1863.] Sanskrita Inscriptions from Central India. 275 
was the founder of the Dhanga dynasty, and it is therefore likely that 
‘the donor with the same name was a member of this family, though 
there is of course nothing to prevent his being a priest. Any how, as 
he is neither a royal nor a historical personage, the knowledge of his 
identity is of little interest to the antiquarian. The fact, however, 
of his having been a contemporary of Dhanga in 1011 Samvat, set- 
tles the chronology of a long line of princes who exercised supremacy 
in Bundelkhand eight hundred years ago. 
The first mention of Dhénga occurs in a record published by the 
late Lieut. W. Pierce in the 12th Vol. of the Asiatic Researches 
(p. 357). The document was found inscribed on a large stone in the 
vicinity of the town of Mhow about ten miles distant from Chatter- 
pur, i. e., very near the same place whence the monument now under 
notice has been brought. It was mutilated at its beginning and 
end, owing to the stone having been used for grinding the knives 
and axes of the neighbouring peasants. Enough, however, was left, to 
afford a pretty connected account of nine chieftains and their minis- 
ters. The first chief of the roll was Dhanga Deva, who, after a long 
and prosperous reign, destroyed himself by drowning at the holy 
junction of the Ganges and Jumna opposite Allahabad. The last of 
his line was Madanavarma, who was, according to his historiocrast, 
‘a conqueror of the glories of Chedi, Kas’i and Malava.” The docu- 
ment gives no date, but judging from the circumstance of its having 
been from the same locality whence our Kajraha stone has been 
obtained, and from the age of the ruins where they were found, it would 
not be, for Indian history, too presumptuous, to assume the identity 
of the Dhangas named in the two records.* But we have more than 
a presumption to establish their identity. In a large inscription 
found at Kajraha by Capt. Burt and decyphered by the late Mr. 
J. C. C. Sutherland,} we have the genealogy of a Kajraha chief 
named Banga, who, in the Samvat era 1019 = A. D. 962, “ consigned 
his mortal coil to the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna” at 
Prayaga. Now this Banga can be no other than the Dhanga of 
our inscription, and I have the authority of General Cunningham, 
who has examined the original stone, to state that the reading of Mr. 
Sutherland, owing of course to the imperfection of the facsimiles he 
* The credit of discovering the identity is due to General Cunningham, vide 
Ante, vol. XXIX. p. 394, + Ante vol, VIII. p. 159. 
