South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

situated in the Khêţaka district of the Lâţa country (ll. 52-54). It is to record the grant of this village that the present charter was issued. The donee was a Brâhmaṇ of the name of Nâgamârya, son of Mahâdêvayya, a member of the Mâṭhara gôtra and a student of the Vâji-Kâṇva śâkhâ (ll. 51-52). He is described as staying at Mânyakhêţa and subsisting on the feet of Vallabhanarêndradêva, i.e. Gôvinda IV. Himself, but is said to have originally resided at Kâvikâ.

The grant is dated, both in words and figures, in Śaka-Saṁvat 852 expired, in the current cyclic year of Khara, on Monday, the tenth tithi of the bright half of Jyaishṭha, when the moon was near the constellation Hasta (II. 44-46). Professor Kielhorn kindly contributes the following remarks:─ “This date, for Śaka-Saṁvat 852 expired, regularly corresponds to Monday, the 10th May A.D. 930, when the tenth tithi of the bright half ended 12 h. 3m., and the nakshatra was Hasta, by the equal space system and according to Garga for 22 h. 59 m., and by the Brahma-siddhânta for 19 h. 42 m., after mean sunrise. By the northern luni-solar and strict mean-sign systems the day fell in the year Khara, which lasted from the 23rd December A.D. 929 to the 19th December A.D. 930. [By the southern system the year would have been Vikṛita.]”

Having this disposed of the formal part of the grant, I shall now give an account of the thirty-one verses, descriptive of genealogy, and of the preamble of the prose passages that follow. After the introductory ôṁ svasti, the inscription opens with a verse (well known to us from other Râshtrakûta records), invoking the protection of Vishṇu and Śiva. The next verse is in honour of the Sâmavêda, and the two verses following it (3-4) contain invocations to Vishṇu and Śêsha. In verse 5 we are told that from the Moon was descended the race of the Yadus, to the glorification of which the next verse is devoted. After thus bestowing praise on the Yadus, Dantidurgarâja is mentioned in verse 7 as having arisen in the spotless race of the Yadus, as the moon in the clear sky. He was succeeded on the throne by his paternal uncle Kṛishṇarâja (I.), who is represented to have destroyed the Chalukya race, as the sun dispels darkness (v. 8). After Kṛishṇarâja I. his eldest son Gôvindarâja (II.) came to the throne, and after Gôvindarâja II. his younger brother, who bore the appellation Nirupama (vv. 9-10). Dr. Fleet, who strongly holds that Gôvindarâja II. did not obtain sovereignty, brings forward the argument, among others in support of his view, that the Sâṅglî charter, though it places Gôvindarâja II. between Krishna I. and (Dhruva-) Nirupama, “does not make any assertion that he reigned.’’^[1] This statement can only be understood to mean that verse 6 of the Sâṅglî grant, which is identical with verse 9 of our grant, does not explicitly speak of Gôvindarâja II. as having become a king, but that his name occurs between those of Kṛishṇarâja I. and (Dhruva-) Nirupama. If this is what Dr. Fleet means, then we shall have to suppose that Jagattuṅga(-Gôvinda III.) and Amôgha- varsha (I.) also did not reign. For verses 11 and 12, in which their names are mentioned, do not tell us in explicit words that they became kings, but simply place them between (Dhruva-) Nirupama and Akâlavarsha(-Kṛishṇa II.). Hence, if Jagattuṅga(-Gôvinda III.) and Amôgha-varsha I. are to be supposed to have reigned, Gôvindarâja II. too must, for the same reason, be regarded as having sat on the throne.

(Dhruva-) Nirupama was succeeded by his son Jagattuṅga(-Gôvinda III.), on whom nothing but conventional praise is bestowed (v. 11). After Jagattuṅga(-Gôvinda III.), Amôghavarsha (I.) became king, who, in the first half of verse 12, is said to have gratified the god Yama at Viṅgavallî with unprecedented morsels of cakes, which were the Châlukyas. This means that he inflicted a crushing defeat on the Eastern Châlukyas at Viṅgavallî, which, I think, probably signifies the Vêṅgîmaṇḍala, the territory over which they ruled. The second half of the verse, if I have rightly understood it, seems to mention a reservoir or some such thing,
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^[1] See above, Vol. VI. p. 170 f., where Dr. Fleet meets the objections I brought against his view in my paper in J. Bo. Br. R. A. S. Vol. XX. p. 133 f.