Sarkhon
| Author: Laxman Burdak IFS (R) |
Sarkhon () is a village in tahsil Janjgir of Janjgir-Champa district in Chhattisgarh.
Variants
Jat Gotras Namesake
- Sakhoon = Sarkhon is a village in tahsil Janjgir of Janjgir-Champa district in Chhattisgarh.
Location
History
Sarkho Plates of Ratnadeva II - Kalachuri year 880 (1128 AD)
[p.423]: These plates were found in 1916 in a tank called Gadhia in Sarkho,2 a village 4 miles north of Jangir in the Bilaspur District of the Chhattisgarh Division in Madhya Pradesh. Pandit Lochan Prasad Pandeya, Honorary Secretary of the then Chhattisgarh Gaurava Prachâraka Mandalî (now Mahâkôsal Historical Society), came to know of them in 1923 and took immediate steps to acquire them for his Society. They are now in the possession of that Society at Bilaspur. The record was first published by Mr. Pandeya in the Hindi Monthly Mâdhurï of Lucknow (Vol V, pp. 317-22) and was subsequently edited with a Lithograph by me in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXII, pp. 15 9 ff. It is edited here from the original plates and their ink-impressions kindly supplied by the Government Epigraphist for India......
The characters are Nagari. The letters are beautifully written and carefully engraved. Their average size is .25". The form of the initial ; is made up of two curves with a
2. Indra is described in the Rigveda, as releasing the sun after slaying Vritra. So Vritra may be said to be the enemy of the sun also He represents darkness.
[p.424]: .....The inscription refers itself to the reign of Ratnâdëva II of the Kalachuri Dynasty of Ratanpur. The object of it is to record the royal grant of the village Chinchâtalâï (चिन्चातलाई) situated in the mandala of Anarghavalli (अनर्घवल्ली) to a Brahmana named Padmanābha, on the occasion of a lunar eclipse. The record was written on the plates by Kīrtidhara,3 the owner of the village Jandêra (जण्डेरा) in the same mandala of Anarghavalli.
The genealogy' of Ratnadëva II down to his grand-father Prithvïdëva I is given here as in the latter's Amôdâ plates, most of the verses descriptive of the kings being identical in both the records.4 The inscription then mentions Jâjalladëva I, the son of Prithvîdëva I and Râjalladëvï and his son and successor Ratnadëva II, who made the present grant. The description of these princes also is merely conventional.
The pedigree of the donee Padmanâbha begins in v.11. His great-grandfather Mahasôna, a Brahmana of the Vatsa gôtra and five pavaras5 hailed from Sonabhadra (सोणभद्र) in Madhyadesha (Middle Country). He had mastered all the Vëdas and Agamas as well as the six Sâstras. He observed a fast unto death for fifty days at the holy place (tirtha) Jambavat (जाम्बवत).6 His son was Sômeshvara, who had a son named Kulachandra. The latter's son was Padmanâbha. He was proficient in astrology and knew two Siddhântas.7 In the presence of all astronomers in the assembly of Ratnadëva II, Padmanâbha asserted that there would be a total lunar eclipse when three quarters of the night had passed and the moon was in the asterism Rôhinî on Thursday, the paurnimâ (fifteenth tithi of the bright fortnight) of Kârttika in the expired year 880. When the eclipse occurred at the predicted time, the king became pleased and donated the afore-mentioned village Chinchâtalâï (चिंचतलाई) to Padmanâbha.
The foregoing particulars of the occasion on which the present grant was made clearly show that the other astronomers of Ratnadëva's court were using older methods of astronomical calculations. Their predictions of eclipses were not accurate and did not therefore come true. Padmanâbha appears to have discovered the mistakes in their methods and mainng the necessary bîja-samskâras, correctly calculated the time of the particular lunar
3. He may be identical with the writer of the Ratanpur stone inscription of Jâjalladëva See above, p. 411, n 2
4. The verses descriptive of Kôkkala and Ratnarâja I are different. Those which occur here are repeated in the later records of the dynasty.
5. These are not specified here. In the Amôdâ plates of JâjaUadëva II (below, No 99, L.21), they are mentioned as Vatsa, Bhargava, Chyavana, Apnavâna and Aurva
6. See below, text p427, n. 1.
7. Those were probably the Shurya-siddhànta and the Brahmagupta-sîddhânta,
[p.425]: eclipse 1 The date of the present grant must evidently be referred to the Kalachuri era. Ie 1128 A C. (corresponding to the expired Kalachuri year 880) the Kârttika-paurnimâ ended at 50-1/2 ghatikâs (20 h. 10 m.) after mean sunrise on the 8th November. As stated in the present inscription, the week-day was Thursday and the nakshatra Rôhinî which began at 13 h. 30 m after mean sunrise. There was also a lunar eclipse on that day According to Dr. K. L. Daftari of Nagpur, who has kindly calculated for me the time of the eclipse, the moon was totally eclipsed between 48 ghatikâs, 42 palas and 52 ghatikâs, 54 palas after mean sunrise at Ratanpur. Three quarters of the night were over at Ratanpur at 52 ghatikâs and 34 palas when, as stated above, the moon was totally eclipsed. The date and the time of the eclipse can thus be completely verified.
As for the localities named here, Chinchâtalâî, the donated village, is probably Chichôlâ (long 82° 39' E., lat. 22° 10' N.) on the left bank of the Hasdo in the Jânjgir tahsil of the Bilaspur District. It is only 8 miles north by east of Sarkho. Jandera, the village owned by the writer Kîrtidhara is probably identical with Jondrâ (long 82°,21' E. and lat 21°, 44' N.) on the left bank of the Seonath river, about 4 miles outside the south-west limit of the Janjgir tahsîl. The mandala of Anarghavalli in which both Chinchâtalâî and Jandera were situated, is roughly represented by the present Jânjgir tahsîl. Sonabhadra from which the donee hailed was situated in Madhyadesha. It is probably identical with Shravanabhadra, to which two Brâhmana donees of the Gaonri plates2 of Vâkpati-Munja dated V. S. 1038 belonged. It is noteworthy that like the donee of the present grant, both of them belonged to the Vatsa gotra and had five pravaras. Shravanabhadra is also mentioned in the Tilakwàdâ plates of Bhoja and as the fammiy of Surâditya mentioned in those plates is said to have come from Kanauj, Rao Bahadur K. N Dikshit has conjectured2 that Sravanabhadra was situated somewhere near Kanauj.
Jâmbavat, where the great-grandfather of Padmanâbha fasted himself to death, was a tïrtha. It is perhaps identical with the Jambutirtha mentioned in the Padmapurâna3where there was a Siva-linga called Jambavanteshvara (जाम्बवन्तेश्वर) which is said to have been established by the lord of bears Jambavant, who helped srî-Râmachandra. From the context it appears to have been somewhere in the vicinity of the river Svabhramati (स्वभ्रमती) (modern Sabarmati साबरमती).
1. KL Daftari conjectures that Padmanâbha may have used for his calculation, the Râjamṛgânka, karana work ascribed to king Bhoja of Dhara in which the bïjasamskâras seem to have been fixed after actual observation of planets. This work, though composed in Saka 964 (1042 A C ), ie , 86 years before the date of the present plates, may not have been known to the other astronomers of Ratnaiëva's court. Padmanâbha could, therefore, score an easy victory Over them. Cf Sh. B. Dikshit's History Indian Astronomy (Marâthî), second ed , p.238
2. Ep Ind, Vol XXIII, p.103
3. Uttarakhanda, adhyaya, 150.
4. From the original plates.
5. Expressed by a symbol
6. Read सद्ब्रह्मणे.
7. Mètre. Anushtubh,