North Indian Inscriptions

RECORDS OF THE SOMAVAMSI KINGS OF KATAK.

nothing except that, after the mention of the traditional king Vikramâditya, who is represented as having reigned for a hundred and thirty-five years,─ in order to fill up the chronological interval between the commencement of the Vikrama era (B.C. 58) and the commencement of the Śaka era (A.D. 77),─ “the era of Śalivâhana” (i.e. the Śaka era), “which dates its “commencement from A.D. 77 in Orissa,¹ is used in all the accounts, and we now come to reigns “of a probable and moderate duration, the first dawning of an approach to the authentic period “of the native history” (ibid. p. 262). And he simply attached to the annals of Orissa a value which neither they, nor any other Hindû records of the same kind that have ever yet come to light, can possibly possess. It is almost needless to say that the annals in question do not include any such names at all as Śivagupta and Bhavagupta ; these being real historical names, it is not to be expected that they would be found in such documents. They undoubtedly do preserve a reminiscence of Janamêjaya-Mahâ-Bhavagupta I. and Yayâti-Mahâ-Śivagupta, in the names of Yayâti-Kêsari, and of Janamêjaya-Kêsari which also occurs in the list of the Kêsari kings;² for, otherwise, there is no reason why such purely Purâṇic names should crop up in a series of mostly quite ordinary names. But they do so under completely erroneous and anachronistic circumstances. According to the annals, Yayâti-Kêsari was the first of his dynasty, and was succeeded by ‘Suraj’- or ‘Sûrjya’-, i.e. Sûrya-Kêsari, and Janamêjaya-Kêsari came long after him, in the period A.D. 754 to 763 ; whereas, the copper-plate charters shew that Yayâti-Mahâ-Śivagupta was the third king of his line,─ that Janamêjaya-Mahâ-Bhavagupta I. was his predecessor and father,─ and that he was succeeded by Bhîmaratha-Mahâ-Bhavagupta II., of whom we possibly have perverted reminiscence in the name of the alleged Bharata-Kêsaṛi who is placed next after Janamêjaya-Kêsari, in the period A.D. 763 to 778. And,─ even apart from what I shall shew below as to the period to which the real Yayâti-Mahâ-Śivagupta must be referred,─ the annals unconsciously betray themselves, by connecting with the name of Yayâti-Kêsari events which can have happened only several centuries at least after the period which they would establish for him.

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They say that, just before him, some people called Yavanas ruled over Orissa for a hundred and forty-six years, and that he established his own dynasty by expelling the Yavanas (ibid. pp. 264, 265, and Orissa, Vol. II. Appendix VII. p. 185) : as I will shew further on, though the Yavanas here are the Early Gupta kings, the term elsewhere means, all through the annals, the Musalmâns,³ and the statements connected with Yayâti-Kêsari mix up the Early Gupta rule with the Musalmân conquests : if then, the statement are based on no actual fact, but simply on what took place generally in Northern India, they cannot refer truly to any time anterior to the period of Maḥmûd of Ghazni (A.D. 1001 to 1030), who, moreover, did not penetrate as far as Orissa ; while, if they commemorate an actual conquest of Orissa, they cannot possibly refer to any time anterior to A.D. 1567-68, when Sulaimân, king of Bengal, defeated the last independent king of Orissa and practically subjugated the province.⁴

......As regards the second mistake,─ whatever the Śâstras may say, or seem to say, the assertion that none but paramount sovereign could make grants of land is without any basis of fact ; any number of epigraphic instances to the contrary could be quoted ; and, though there are instances enough of feudatories and officials making grants with the permission of their supreme kings, yet even then the grants were always made by them in their own names, and not a single authentic case can be quoted of a feudatory or official assuming the name of his king or other superior authority for the purpose of issuing a charter.
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......¹ i.e. apparently, the people of Orissa use the current Śaka years.
......² Orissa, Vol. II. Appendix VII. p. 186.─ Mr. Stirling did not enumerate all the Kêsari kings ; and so this name is not to be found in his account.
......³ It is sufficient to note here that, in the Chitôrgaḍh inscription of A.D. 1428 or 1429, Fîrûz Shâh or Fîrûz- ud-dîn Taghlaq, king of Delhi (A.D. 1351 to 1388), is called “the Yavana king Pêrôja” (Ep. Ind. Vol. II. p. 410).
......⁴ See the Imperial Gazetteer, Vol. X. p. 430.