INSCRIPTIONS OF THE MAHISHMATI
The inscription contains in lines 2 and 3 the following date, viz., the tenth tithi of
the dark fortnight of Śrāvana in the victorious thirteenth year. This date is mentioned
in close connection with the name of the Mahādandanāyaka Śrīdharavarman to whose reign
it apparently refers, but Banerji though that as Srīdharavarman did not claim any royal
title, it was extremely improbable that the year 13 was of his reign. He therefore referred
the date to the reign of Jīvadāman, the father of Rudrasimha II and the founder
of the third dynasty of the Satraps of Saurāshtra, whose name, he thought, he could read
in line I. 1 But, as Majumdar has shown, this view is untenable;2 for (i) the existing traces
of letters in line 1 show that the correct reading of the passage where Banerji read the name
of the Kshatrapa ruler is vīrya-ārjjita-vijaya3; (ii) no title like Svāmin is prefixed to the name
of Jivadāman even according to the reading of Banerji; and (iii) victorious thirteenth
year mentioned in line 2 is described as augmenting the reign evidently of Śrīdharavarman
who is named immediately before in that line. It seems therefore that Śrīdharavarman,
though he held only the military title of Mahādandanāyaka, was, to all intents and purposes,
an independent ruler, since he does not mention any overlord in this epigargp4.
There is another date towards the close of the record which has been differently
read by Banerji and Majumdar. The former called attention to the two symbols which
immediately follow the aforementioned verse in the Śārdūlavikrīdita metre. The first of
these, he thought, was ‘the Western Kshatrapa symbol for 200 written at one stroke’,
while the second signified the unit. The date was thus 201 which Banerji referred to
the Śaka era and took as equivalent to 279 A. C. Mr. Majumdar, on the other hand,
thought that the first sign had no resemblance to a 200 figure and that it was unlikely to
be a numerical symbol since it was not introduced by a word like varsha or samvatsara.
He, therefore, took it to be a sign of interpunction indicating the end of the verse.
Mr. Majumdar, however, drew attention to the letter sa which occurs at some distance
from this sign followed by ‘apparently three numerical symbols’. He was not certain
about the reading of the first of these, but took it tentatively as signifying 200. The other
two signs he read as 40 and 1. The date of the epigraph was thus, according to Majumdar,
241. He referred this year to the Śaka era and took it as equivalent to 319 A.C.5
Whatever may be the correct reading of this date, the attribution of it to the Śaka
era is not plausible;6 for there is no other early date of that era coming from either Eastern
or Western Malwa. The Śaka era was, no doubt, used by the Kshatrapas in Kathiawad,
but no records of their rule have been found in Malwa. In fact Kshatrapa supremacy
in Malwa seems to have terminated about the middle of the third century A.C.7 It seems
therefore better to refer the date to the so-called Kalachuri-Chedi era which was undoubtedly
current in the adjoining Anūpa country as evidenced by the inscriptions of
Subandhu.8
______________________________
1Ep. Ind., Vol. XVI, 231.
2J.A.S.B., N.S., Vol. XIX (1923), pp. 340 ff.
3Banerji read here s-āditya-vīryya-Jivadāma-..
4An analogous instance is that of the Śunga Emperor Pushyamitra, who retained his military
title of Sēnāpati to the last. Ep. Ind., Vol. XX, p. 57; Kālidāsa, Mālavikāgnimitra, Act. v. .
5J.A.S.B., N.S., Vol. XIX, p. 342.
6Dr. D.R. Bhandarkar also gives this date doubtfully under the Śaka era. See I.N.I., p. 144. The
earliest date of the Śaka ear found in Central India is the year 784 in a Jain inscription from Deogad in the
Jhansi District. I.N.I., No. 1085.
7Kshatrapa copper coinage of the Malwa fabric ceases about 240 A.C. Rapson, C.A.D., Introd.,
p. cxxxiii.
8Nos. 6 and 7, below.
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