Sanskrit Inscriptions (L): The Candella

[Study of Sanskrit Inscriptions Issued During Early and Early Medieval Period (L): The Candella]

In the Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh, another new dynasty comes into prominence, in the first quarter of the ninth century that of the Candellas. Nanyaurā Copper Plate Inscription of Dhaṇgadeva (c. 998 CE)^[1] issued by the King Dhaṇgadeva of this family record the bestowal, by the Candella King Dhaṅga, of a village to a brāhmaṇa. King Dhaṅgadeva, for the increase of the religious merit and fame of his parents and himself, gave the village Chullī (or Yullī) to Brāhmaṇa Yaśodhara-bhaṭṭa of the Bhāradvāja-gotra, with three pravaras viz., Bhāradvāja, Āṅgirasa, and Bārhaspatya, of the Vājasaneya-śākhā, who had migrated from Tarkārikā and was a resident of Dürvvāharā-grāma [Durvāharā].^[2] Tarkārikā appears to be the same as situated about 25 km northwest of Gayā in Bihar. Kielhorn, however, who has edited the charter, does not identify Tarkkārikā. It was, however, according to some scholars, the same as Ṭakāri, perhaps in Uttar Pradesh. The brāhmaṇa moved from there and received this grant; however, the village Yullī in Ūṣaravāha, which has not yet been identified.

Candellas was founded in the modern village of Khajuraho. Dhaṇga also commissioned a magnificent temple at Khajuraho, which is identified as the Viśvanātha Temple (c. 999-1002 CE).^[3] In the prose passage here in the above inscription mentioned the titles of Paramabhaṭṭāraka, Mahārājādhirāja and Parameśvara with an additional epithet of Kālaṇjar-ādhipati attached to the name of Dhaṇgadeva. From the epithet Parameśvara it seems that he was Shaivite by belief however to initiate vedic culture he donated the mentioned village to a yajurvedīya Brāhmaṇa who had been brought from another place.