South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

supposed to have given the date of his own birth as Kali 4300 (= A.D. 1198).^[1] Thus a difference of 80 years exists between the date found in the lists and the date contained in the Bhâratatâparyanirṇaya. Even the second date cannot be reconciled with the dates of the inscriptions of Ânandatîrtha’s pupil Naraharitîrtha and is perhaps due to an interpolation. As regards the dates given in the lists, I am inclined to adopt Dr. Bhandarkar’s suggestion that the Jovian years may be perfectly reliable while their Śaka equivalents are later inventions, and to accept the statement of the lists that Ânandatîrtha was born in the year Vilambin, lived for 79 years, and died in the year Piṅgala. The lists further state that he was succeeded by his pupil Padmanâbhatîrtha, who occupied the seat for seven years and was followed by Naraharitîrtha in the cyclic year Raktâkshin. This teacher occupied the seat for nine years and died in the year Śrîmukha. He was succeeded by Mâdhavatîrtha, who in his turn occupied the seat for seventeen years and was followed by Akshôbhyatîrtha, who occupied the sthânâdhipatya for another seventeen years. With the help of these statements the actual time of Ânandatîrtha can be easily determined by calculating backwards from the dates of Naraharitîrtha’s inscriptions. Two other facts derived from different sources are also of some value in this direction, viz. the statement in the Guruparamparâprabhâva^[2] that Akshôbhyatîrtha was a contemporary of Mâdhavâchârya-Vidyâraṇya, and the statement in the Madhvavijaya^[3] that a certain king Îśvaradêva in Mahârâshṭra tried in vain to take Ânandatîrtha into his service. Mâdhavâchârya-Vidyâraṇya was the minister of the Vijayanagara king Bukka I. whose inscriptions range between A.D. 1353 and A.D. 1371.^[4] Roughly, therefore, Akshôbhyatîrtha, a contemporary of Mâdhavâchârya, will have to be assigned to this period. To get to the time of Ânandatîrtha, the total period of the sthânâdhipatya of the intervening teachers, Padmanâbhatîrtha, Naraharitîrtha and Mâdhavatîrtha, viz. 33 years will have to be deducted, say, from A.D. 1362 ; and this brings us to A.D. 1329. Now the nearest year to A.D. 1329 which corresponded to Piṅgala, the traditional date of the death of Ânandatîrtha, was A.D. 1317. As noted above, Ânandatîrtha is supposed to have lived for 79 years, and consequently the date of his birth, the cyclic year Vilambin, would correspond to A.D. 1238. The statement of the Madhvavijaya confirms this date ; for Îśvaradêva of Mahârâshṭra has been identified by Mr. Krishnasvami Aiyar^[5] with the Yâdava king Mahâdêva of Dêvagiri, who reigned from A.D. 1260 ─ 1271.^[6] Ânandatîrtha’s date being thus fixed, the dates of his successors can be easily determined with the help of the lists which give the traditional Jovian years for each teacher’s succession to the pontifical seat and for his death. Thus Naraharitîrtha, the second in succession, must have ascended the pontifical seat in A.D. 1324, the year Raktâkshin, and died in A.D. 1333, the year Śrîmukha.

TEXT.^[7]
East Face.

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^[1] With this agrees a statement of the Mâdhva Svâmin at Phalmâru near Mulki in South Canara, who told me that, according to the tradition of his Maṭha, Ânandatîrtha was born in Śaka-Saṁvat 1119, Piṅgala, Mâgha-śuddha 7, and died in Śaka-Saṁvat 1199, Îśvara, Mâgha-kṛishṇa 9.
^[2] Madras edition, p. 108.
^[3] Chapter x. verse 3 f. Two other names mentioned in the Madhvavijaya, if identified, may also help in fixing the date of Ânandatîrtha, viz. a king Jayasiṁha who restored the library to the teacher, and a Guru of the Śaṁkarâchârya-Maṭha at Śṛiṅgêri who had a dispute with Ânandatîrtha at Trivandrum. The former has not been identified ; but Mr. Krishnasvamî Aiyar of the Coimbatore College identifies the latter with a certain Vidyâśaṁkara, who is supposed to have occupied the Śṛiṅgêri seat from A.D. 1228─ 1333, i.e. for no less than 105 years (!).
^[4] See above, Vol. III. p. 36.
^[5] See his pamphlet “ Madhwacharya.─ A short historic sketch,” p. 14.
^[6] See Dr. Fleet’s Dyn. Kan. Distr. p. 519.
^[7] From two inked estampages prepared in 1896.
^[8] Read °.
^[9] The akshara has both an ê and an ô attached to it.