________________
DECEMBER, 1918 J
THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE WESTERN CHALUKY AS
THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE WESTERN CHALUKYAS OF KALYANI.1
BY A. VENKATASUB BIAH, M.A., PH.D.; MYSORE.
THE THE chronology of the Western Châlukyas of Kalyani was originally determined by Dr. Fleet in his Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts (revised edition published in the Bombay Gazetteer, 1896, Vol. I, Part 2, pp. 277-584) by the help of dates recorded in the inscriptions of these kings. And this account was, later, confirmed by Kielhorn who has included most of these dates in his List of Inscriptions of Southern India (EI., Vol. 7, App.), and has given a synchronistic table for Southern India in EI., Vol. 8, App., based on the results of these dates. I subjoin here from that table the names of the Western Châlukyan kings with their (initial) dates :
Taila II. Satykiraya Vikramaditya V. Jayasimha II.
Sômêsvara I.
Sômêévara II. Vikramaditya VI. Sômêsvara III. Jagadêkamalla II. Taila IIJ
Sômêsvara IV...
..
EC.
EI,
(F.) DKD.
1184-1189
The List of Inscriptions referred to above contains 83 verifiable dates of the Chalukyas, of which, however, 18 have been characterised by Kielhorn as slightly irregular and therefore needing emendation, and 35 as wholly irregular. Thus the number of verifiable dates used by him and Dr. Fleet for purposes of chronology as they stand is less than half of those that are at hand.
(K.) LISI. (V.) SSDI.
I have shown in my book, Some Saka Dates in Inscriptions, that the great majority of these 'irregular' dates are regular enough to indicate to us with certainty the days on which the events recorded happened. I have also shown on p. XII of the Introduction of that book that the correct equivalents of some of these dates make untenable the acceptance of the dates proposed by Drs. Fleet and Kielhorn for the commencement and the end of the reigns of some W. Châlukyan kings. I therefore propose to give here a revised chronology of these kings, utilising for this purpose not only the 45 dates (of KLISI.) that have been rejected as irregular, but also the verifiable dates contained in the several volumes of the Epigraphia Carnatica and the Reports of the Madras Epigraphists.
1 The following abbreviations have been used in the course of this paper :
IA.
for Indian Antiquary.
973
998
1009
1018?
1044
1068
1076
1128
1139
1154
285
Epigraphia Carnatica.
33
" Epigraphia Indica.
33
(Fleet's) Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts in the Bombay Gazetteer, 1896, Vol. I, Part 2.
,, (Kielhorn's) List of Inscriptions of Southern India, App. to EI., Vol. 7. (Venkatasubbiah's) Some Saka Dates in Inscriptions.
33
The English equivalents of the dates of the inscriptions cited below, have been, for the most part, calculated by me for the first time in accordance with the principles indicated in my book, SSDI. Of such equivalents, those which are certain (through their being calculated on the strength of more than one verifiable detail) are here printed in thick type.
2 I may observe here that I have, by reference to ink-impressions, verified the text published in these volumes of the more important inscriptions that I have made use of in writing this paper.