Kotgarh
| Author: Laxman Burdak IFS (R) |
Kotgarh (कोटगढ़) is a village in Akaltara tahsil in Janjgir-Champa district in Chhattisgarh.
Variants
- Kotgadh (कोटगढ़)
- Koṭgaḏh (कोटगढ़)
- Kôtgadh
- Vikarnapura (विकर्णपुर)
Jat Gotras Namesake
- Kot = Kotgarh, a village in Akaltara tahsil in Janjgir-Champa district in Chhattisgarh. Akaltara Stone Inscription Of Ratnadeva II - The stone which bears this inscription was found at Kôtgadh.[1]
Location
It is located 45 kmKM towards west from District head quarters Janjgir, 3 km from Akaltara. This Place is in the border of the Janjgir-champa District and Bilaspur District. Bilaspur District Masturi is west towards this place . Kotgarh is a Village in Akaltara Tehsil in Janjgir-champa District of Chattisgarh State, India. Kotgarh Pin code is 495552 and postal head office is Akaltara . Katghari ( 2 KM ) , Khatola ( 3 KM ) , Katnai ( 3 KM ) , Bamhani ( 3 KM ) , Padariya ( 5 KM ) are the nearby Villages to Kotgarh. Kotgarh is surrounded by Baloda Tehsil towards East , Masturi Tehsil towards west , Pamgarh Tehsil towards South , Nawagarh Tehsil towards South .Akaltara , Naila Janjgir , Champa , Bilaspur are the near by Cities to Kotgarh.[2]
History
Akaltara Stone Inscription Of Ratnadeva II
Akaltara Stone Inscription Of Ratnadeva II - The stone which bears this inscription was found at Kôtgadh, a small village, a mile and a half north of Akaltarâ, in the Jânjgir tahsil of the Bilaspur District in Madhya Pradesh. It was brought down to Akaltarâ by the Malguzar and built into the plinth o£ the temple of Siddhësvara Mahadëva in the back-yard of his bouse at Akaltarâ. Though the present inscription originally belonged to Kôtgadh, I have called it Akaltarâ stone inscription in order to distinguish it from another stone inscription, now deposited in the Raipur Museum, which also comes from Kôtgadh. The inscription refers itself to the reign of Ratnadêva II4 of the Kalachuri Dynasty of Ratanpur. The object of it is to record the construction of a temple of Revanta and the excavation of a tank, evidently at Kôtgadh, by Vallabharâja, a feudatory chief of Ratnadêva II.[3]
Raipur Museum Stone Inscription Of Prithvideva II
This inscription was discovered by [[Sir Alexander Cunnnigham]in's Assistant, Mr. Beglar, who refers to it in the Archeological Survey of India Reports, Vol VII (1873-74), p 211. It has subsequently been noticed by several scholars, eg , by Dr Kielhorn who transcribed a few names of historical importance occurring in it in the Indian Antiquary, Vol. XX, p 84 , by Dr D R Bhandarkar in the Progress Report of the Archœological Survey, Western India for 1903-4, p 52 and finally by Rai Bahadur Hiralal in his Inscriptions in the Central Provinces and Berar4. Though noticed several times, the inscription has not been edited anywhere. I edit it here from the original stone which I personally examined in the Raipur Museum.
The polished slab of red sand-stone, on which this inscription is incised, was found at Kôtgadh5 from where the Malguzar removed it to his own house at Akaltarâ6. It was lying there for some time and has recently been removed to the Raipur Museum. The inscription is fragmentary. The preserved portion consists of 16 lines, all of which except the last are incomplete. The writing covers a space 2' high. The length of the
1. For vaby-âi which I have translated as 'outskirts of the town' see Kielhorn's remarks in Ep Ind , Vol VI, p 250, n 5. I think this sense suits all the passages of the Râjataranginî cited by him For the pleasure-house in the tank, see above, p 431, n 2
2 There is a play on the words kshana, sàmànya and pramâna in consequence of which the adjectives in the first hemistich are intended to be construed with both the tank and the Buddhist doctrine.
3. Kirtti here refers to the tank and perhaps also to the temple of Rëvanta
4. First edition p 111, second ed p 123
5. To distinguish this from the preceding inscription of Vallabharàja which was also found at Kôtgadh, I hâve named it after the Muséum in which it is deposited.
6. It was lying near the Malguzar's house at Akaltarâ in 1903 See PRA.S W I (1903-4), p 52
[p.437]: lines gradually increases.....The chatacters are Nâgarï .... The language is Sanskrit, and except for the opening obeisance to Shiva and the name of the sculptor at the end, the record is metrically composed throughout. There are, in all, thirty verses, all of which except the last are numbered. The prasasti, as the inscription is called in line 25, was composed by Dëvapâni (देेवपाणी), and engraved by the sculptor Pâlhùka (पालहूक). Dëvapâni was also the author of the Akaltara and Ratanpur inscriptions of Vallabharâja. The present inscription has consequently several verses in common with those two records, especiaUy with the latter. Thus, verses 4-21 of the present inscription occur in the same order in that record The orthography shows the same peculiarities as the Akaltara stone inscription.
As stated above, the present record is fragmentary and though it has a considerable portion in common with three other inscriptions1 of Vallabharâja, the latter also, with the exception of the Akaltara stone inscription, have suffered too much to be of much use in the restoration of its lost text. It is not, therefore, possible to give here a connected and complete account of its contents. After the usual mangala-slôka in praise of Sambhu, the inscription seems to have mentioned the Kalachuri family and described two or three princes of it in verses 2-4. The name of the last one only, vîz , Ratnadêva (II) has been preserved at the beginning of lime 4. Like the Akaltara stone inscription, the record then seems to have turned to the ancestors of Vallabharâja, who, as feudatory chiefs, served the predecessors of Ratnadêva II. Verses 5-7 apparently eulogised Dëvarâja (देवराज), Râghava (राघव) and Harigana (हरिगण), but the name of only the last one occurs in the preserved portion. Harigana's wife was described in the next verse (8), but her name is lost The glorification of their son. Vallabharâja commenced in line 7, though his name does not occur in the extant portion till lime 16. Verses 10-15 extol his proficiency in the healing art, his appreciation of merits, his capture of elephants in the Vindhya mountain, the fierce fight in, which he distinguished himself, his raid in a distant country which was commended by his suzeram, and finally his fame and charity. Verse 16 seems to show that he was looked upon as an adopted son by Lâchchhalladëvï (लाच्छलदेवी) whom we know from the Akaltara stone inscription to be the mother of Ratnadêva II. Verse 18 described a city founded by Vallabharâja, which is said to have resembled the city of Kubëra (i.e , Alakâ). The next three verses, two of which occur in a complete form in the Akaltara record, described a tank which Vallabharâja excavated in the same city. Verse 22 probably referred to some charitable or religious works of Vallabharâja, one of which, a garden, is mentioned in the begining of line 19. In the next verse Vallabharâja is said to have loyally assigned to the king Ratnadêva (II) half of the religious merit which accrued to him on account of the aforementioned benefactions. Verse 24 records that he made a request to Ratnadêva (II) for some donation for the worship of Shiva, which
1. Vîz , No 84, above and Nos 87 and 95, below
[p.438]: seems to have been readily granted, for the final word in the next verse which occurs in the beginning of line 22 refers to a royal order. Verse 26 describes a beloved son, probably of Ratnadëva (II)1, but his name bas not been preserved. The next verse mentions his younger brother Jayasimha 2. The name of the poet Devapâni, who composed the prasasti, is preserved in line 25, while that of the writer which must have occurred in the same line is lost. The last line contains the name of the sculptor Pâlhûka who incised the present record.
The foregoing account will show that the object of the inscription was to record the construction, by Vallabharâja, of a temple of Shiva evidently at Kôtgadh and certain donations made by royal order for the worship of the deity. The present inscription is not dated, but as it mentions both the excavation of the tank Vallabhasâgara and the election of the afore-mentioned temple of Shiva, it is evidently later than the Akaltarâ stone inscription which mentions only the former. It is again earlier than the Ratanpur inscription which names many more benefactions of Vallabharâja and his wife and was incised, as expressly stated at the end of it, during the reign of Ratnadëva II's son and successor Prithvïdëva II.
The extant portion mentions no place-name3. Hattakesvarapuri in L 16, which Rai Bahadur HiralaJ took to be the name of an important place, means Alaka (अलका), the city of the lord of wealth (Kubèra)4
Notable persons
External links
References
- ↑ Corpus Inscriptionium Indicarium Vol IV Part 2 Inscriptions of the Kalachuri-Chedi Era, Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi, 1955, p.430
- ↑ http://www.onefivenine.com/india/villages/Janjgir_1achampa/Akaltara/Kotgarh#google_vignette
- ↑ Corpus Inscriptionium Indicarium Vol IV Part 2 Inscriptions of the Kalachuri-Chedi Era, Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi, 1955, p.430
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