South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

NARWAN PLATES OF CHALUKYA VIKRAMADITYA II

condition of the grant was that half of the dues such as aruhaṇa,^[1] that were paid to Government officers from the village Ambāḍa were to be paid from Naravaṇa. After these details come the usual benedictions and imprecations for the preservers and violators of the grant. The record concludes with the statement that it was written by the Mahāsandhivigraha Anivāti (Anivārita ?) Puṇyavallabha.

The date of the grant is recorded thus ; Śaka year 664 expired, the 8th regnal year of Vikramāditya (II), and the occasion of the Sun’s turning to the north, i.e., his entry into the zodiac of Capricornus. As no tithi and week-day are given, it is impossible to verify the date. The Lakshmēśwar inscription of Śaka 656 expired gives two as the corresponding regnal year.^[2] It follows that the regnal year corresponding to Śaka 664 expired will be 10 and to Śaka 664 current will be 9, but not 8. It must, however, be remembered that the Lakshmēśwar inscription is declared to be ‘spurious’ and as such its evidence cannot be very much relied upon. Śaka 664 may, therefore, be either current or expired. In Śaka 664 current, the Solar month Makara began at 22 ghaṭīs and 29 palas after mean sunrise on 21st December 741 A. D. and in Śaka 664 expired the same month began at 37 ghaṭīs after mean sunrise on 21st December 742 A. D. The English date of the grant, therefore, would be 21st December 741 or 742 A.D.according as the Śaka year 664 is taken as current or expired.^[3]

Of the place-names mentioned in this grant, it is not possible to say with any certainty where Ādityavāḍa was. But I would just suggest that it should be tentatively identified with one of the two Āitawaḍas in the Valwa taluqa of the Satara District. It is not known whether the villages have any indications of antiquity ; but as its Marāṭhī pronunciation Āitavaḍe seems to be the natural phonetic change of Ādityavāḍa (cf. Āitavāra-Ādityavāra) and as there is no other village of this name in the Bombay Province, the identification may prove correct. Chiprarulana appears to be the ancient name of modern Chipḷūṇ, a taluqa town in the Ratnāgiri District, Sonnē seems to be the original name of the modern Śāstrī river flowing south of Naravaṇa.^[4] Ambāḍa is not to be traced at present.^[5]Naravaṇa is a village on the seashore in the Guhāgar Peta of the Ratnāgiri District. Chindramāḍa may be the modern Chindravla,^[6] situated some 4 miles to the north-east of Naravaṇa.

TEXT^[7]

First Plate

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^[1] In a Śilāhāra grant of Śaka 1037, this very word seems to occur in a slightly different form āruvaṇa (Sources of the Mediaeval History of the Deccan, Vol. I, p. 40, l.48). It probably means a tax of six paṇas.
^[2]Ind. Ant., Vol. VII, p. 107.
^[3] I have calculated the point of Makara Saṅkrānti after working up to four decimals according to the Ārya-Siddhānta. According to the Sūrya-Siddhānta, the same will be 2 palas later in each case.
^[4] In a Marāṭhī document of A. D. 1600 (Śivacharitra Sāhitya, Vol. II, 339, No. 340, published by the B. I. S. Maṇḍaḷa Poona), there is a reference to the partition of a watan, the three shares of which are thus specified : (1) Tract extending from the Bāva river to the Sōnavī river, (2) tract lying between the Sōnavī and the Gaḍa rivers, (3) tract stretching from the Gaḍa river up to the villages Gimavī and Dēvaghara. The map of the Rātnāgiri District shows that Bāva and Gaḍa are two tributaries of the modern Śāstrī river, which, after flowing in a more or less parallel direction to the Śāstrī river, join it from the left and right sides respectively. Thus it is clear that the Śāstrī river is implied by the Sōnavī river in the document or Sōnavī is the older name of Śāstrī. The word Sōnavī has a very close affinity to Sonnē. Hence I have suggested the above identification.
^[5] [This may be identical with Ambāv, a village with a branch post office attached to Dēvrukh head post office in the Ratnāgiri District.─C. R. K.]
^[6] Spelt as Chindrnole in Atlas sheet No. 25 published in 1852 A.D. by the East India Company.
^[7]From the original plates.
^[8] Represented by a symbol.
^[9] Metre : Anushṭubh.