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No. 40.]
KARHAD PLATES OF KRISHNA III.
279
Wednesday, 9th March A.D. 959, when the 13th tithi of the dark half of the amanta Phålguna commenced 2 h. 33 m. after mean sunrise. The reason why the tithi has been joined here with the day on which it commenced, very probably is this, that the nakshatra on that day (vis. on the Wednesday) was Satabhishaj; for, the conjunction of the 13th tithi of the dark half of the půrnimanta Chaitra or amanta Phålguna with the nakshatra Satabhishaj- & conjunction at which the tithi is called Våruņi- is very auspicious, so that donations etc., made on such an occasion, are as meritorious as those made at an eclipse etc."
The account of the different princes of the family is given word for word in the same verses as those occurring in the plates found at Deôli near Wardhå which have been published by me in Vol. XVIII. of the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society; and consequently the present grant, issued, as it was, eighteen years after the other, confirms the important statements contained in the latter, which have enabled us to clear all the existing difficulties in the genealogy and history of the family. There is, however, some additional information given in this grant. In the introduction, instead of the words Satyaki-vargabhajah, we have in the Karhâà plates (v. 6) turiga-yasah-prabháváh. Still the reading of the Deoli plates is not a mistake, and the family was regarded as belonging to the Satyaki branch of the Yadava race, as we have a statement to that effect in the Navasari grants, also editod by me. But the varied reading of the present grant enables me to make out that the Rashtra. kûtas sprang from a family that was known by the name of Tunga. Hence it is that 80 many of the princes have their names ending in that word. Krishna I. was called Śabhatunga; Govinda III., Jagattunga; and Sarva or Amôghavarsha, Nripatunga. Then in the description of Dantidurga we have one verse more than in the Deôli plates, in which his having wrested the supreme sovereignty for his own family from the Chilukyas is mentioned distinctly (v. 9). There is also an additional verse about Nfipatunga or Amoghavarsha, who therein is represented, as in the Navasårî grants, to have "burnt" or destroyed the Châlukya race (v. 14). In the account of Amôghavarsha, the Baddiga of the Khårêpatan grant, the father of Krishna III., we have two additional verses (22 and 23) descriptive of his virtues.
The account in the Debli plates ends with the coronation of Krishna II, ; and all that he is therein represented to have done, he did while he was a Kumara, or crown-prince, and janak-djña-vada, i.e. acting under his father's orders, or subordinate to him. In the present grant there is one verse more about him in this part, in which he is represented to have conquered Sahasrarjuna, who was an elderly relative of his mother and his wife (v.25). Sahasrarians is the mythical hero to whom the Kalaohuri rulers of Chôdi traced their descent. and who, in the story in the Mahabharata, is represented to have killed Jamadagni, the father of Paragurama, and in revenge to have had his thousand arms out of by the latter. Very likely, the rulers of Chedi generally, or some of them at least particularly, were called by the name of Sahasrârjuna after their mythical ancestor, and the name Arjuna does occur in the list of the princes belonging to that family. The Sahasrårjuna, therefore, conquered by our Krishna, must have been a ruler of Chedi or must have belonged to that family. And it is also likely that he was a relative of his mother and his wife. For Amoghavarsha, the father of Krishņa, is in the Karda plates represented to have married Kandakadevi, the daughter of Yuvarija, who must have been the same as the fourth prince in the list given by Professor Kielhorn ; and it appears that Krishna himself married a lady from the same family. Who the particular prince conquered by Krishna III. was, it is difficult to say. The name Arjuna or
I "A still more auspicious conjunction is that of the same tithi with a Saturday and Satabhishaj: and an even more picions conjunction is that of the same tithi with Saturday, Satabbloha, and the Bubbayee. In the former case the tithi is enlled Mahdodrun, and in the latter Mald maadodrust."
• Ep. Ind. Vol. II. p. 304.
