Epigraphs of Madhya Pradesh

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Dr. H.V. Trivedi, an eminent Indologist and Epigraphist, has edited the Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum volumes on the inscriptions of Paramaras, Chandellas, Kachchhapaghātas and other minor dynasties. Recently he has published a book on the Inscriptions and history of Chaulukyas of Gujarat. Further with an untiring and continuous effort he has compiled the inscriptions of Madhya Pradesh, entitled Epigraphs of Madhya Pradesh which contains chapters on the political and cultural history of the rulers of the early period, Guptas and their contemporaries, rulers of Nimar and Valka region, the Parivrajakas, the rulers of Southern Kõsala, Chhindaka Nāgas of Bastar, Naga kings of Kavarda, Kalachuri kings of Tripuri and Ratanpur, the Chandellas, the Yajvapālas of Narwar as well as the early rulers of Madhya pradesh. He was assisted by his worthy son Dr. Mandan Trivedi. A critical study of these rulers and their contributions attempted by Dr. H.V. Trivedi will enrich our knowledge of the cultural activities of Madhya Pradesh region. No dynastic history can be studied as a separate entity, without a thorough knowledge of the related epigraphical data. I find that this work is unique in a way with immense improvement on Hiralal's work, written in the last century, when the epigraphs were not available as they are today. Dr. Trivedi has solved a number of controversial problems with his ingenious skill and scholarship. I am sure that this book will be very useful to the researchers and to the scholarly world.

I am extremely happy that, to fulfill the desire of Dr. Trivedi, the nonagenarian scholar of eminence, Dr. M.D. Sampath, Director (Epigraphy) has earnestly and enthusiastically taken up this volume on priority for editing as a general editor and has brought out his work as one of the prestigious publications of the Survey. In bringing out this work the considerable assistance given by Dr. K.M.Bhadri, Dr. T.S. Ravishankar, Sri. Jaiprakash and Sri G. Srinivasa Rao to Dr. M.D. Sampath is acknowledged herewith.

Dr. S.S.Iyer, Retd. Deputy Superintending Epigraphist has rendered considerable assistance in going through the script.

I retired from the Archaeological Department of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal in 1960 and soon after, I wrote two Corpuses of inscriptions. The first of these Corpuses (No. VII) was on the medieval inscriptions of Madhya Pradesh, viz, Paramaras, Chandellas, etc., and the other was on the inscriptions of the Chaulukya (Solanki) dynasty of Gujarat The first of these Corpuses in three parts, was published by the A.S.I., New Delhi, which had invited me to prepare it, and the second was printed and published by the Madhya Pradesh Archaeology Department, through the kind courtesy of my esteemed friend Dr. K.K. Chakravarty, the Director of the Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum at Bhopal, who also enriched it by a learned introduction (in fact, Foreword). This was published in 1994.

Thereafter, I took up to the writing the history of my own mother-land ie., Madhya Pradesh, but I found that the region of Madhya Pradesh was formed by combining parts of the former Gwalior and Bhopal States and those of the former Mahakōsala, with the region of Malawa and Vindhya Pradesh and it had no history of its own. This led me to consider that I should write the history of all the dynasties reigning over this region, which would be the best history of the state, and describe the rise and fall of each of these dynasties.

I was also conscious of the fact that the most reliable history is based on the contemporary records, that is, inscriptions; but the work of editing them is arduous and laborious as the epigraphist has to deal with the paleography, orthography, the date and above all, the text sometimes prepared from the original record and at other times from the estampages or photographs etc.

**Contents and Sample Pages**