South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

on the thirteenth tithi of the bright (fortnight) of Mâgha, in the year four hundred increased by twenty-one─ 400 20 ^[1].”

Of the royal personages named in this grant, two belong to the Western Chalukyas of Bâdâmi. These are Pulakêśi-Vallabha, i.e. Pulakêśin II., and his son Vikramâditya-Satyâśraya-Pṛithivîvallabha, i.e. Vikramâditya I. The latter is said to have worshipped the holy Nâgavardhana, which may be the name of a temple or of a spiritual guide,^[1] and to have overcome the Pallava family.^[2] He is distinguished by the imperial titles Mahârâjâdhirâja, etc., from the remaining two princes of the Chalikya family that are referred to in the grant, viz. Dharâśraya-Jayasiṁhavarman and his son, the Yuvarâja Śryâśraya-Śîlâditya, who were not of sovereign, but of mere feudatory rank. The former of them was a younger brother of Vikramâditya I., the son of Pulakêśin II. The grant states that “ his power had been increased by his elder brother.” This seems to imply that he was entrusted by Vikramâditya I. with the administration of province, which must have included Navasârikâ, where his son resided at the time of the grant, and Âsaṭṭi-grâma, the village granted by him. Another copper-plate grant of the same Śryâśraya-Śîlâditya, which comes from Surat,^[3] mentions the village Kârmaṇêya, Ôsumbhalâ and Allûraka. Bühler has identified Navasârikâ, Âsaṭṭi-grâma and the three last with the modern Nausârî (where these plates were obtained), Astgâm,^[4] Kamrêj, Umbhêl and Alurâ^[5]─ all south of the Taptî in Lâṭa or Southern Gujarât.

Altogether the grants of this Gujarât branch of the Chalukya family are four in number :
A.─ The Nausârî plates of Śryâśraya-Śîlâditya, dated in the year 421.
B.─ The Surat plates of the same, dated in the year 443.
C.─ The unpublished Balsâr plates of (his brother) Jayâśraya-Maṅgalarâja, dated in the Śaka year 653.^[6]
D.─ The Nausârî plates of Avanijanâśraya-Pulakêśirâja, younger brother of Jayâśraya-Maṅgalarasarâja, dated in the year 490.^[7]

According to A. and B., Jayasiṁhavarman and his son, the Yuvarâja Śîlâditya, were contemporaries of Vikramâditya I. (A.D. 655 to 680) in the year 421, and of Vinayâditya (A.D. 680 to 696) in the year 443 of an unspecified era. This can be no other than the Kalachuri-Chêdi era of A.D. 249-50.^[8] With this starting-point the dates of the two grants of Śîlâditya (A. and B.) correspond to A.D. 671 and 692.^[9] The Balsâr plates of Maṅgalarâja (C.), who seems to have governed Gujarât in succession of his father Jayasiṁhavarman after the death of the Yuvarâja Śîlâditya (probably an elder brother of Maṅgalarâja), are dated in the Śaka year 653=A.D. 731-32.^[10] Like the dates of A. and B., that of D. has to be referred to the Kalachuri era. Accordingly, Pulakêśirâja, the younger brother of Maṅgalarasarâja (the Maṅgalarâja of the Balsâr plates), was ruling in A. D. 739.^[11]

It remains to be added that the Bâhirikâ-vishaya and its subdivision Kaṇhavalâhâra, to which Âsaṭṭi-grâma belonged, have not yet been identified.
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^[1] See Ind. Ant. Vol. IX. p. 123, and Journ. Bombay Br. R. A. S. Vol. XVI. p. 5. The name Nâgavardhana appears twice in a grant of doubtful authenticity ; Ind. Ant. Vol. IX. p. 123 ff. and Dyn. Kan. Distr. p. 357 f.
^[2] Compare South-Ind. Inscr. Vol. I. p. 145, and Dyn. Kan. Distr. p. 362 f.
^[3] Vienna Oriental Congress, Aryan Section, p. 211 ff.
^[4] Dr. Fleet informs me that this is a large village seven miles east-south-east-½-south from Nausârî, and remarks that “ in the Bombay Postal Directory the name is spelt ‘ Ashtgâm,’ which suggests Ashṭagrâma, not Âsaṭṭigrâma.”
^[5] Ind. Ant. Vol. XVII. p. 198.
^[6] Jour. Bombay Br. R. A. S. Vol. XVI. p. 5.
^[7] See note 3 above.
^[8] See Ind. Ant. Vol. XIII. p. 77 ; Vienna Oriental Congress, Aryan Section, p. 219 f. ; Dr. Bhandarkar’s Early History of the Dekkan, sec, ed., p. 55.
^[9] Dyn. Kan. Distr. p. 364, No. 3, and p. 370, No. 6.
^[10] Ibid. p. 374, No. 11.
^[11] Ibid. p. 376, No. 6.