South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

Ādityavishṇuśarman, the son of Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭa, who belonged to the Bhāradvāja gōtra, and, at the time of the grant, was residing at Nagara. A third part of the village was given to his brother Bhānuśarman. The grant was written by the Mahāsāndhivigrahika Sarvachandra and was engraved on the plates by the Akshaśālin Khaṇḍimalla.

The date of the grant does not admit of calculation in the absence of such details as the month, fortnight, week-day or nakshatra ; but the mention of the solar eclipse in line 17 gives some basis for verification. The grant does not, of course, state in which lunar month the eclipse occurred, nor does it explicitly connect the Gaṅga year 306 with it. Supposing that it occurred in that year, we get some data which we can verify. I have shown elsewhere,^[1] from an examination of all available Gaṅga dates which contain any verifiable details, that the Gaṅga era commenced on Chaitra śu. di. 1 in the Śaka year 420 (the 14th March 498 A.C.). According to this epoch, the current Gaṅga year 306 corresponds to the Śaka year 725. In this year there was a solar eclipse in the month of amānta Vaiśākha, on the 25th April 803 A.C. There was no eclipse in the Śaka year 726 corresponding to the expired Gaṅga year 306. This is, therefore, one of the few dates of the Gaṅga era which cite a current year.

The introductory part of the present grant contains merely conventional praise. In fact the praśasti of the Gaṅga rulers had become stereotyped long before and was being repeated in connection with the name of each successive Gaṅga king, sometimes with the addition or omission of a laudatory expression here and there which contained no historical information. It is not, therefore, possible to identify any early Gaṅga king on the basis of the introductory praśasti in his grant. The year 306 of the Gaṅga era in which the present grant was recorded shows, however, that Dēvēndravarman who made it was the third king of that name, who was the son of Rājēndravarman I.

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Besides the present grant we have the following four records of the reign of Dēvēndravarman III :─(1) the undated Bangalore plates^[2] recording the grant of the village Sidhatā in the vishaya (territorial division) of Varāhavartanī on the occasion of an ayana-saṅkrānti ; (2) the undated Chicacole plates^[3] registering the gift of the village Viriṇṭika in the Pushkariṇī-vishaya ; (3) The Indian Museum plates^[4] dated Gn. 308, mentioning the gift of the village Purujvana in the territorial division of Bakudravakōṇa on the occasion of a solar eclipse in Māgha ; and (4) the Tekkali Plates^[5] dated Gn. 310, recording the grant of the village Niyinō in the territorial division of [Rū]pavartanī. All these grants were issued from Kaliṅganagara. This introductory parts of all of them are identical except for the addition or deletion of an expression containing conventional praise.^[6]