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No. 32.]
SHOLINGHUR INSCRIPTION OF PARANTAKA I.
221
of the original date, there can be no doubt; but it must be pointed out that the tithi quoted in the date, the 9th tithi of the dark half, when calculated by our tables, had ended 51 minutes before mean sunrise of Monday, the 4th December A.D. 1189, instead of ending after sunrise. In my opinion the irregularity is so slight that in this particular instance it rather tends to confirm the correctness of our general result.
The results obtained under Nos. 17-19 are in such perfect agreement that they may be looked upon as certain; and they prove that the 21st November A.D. 1197, the equivalent of the date No. 16, fell in the 20th, not the 19th year of the king's reign. And the general result arrived at is, that the first year of the reign of Kulottunga-Chola III. commenced some time between the 5th December A.D. 1177 and the loth September A.D. 1178 (both days inclusive).
No. 32.- SHOLINGHOR ROCK-INSCRIPTION OF PARANTAKA I.
BY E. HULTZSCH, PA.D. Sholinghur is the Anglo-Indian name of a town in the North Arcot district, and of a Railway station which is situated at a distance of about 7 miles from the town near the village of Bâņavaram. We present Tamil name of the town, solangipuram, is probably connected with the Chola dynasty, to which the subjoined inscription refers. The Tamil work Guruparamparaprabhava* uses the Sanskrit form Chôlasimhapura. A modern temple of Siva in the town bears the name Chôļapurisvara, which yields another Sanskrit designation of the place, viz. Chôlapura. A neighbouring hill bears & temple of Anjaneya, which contains & Telugn inscription of Ramadeva of Penngonda, dated Saka-Samvat 1542, the Raudra samvatsara. A hard climb of one hour takes the visitor to the top of a still higher bill, which bearg a temple of Narasimha. This temple is noticed in the Náláyiraprabandha, the Guruparampardprabhata, and the Vitvagunadarfa (verses 289 to 297). The names by which these works designate the hill, are Kadigai in Tamil and Ghatikáchals in Sansksit. The only two inscriptions of the temple belong to the time of the third Vijayanagara dynasty. Angther temple of Narasimha in the town itself contains a number of inscriptions of the later kings of Vijayanagara, from which it appears that the term Ghatikáchala was then applied to this temple as well as to the one on the hill.
Close to the town, on the south-east corner of a large tank, rises a rocky hill, which is known es Sudukattumalai on account of its proximity to the burning-ground (Judua-kádu) of Sholioghur. At the base of this hill, a large piece of rock rests on two bonlders, thus forming a sort of massive natural door-way. On the inner side of one of the two boulders the subjoined
Calculated by Prof. Jacobi's Special Tables, the distance of the moon from the sun, at mean sunrise of Monday, the 4th December A.D. 1189, was by the Arya-siddhanta 288° 37' 25", by the Surya-sidd henta 289° 5' 6", and by the Brahma-siddhanta 289° 47' 58".
See the Manual of the North Arcot District, second edition, Vol. II. p. 435 ff., and Mr. Sewell's Lists of Antiquities, Vol. I. p. 163.
* This name is perhaps a survival from the time of the Baņa dynasty. • See my First Report on Sanskrit Manuscripts, p. vi. f.
• Wilson's Mackenzie Collection, p. 134, mentions the Ghatikdchalamdhalmya, legendars account of this will in the Sanskrit language. Vedhala Venkatacharyn invokes " Nrisimha, the bugband of Amrita phalavalls, who resides on Ghati kadri," at the beginning of his commentary on the Tarkasangraha, and Doddayacharya invokes
Chatikadharadharandra" at the beginning of his Chand amdruta; nee Nos. 975 and 1682 in my Second Report os Sanskrit Manuscripta.
A slab which the temple people have utilised for a bench, bears a long inscription in Chola characters: but the first line, which contained the name of the king, has been out away.
