Epigraphia Indica Vol 03

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 14

No. 1.]
PATTADAKAL INSCRIPTION OF KIRTIVARMAN II.
of the god Śiva, under the name of Vijayêśvara. This temple is now known by the name of Sangamêsvara; but there is no question as to its identity : there are two short inscriptions on structural parts of it, which give the name of the god as Vijayêśvara (Ind. Ant. Vol. X. p. 170); and the same name remained in use at any rate till A.D. 1162 (Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. Vol. XI. p. 273). It then mentions Vijayaditya's son, Vikramaditya II., whom it describes as having bruised the town of Kanchi; and it tells us that his Mahadevi or queen-consort, Lókamahadevi, who belonged to the race of the Haihayas, i.e. the Kalachuris, erected a great stone temple of the god Siva, under the name of Lokesvara. This temple, again, still exists, but is now known by the name of Virûpåksba; the identity is established by records on structural parts of it, which give its name as Lókêśvara, and speak of it as the temple of Lôkamahadevi (Ind. Ant. Vol. X. pp. 165, 167, and Vol. XI. p. 124): it stands on the south-east of the temple of Vijayêsvara-(Samgaméávara). The record then mentions a Rájsi, or queen, of Vikramaditya II., named Trailokyamahadêrî, who was the uterine younger sister of Lôkamah&dévi, and was the mother of Vikramaditya's son and successor, Kirtivarman II.; and it tells us that she erected a great stone temple of Siva under the name of Trailokyeśvara. This temple, which must have stood somewhere on the north-east of the temple of Lokêśvarar(Virupaksha), is not now in existence, I think. The inscription then proceeds to record that the pillar itself, stamped with the mark of the trifúla, or trident, which is the weapon of Siva, was set up, in the middle of these three shrines, by a sculptor named Subhadeva, for an Acharya named Jñanasiva, who had come from the Mrigathaņik&håra vishaya on the north bank of the Ganges; and it concludes by recording certain grants.
As regards the date, the inscription refers itself to the reign of Kirtivarman II., by speaking of him with the paramount titles. And further, though it does not quote the year of the Saka era or the regnal year, it gives details which enable us to place it exactly. The grants were made, or one of them was made, on the occasion of a total eclipse of the sun, on the new-moon tithi of the month Sravans; and the English date is the 25th June, A.D. 754: on this day, which corresponds to the new-moon day of the first purnimanta Srâvaņa of SakaSamvat 677 current, there was a total eclipse of the sun, which was visible right across India.
Immediately below the above duplicate inscription, the pillar is square. Here, on the south face, there are remains of five or more lines, of about twenty letters each, in the same local characters, and, on the east face, remains of eight lines of about twenty letters each, in Någari characters, of the same type: these two records, again, are duplicates; but all that can be made ont is that the inscription registers a grant of land, purchased with gadyánakas of gold, by the son of a Bhatta named Pulivarman, and that it probably speaks of Pattadakal by its ancient name of Kisuvolal or Kisuvolal. And on the west face there are remains of eleven or twelve lines, of about twenty letters each, in the same local characters: but, the north face being apparently quite blank, this record was not duplicated in Någari; and it is so much damaged that nothing intelligible can be made out, except that, in the fifth line, Badami is perhaps mentioned as Vâtâpi.
The word used is vimardana, which may mean either bruising' or destroying. But the Wokkalêri grant says that, though he entered Klächi, he did not destroy it (avindiya pradiéya; Ind. Ant. Vol. VIII. p. 28, and South-Ind. Inscra. Vol. I. p. 146).
. Unless, perhaps, it is the temple, partly of Northern and partly of Dravidian style, which Dr. Burgess (loc. cit. p. 33) describes as standing close on the north side of the temple of Vijayésvara-(Samgamêsvara). But, tben, its position does not give the triangle that is required in connection with the description of the erection of the pillar (see the Text, and page 5 below, note 10).
In this year, Sravana was intercalary. For the eclipse see von Oppolzer's Canon der Finsternisse, pp. 188, 189, and Plate 94.- For Kirtivarman II. we have a later date, in A.D. 757, in the eleventh year of his reign (Ind. Ant. Vol. VIII. p. 28). The eclipse that I mention above, Answers all possible requirements; and there is no other eclipse that does so, for at least twenty years on either side of it.
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