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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[Vol. III.
was made while that glorious king Satyagraya of the prospering Chalakya lineage was raling over Rattapâţi, i.e. the dominions of the Rattas (or Rashtrakūtas).
The genealogy of Rattaraja is given in verses 11-21. There was the regent of the Vidyadharas, Jima taketu's son Jimatavahana, who (to save the serpent Sankhachada) offered his life to Garuda. From him sprang the prosperous and powerful Sildra family, a family foremost among the rulers of Simhala. [To this family belonged ]:1. [8a]ņaphulla, a favourite of king Krishna; he acquired the country from the
sea-shore up to the Sahya mountains. His son wag2. Dhammiyara, the founder of the great stronghold Valipattans; his son3. Aiyaparkja, endowed with the qualities of a conqueror, who was bathed with the
water of the cocoanuts near Chandrapura; his son4. Avasara [1.], who, well versed in politics and of fierce valour, singly subdued a
multitude of enemies (P);" his son
Adityavarman ; his son6. Avasara (II.), a prince (wripa) who conquered his enemies and sided the rulers born
at Chêmúlya and Chandrapura; his son7. Indraraja; bis son8. Bhima, who distinguished himself by seizing the Chandra district (mandala), as
RÁhu swallows the moon's orb; his son, the king (rdjan)9. Avasara (III.); and his son, the king (rájan)10. Ratta.
To the above abstract of the contents of verses 11-21 I cannot add much of importance. Others have pointed out already that this particular branch of the Silara (Šilara, or Silâhâra) family, of which no other inscription has yet been published, apparently was established in the Southern Konkan. The two other branches of the same family, the Silaras of the Northern Kotkan and the Silâhâras of the country around Kolhapur, also trace their origin to the mythical Jimataváhana; but only the present inscription conneots the Silara vama with the rulers of Simhala, or Ceylon. How much value should be attached to this statement, it is difficult to decide. In making it, the author perhaps only wished to give expression to the prevalent belief that the family had come from the South; but it also seems possible that the word Sinhala has been brought in here merely on account of its resemblance to the word Sudra. Of the ten chiefs enumerated, none, 80 far as I know, is mentioned in other inscriptions. It is true that in the Kharepatan plates of the Bildra Anantadêva 8 a prince
1 See page 299 below, note 1. • In the original there is nothing corresponding to the words in brackets.
+ I do not understand the exact siguificance of this ceremony. The meaning perbape is that Aiyaparkja gained a victory at Chandrapura. Compare the Raghuvanda, iv. 41 and 42.
See page 299 below, note 10.
See Dr. Bhagvanlal Indraji in Jour#. Bo. do. 8oo. Vol. XIII. p. 14; Dr. Fleet's Kanarsse Dynasties. p. 98; and Dr. Bhandarkar's Early History of the Dekkas, p. 98.
In the Ind. Ant. Vol. IX. p. 88, note 47, the late Mr. Telang has stated that somebody bad furnished bim with transcript (not the original) of an unpublished plate which belonged to the branch of the Silarae here treated of, and which, like the present inscription, began with the Raabtraktas and ended with the Sildra. Regarding one of the princo mentioned in it, that plate contained the statement : abdhi-oddkwlan ramya ydakaród-Palipatlanan, and in another passage of the inscription Valipattand was also called Valinagara.
7 it has been already suggested that Seldra and Sildidra probably are Sanskritised forms of Sildra. and that this word may be of Dravidian originnee the Bombay Gazetteor, Vol. XIIL Pp. 198 and 780. Names like Dhammiyara and Aiyapardja also point to a southera origin of the family.
# See Ind. Ant. Vol. IX. p. 86.
