Epigraphia Indica Vol 03

SR No.: 032557
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1894
Total Pages: 472
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 402

No. 47.]
RECORDS OF THE SOMAVAMSI KINGS OF KATAK,
333
The general result of the palæographic considerations, taken altogether, is, that these records cannot possibly be placed before A.D. 900. They may belong to any later period But, on the whole, I should say that the characters are of the eleventh century, and that the kings mentioned in them are to be placed somewhere between A.D. 1000 and 1100.
The palæographic considerations compel us to discard & somewhat tempting identification which was made by General Sir Alexander Cunningham, and the adoption of which was contemplated by myself before I came to look fully into the matter. A copper-plate grant from Rajim in the Raypur District, Central Provinces (Gupta Inscriptions, p. 291), gives us the names of Indrabala, of the Panduvamss or race of Påņdu,- his son Nannadêvn, - and Nannadêva's adopted son, the Raja Tivaradêva or Mahasiva-Tivararåja, a fendatory prince of the Kôsala country. An inscription at Sirpur in the same district (Ind. Ant. Vol. XVIII. p. 179), which supplies the name of Indrabala's father, Udayana, and tells us that he was of the lineage of the Moon,- (to which the race of Pandu did belong), -carries the genealogy two steps further, through Chandragupta, son of Nannadêva, and through Chandragupta's son Harshagapta, to a prince named Bâlârjuna-Siragupta, son of Harghagupta, who evidently held the feudatory government of the territory round Sirpur. And Sir Alexander Cunningham (Archæol. Suru. Ind. Vol. XVII. pp. 17, 85, 87) identified this Bâlârjuna-Sivagupta with Sivagapta, father of Maha-Bhavagapta I.; and also, accepting, like the other writers who have been mentioned above, the local annals, and failing, like them, to see that Janamêjaya and Yayati were, not feudatorios of Maha-Bhavagupta I. and Mah-Sivagupta, but those persons themselves, he arrived, from the date which the local annals purport to give for Yayâti-Kêsari, at the dates of A.D. 319 or 325 for Indrabala - A.D. 350 for Nannadeva,- A.D. 375 for Tivaradeva and Chandragupta,- A.D. 400 for Harshagupta,-A.D. 425 for Sivagupta,- A.D. 450 for Maha-Bhavagupta I. and his supposed contemporary Janamêjaya, - and A.D. 475 for Maha-Sivagupta and his supposed contemporary Yayati. The efroneous nature of the dates thus arrived at has already been shewn, so far as the Siragupta of the present charters and his successors are concerned. We are dealing now only with the identification of the two Sivaguptas. It appeared to be a very plausible one; for, Maha-Bhavagupta I., and his son and grandson, also possessed the Kosala country; and the absence of the prefix maha, and of a second fancifal name, in the designation of his father, seems to suggest that a sudden rise in the status of the family occurred just then,-in short, that Sivagupta, having been at first only a feudatory prince of Kosala like Tivaradeva, subsequently became powerful enough to seize the paramount sovereignty of that country, and perhaps also of the Kalinga territories. But, though I fully agree with Professor Kielhorn (Ind. Ant. Vol. XVIII. p. 179) that the Räjim grant is at any rato not older than A.D. 700, and that the Sirpur inscriptions may be placed in the eighth or ninth century, still, the paleographic evidence seems to render impossible the identification that was made by Sir Alexander Cunningham. Lithographs have been published of the edited inscription of Sivagupta, the son of Harshagapta, and of other records which mention him and his father (Archæol. Suro. Ind. Vol. XVII. Plates xviii. A. and B., and xix. C.). The original records evidently have the p, m, y, sh, and 8 with only the half mátrá, throughout. The k is of the pointed type. And another feature stamps them as belonging to even an earlier period than that which may be established by these two characteristics; the m has, not only the half mátrá, but also the straight arm to the left, instead of the loop which appears in the present charters and in all the records which have been quoted above, from the Déôgadh inscription of A.T). 862 onwards, and which is carried
* In the Gwalior inscription of A.D. 875-76, indeed, the exact form of this feature is rather that of a solid button than of a loop with a hollow centre; but the type is the same. In the lithographs of the Sirpur inscriptions, them appears with the loop twice, in A. live 1 sud B. line 12; but it seems tolerably certain that these instances are ouly mistakes made in preparing the hand-drawings from which the lithographs were conde.