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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA these was the ruling king who issued the charter from his headquarters Kāñchīpura. Its object is to record the gift of a village named Rēyūru as a brahmadēya, to a Brāhmaṇa named Kumāramaṇḍaśarman who was well-versed in two Vēdas and constantly engraved in studies, by the king for the augmentation of his life, strength, victory and fortune. The donor is described as devoted to the feet of Bappa-bhaṭṭāraka. He is also called Paramabhāgavata, Paramamāhēśvara and Paramabrahmaṇya.[1] Judging from the genealogical account given above and palaeographical considerations indicated before, it is easy to identify the above-mentioned three kings with Mahēndravarman II, Paramēśvaravarman I and Narasiṁhavarman II respectively, of the Siṁhavishṇu line.
Our epigraph happens to be the only dated record of Narasiṁhavarman II so far discovered. The date as cited herein is the twelfth year of the increasinglyvictorious reign of the king, Vaiśākha, full-moon, lunar eclipse. These details, however, fall short for verification. For want of necessary date, the reign-period of this king also, like those of other rulers of this family, cannot be fixed with precision. Hence we also left to make what appears to be the most reasonable assumption on the strength of circumstantial evidence. The broad limits of Narasiṁhavarman II’s reign are indicated by two inscriptions as follows. From the Gadvāl plates[2] of the Western Chālukya king Vikramāditya I, dated in 674 A.C., which mention Narasiṁhavarman II’s father Paramēśvaravarman I, we can postulate that the former succeeded his father some time after that date. Since Vikramāditya I who ruled from 565 to 680 A.C.,[3] had among his contemporaries, also Mahēndravarman II and Narasiṁhavarman I,[4] the father and grandfather of Paramēśvaravarman I, we are justified normally in believing that Paramēśvaravarman I was quite young by this time, i.e., 674 A.C., and that he occupied the Pallava throne at least for a decade or two after this date. Mr. N. Lakshminarayan Rao, has placed the first year of the reign of Paramēśvaravarman II, the son and successor of Narasiṁhavarman II, in 728-29 A.C. with the help of a stone inscription recently discovered by him at Ulchāla, near Kurnool.[5] This is the outer limit. We may also observe that the Pallava ruler who exchanged embassies with the Chinese emperor in 720 A.C. has been identified with Narasiṁhavarman II.[6] With these facts in view, we may examine the phenomenon of lunar eclipse which invests the above cited date with some definiteness. According to the Eclipses of the Moon in India, by Robert Sewell, the lunar eclipse occurred on the full-moon day of Vaiśākha in the years 701, 702, 711 and 720 A.C., which fall within the approximate reign-period of Narasiṁhavarman II. Of these the first two yield 690 or 691 A.C. as the first year of his reign. These perhaps would be too early, though there is no absurdity about them. Considering the long-range peaceful activities of this ruler, 720 A.C. which makes 709 A.C. his first year, may appear to be rather unsuitable. So we might pitch upon 711 A. C. as the date of our charter. This would show that his reign commenced in 700 A.C.[7] Of more than passing interest is the description, in our epigraph, of Paramēśvaravarman I as the performer of Aśvamēdha and many other kratus, i.e., Vedic sacrifices. This leads us to an enquiry into the claim. Let us see how far it is justified. The Kūram grant of Paramēśvaravarman I himself contains no reference to the performance of the horse sacrifice, and the other _________________________________________________
[1] We may as well connect these three epithets with Bappa-bhaṭṭāraka. The joint association of the first two
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