does not admit of verification, but if we suppose that the plates were issued on the same day on which the grant was made, i,e , on the occasion of a sankrânti, we get some basis for calculation Even then the date appears to be slightly irregular. With 247-48 A C. as the epoch of the Kalachuri era, the month Bhâdrapada would fall in, 1148 A C. if the year 900 was current, and in 1149 A.C. if it was expired. There was no doubt a sankrânti (viz., Kanyâ) in the bright fortnight of Bhâdrapada in 1148 A C, but it occurred 12 h. 45 m on Friday (Bhâdrapada eu. di. 11, corresponding to the 27th August 1148 A.C) and not on Thursday as required. In 1149 A C. there was no sankrânti in the bright fortnight of Bhâdrapada at all. Similar slight discrepancies in respect of the week-day of a sankrânti are not unknown from absolutely genuine records.3 Overlooking the discrepancy of one day we may, therefore, take the date of the grant to be Friday [the 11th of] the bright fortnight of Bhâdrapada of the current Kalachuri year 900, corresponding to the 27th August 1148 A C
1. viz., vv 17-19, 21 and 26. All the first eleven verses occur in the same order in the Amôdâ plates (second set) of Prithvïdëva II also
2. It may be noted here that though Alavâyana is a branch of the Vasishtha gotra, its pravaras are usually given as Vasishtha, Abharadvasu and Indrapramada. Hiralal took the correct reading to be Ashvalâyana, but even then the pravaras do not agrée According to many authorities, Ashvalayana has only one-pravara, vjz., Vasishtha. Apastamba, of course, gives its pravaras as three, but according to him they are the same as for Alavâyana, viz , Vasishtha, Indrapramada and Abharadvasu. See Gôtrapravarambandhakadamba, p, 126.
3. See, e g, the date of the Khairhâ plates of Yashahkarna, No. 56, above.
[p. 480]: Though the names of the writer and the engraver tally, it is quite clear that these are not the origjnal plates issued by Prithvldëva II, for the two grants of Pnthvîdëva II, which were written by Vatsarâja, show that he was a fairly careful writer and left no lacunas in his writing......
As for the localities mentioned m the present grant, Sâ[ma]nta- mandala appears to have comprised the outlying districts of the kingdom. Gôthadâ (गोठड़ा), if this is the correct name of the donated village, may be identical with Ghôtiâ where the present plates were found.
Wiki editor Notes:
- Ghotia (Jat clan) = Ghotiya. Ghotiya is a village in tahsil Palari of Baloda Bazar district in Chhattisgarh. Ghotia Plates of Prithvideva II: (Kalachuri) year 900 (= 1148 AD) were found at Ghôtiâ (घोटिया), a village 10 miles due south of Baloda Bazar in Chhattisgarh. [2]