South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

(L. 20.) Here there are (the following) verse sung by Manu :─ [Here follow four benedictive and imprecatory verse.]

(L. 26.) He who from greed or infatuation takes away this (gift), is guilty of the five great sins. May blessings rest on cows and Brâhmaṇs ! ^[1]

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No. 3.─ DATES OF CHOLA KINGS.
BY F. KIELHORN, PH.D., LL.D., C.I.E. ; GÖTTINGEN.
(Continued from Vol. V. page 200.)

Vol. IV. of Mr. Rice’s Epigraphia Carnatica again contains a number of Chôḷa inscriptions with Śaka dates. Dr. Hultzsch has sent me revised transcripts and translations of six of them (Nos. 32-37), which are all in the Heggaḍadêvankôṭe tâluka of the Mysore district. The transcripts were made from inked estampages, prepared by Mr. H. Krishna Sastri, B.A. The seventh of the new dates (No. 38) is taken from Vol. III. of Dr. Hultzsch’s South-Indian Inscriptions.

I would add here a few about the commencement of Râjarâja’s reign. Above, Vol. V. p. 48, I found that that reign commenced between (approximately) the 24th December A.D. 984 and the 29th August A.D. 985. By the statement of the Śuchîndram inscription, ibid. p. 44, according to which the tenth year of the king’s reign commenced with the month of Karkaṭaka, the previously found period is reduced to the time from the 25th June to the 25th July A.D. 985.

A.- RAJENDRA-CHOLA I.
32.─ On a stone at the Bâṇêśvara temple at Beḷatûru.^[2]

1 Srî svasti [||*] Saka-varisha ^[3]voṁbhaynûra-nâlvatta-mûre(ra)neya varishada^[4] Raudra-saṁvatsarada Â-
2 shâḍha-mâsada puṇṇave Uttarâshâḍha-nakshatraṁ Maka-
3 ra-chandraṁ Bri(bṛi)haspati-vâraṁ śrî-Muḍigoṇḍa-Râjêndra-Chôlaṁ râjyaṁ [ge]-
4 yyutt-ire iyâṇḍu oṁbhattâvudara(ro)ḷ.

“ Thursday, the moon being in Makara, the nakshatra being Uttarâshâḍhâ, during the full-moon tithi of the month of Âshâḍha in the Raudra year (which corresponded) to the nine-hundred-and-forty-third year of the Śaka years,─ in the ninth year of the reign of the glorious Muḍigoṇḍa-Râjêndra-Chôḷa.”

The Jovian year Raudra by the southern luni-solar system was Śaka-Saṁvat 943 as a current year ( = A.D. 1020-21). In that year the month Âshâḍha was intercalary, and the full-moon tithi of the second or nija Âshâḍha ended 17 h. 55 m. after mean sunrise of Thursday, the 7th July A.D. 1020, when the nakshatra was Uttarâshâḍhâ, by the Brahma-siddhânta for 7 h. 13 m., and by the equal-space system and according to Garga for 13 h. 47 m., after mean

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^[1] Cows and Brâhmaṇs are often mentioned together in this order ; compare e.g. line 15 of Rudradâman’s inscription referred to above ; Gupta Inscr. p. 32, l. 10 of the text ; Ep. Ind. Vol. I. p. 7, l. 52, and p. 129, l. 28 ; South-Ind. Inscr. Vol. I. p. 39, l. 1 ; Râmâyaṇa, Bo. ed., I. 26, 5 ; III. 23, 28 (svasti gô-brâhmaṇêbhyas=tu) ; III. 24, 21 (svasti gô-brâhmaṇânâṁ cha) ; VI. 107. 49 ; etc.
^[2] Mr. Rice’s Ep. Carn. Vol. IV. Hg. 16.
^[3] The opening word of line 1 as far as voṁbha are engraved at right angle to the remainder.
^[4] This word is entered below the line and its omission indicated by a cross above neya.