9058009523

90 LOKESłl CHANDRA

B.P. Sinha D.C.Sircar

820-860

812-850

859

851

(Susan L. Huntington, The Pala-Sena Schools of Sculpture, Leiden 1984: 32-38, also see Casparis 1956:2.297).

Brandes (OJO.IV) read Samarottuńga and this is impossible paleographically (Damais 1952:27). So the name in earlier works has to be corrected to ‘Samaratuńga,* read by Casparis and confirmed by Damais from its estampage 113 at Jakarta and its photograph at Leiden. Krom has identified SamarfigravTra wilh Samaratuńga of the KarańtSńah Inscription and Casparis (1950:1:110) says that Balaputra was reigning in Sumatra. Sarkar (1971:1.74 n.17) points out : “De Casparis has postulatcd (op.cit., p. 133) that Samarottuńga had one daughter called Pr5modavarddhanI, as stated in the present record, and one son called Balaputradeva, who has been mcnlioned in the Nalanda charter. This, of course, dcpcnds upon the identily of Samarottuńga wilh Samarfigravlra. In case they are identical, Pramodavarddhani would appear to be the eklest issuc of the king and Balaputradcva (the Hon. young prince), her younger brothcr, possibly through a junior quecn.“ Balaputra ‘young prince* does not mean ‘ the younger brothcr of...*. The idea exprcsscd by bMa is a handsomc, young person, e.g. in the name of Kaniska (the youngest), or Nana Phadnavis (nanfi = Hindi nanha ‘the smali one*), a term of tender endcarment. Putra mcans a ‘prince’, and to it we can comparc the very common Balinese name Oka ‘child*. The name Balaputra has nothing to do wilh his being the sccond or youngest child of his parcnls.

It has been taken for granted, and bcyond doubt, that Balaputra was the king in Sumatra. Casparis, who has built up an elaborate concatenation of historie events on this basis, confcsses that “one important dctail is left uncxplained, viz. the problem why and how a son of the Javanese Sailendra king Samaratuńga could becomc a king in Sumatra; we know, however, that this happened.” (2.258). This inlcrpretation is duc to the cąuation Suvarnadvlpa = Sumatra. How did Balaputra go to Sumatra ? The seventh stanza of the OJ. metrical inscription of 856 mentions Balaputra at the end. Casparis 2.293 connects stray elcmcnts, arisen out of doublful readings, into a connecled narrative:

7a : He was a Saiva in contrast to the queen, the spouse of the hero;

7b : exactly a ycar was the timc of the

7c : Stones (heaped up) by hundreds ... (place ofl refuge;

7d: killing as fast as (?) the wind (he attackcd) Balaputra.

above inlerprclations it may be concludcd that Balaputra, presumably afler a dcfcat in the open country, retired to a place (this seems to be implied