South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

It seems reasonable, in these circumstances, to identify the Nîtimârga-Râchamalla of this Chikmagaḷûr inscription with the Nîtimârga, personal name not disclosed, for whom the Elkûru inscription supplies the date of A.D. 999-1000, Precisely in the period to which we are independently brought for the Chikmagaḷûr record. And if we assume that the rule of this Nîtimârga only began in A.D. 1000, then the Chikmagaḷûr record, dated in the month Kârttika of the sixth regnal year, cannot be placed later than A.D. 1005. While, on the other side, with A.D. 984-985 as the final date of Satyavâkya-Râchamalla II., it cannot be placed before A.D. 989.

Thus, the extreme limits for this Chikmagaḷûr inscription are A.D. 989 and 1005. And it gives us a new Western Gaṅga name, that of Râchamalla III., with the appellation Nîtimârga, whose sixth regnal year was current at some time during that interval.

A precise result cannot be arrived at just now, simply because the details of the date of the record are erroneous in one respect or another. They couple the Mûla nakshatra with the full-moon tithi of the month Kârttika ; whereas, though the moon is often according to the unequal-space systems of the nakshatras, but rarely if ever according to the equal-space or ordinary system, in Mûla in the course of the new-moon tithi of Kârttika, she cannot ever be anywhere near Mûla on the full-moon tithi of that month. And, until we obtain some further guide, we cannot decide whether we should discard the nakshatra and accept the full-moon, or whether we should regard the mention of the full-moon as a mistake and should take the new-moon and the Mûla nakshatra.

The following results, however, which tend to reduce the above-mentioned period to A.D. 991 to 1004, may be stated, to be utilised and examined more closely hereafter when we obtain some further guide, in the shape either of a Śaka date distinctly coupled with the name of Râchamalla III., or of another regnal date which will be free from ambiguity :─

(1) On the supposition that we must discard the nakshatra and calculate for the full-moon. With the tables in Sewell and Dikshit’s Indian Calendar, I have the following results :─

(a) During the above-mentioned period, the full-moon was first connected with a Monday in A.D. 991, in which year the tithi ended at about 2 hrs. 20 min. after mean sunrise (for Ujjain) on Monday, 26th October this result would place the commencement of the first year of Nîtimârga-Râchamalla III. on some day from Kârttika kṛishṇa 1 in A.D. 985 to the full-moon day of Kârttika in A.D. 986 ; leaving a short but sufficient period, about eight to twenty months, for some Western Gaṅga prince, whose name would not be Râchamalla, standing between Râchamalla II. and Râchamalla III.

(b) Other years in which the full-moon tithi ended on a Monday were A.D. 994, 997, 1001, and 1004. In A.D. 1003, it may have begun very shortly before the actual sunrise at the end of a Monday ; but in that case, of course, it could not be connected with the Monday for any practical purposes.

(2) On the supposition that we should regard puṇṇame as a mistake for amâvâse, and should calculate for the new-moon and the Mûla nakshatra. Here, the results are as follows :─

(c) In this case, again, during the above-mentioned period, the new-moon was first connected with a Monday in A.D. 991, in which year the tithi ended at about 4 hrs. 58 min. on Monday, 9th November. The moon entered the Mûla nakshatra according to the Brahmasiddhânta system at about 17 hrs. 7 min., and according to the Garga system at about 22 hrs. 6 min., on the Monday ; but according to the ordinary system she did not came to that nakshatra until about 10 hrs. 18 min. on the Tuesday. This result, in A.D. 991, would place the commencement of the first