Epigraphia Indica Vol 06

Author(s): E Hultzsch
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 14

No. 1.]
AIHOLE INSCRIPTION OF PULIKESIN II.
in the Godavari district; after that, in verse 28, comes his occupation of the water of Kundla ;' this again is followed, in verse 29, by his defeat of the Pallava ruler near Kanchipura; and in verse 30 he crosses the river Kåvêri. Palikesin's march of conquest therefore is from the north to the south, along the east coast of Southern India, and the localities mentioned follow each other in regular succession from the north to the south. This in my opinion shews that the water of Kanala' can only be the well-known Kolloru lako, which is sonth of Pithapuram, between the rivers Godavari and Křishna. To that lake the description of the water of Kunkļa,' given in the poem, would be applicable even at the present day; and we know from other inscriptions that the lake contained at least one fortified island which more than once has been the object of attack. In the Chellûr platest of the reign of the Eastern Chalnkys Kulottuðga-Chôda II. of Saka-Samvat 1056 (exactly five hundred years after the date of the present inscription) we are told that in the Vengi-mandala there is a great lake in which, like Vishnu's city Dvårakå in the ocean, is a town named Sarasipuri, unconquerable by enemies, and that at the time of the inscription that town was possessed or governed by Kåtama-Nayaka of Kolanu, a Telugu word meaning 'lake,' which according to other inscriptions must undoubtedly be connected with the Kolleru lake, and which in my opinion is identical with Kunala.3
Regarding the date of the inscription as given in verses 33 and 34, I have nothing to ad to what Dr. Fleet already has stated about it. It corresponds, for the expired year 3735 of the Kaliyuga, here described as the year 3735 since the Bharata war, and-which is the same--for Saka-Samvat 556 expired, to A.D. 634-35.
Important as this inscription is as an historical document, to myself it seems almost more interesting from a literary point of view. The statement in verse 37 that it rises its anthor to the level of Kalidasa and Bharavi, is surely an exaggeration, but in my opinion this poem indubitably places him in the very front rank of court-poets and writers of prasastis. Ravikirti is thoroughly conversant with the rules of the Alankára-sastra, and like a true dakshinatya, he is unsurpassed in some of his utprekshås. He is familiar with the works of India's greatest poets, and seems to have especially profited by the study of that most perfect poem of Kalidasa's, the Raghuvansa. That this kávya of Kalid&ea's about A.D. 600 was wellknown in widely distant parts of India, and even beyond the confines of India proper, there can be no doubt now. I have elsewhere* had occasion to shew that one of its verses (XII. 1) has been present to the mind of the author of the Bodh-Gay& inscription of Mahanaman, dated in A.D. 588. I have also drawn attention to the fact that another verse of the same poem (VI. 23) has been imitated in one of the Någårjuni Hill cave inscriptions of the Maukhari Anantavarman, which for paleographic reasons cannot be placed later than the first half of the sixth century. Besides, so far as I can judge, part at least of the text of the Raghuramsa was
1 See Ind. Ast. Vol. XIV. p. 57.
See Dr. Holtzach, above, VOL IV. p. 37, and South-Ind. Inscr. Vol. II. p. 308.
• We may compare (see Hémachandra's Prikrit Grammar, II. 116 ff.) didnanila, Achalapura Alachapura, karini-kaniri, etc.-Kundfa very probably is the Kundla of the grammarians, which according to Ulivaladatta is the name of loonlity, and according to Hémachandra (Unddigana 476) the name of a town. Moreover, notwithstanding the difference of spelling, I have no doubt whatever that the Kaunda of onr inscription is identical with the Kaurdlaka in line 19 of the Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudraguptu (upta Inser. D.), which in that inscription is enumerated immediately before Paishta puraka, just as in the present inscription the jalah Kaundam is mentioned immediately after Pishtapura. (An antiquated statement, lately repeated in the Bombay Gssettoor, Vol. I. Part I. p. 63, induces me to add that by the inspection of an excellent estampage I have convinced myself that Kaurdjaka, as published by Dr. Fleet, is the true reading in Samudra. gupta's inscription).
See Ind. Ant. Vol. XX. p. 190, and Gupta Inscr. p. 276. . See Ind. Ant. Vol. XX. p. 190, and Gupta Inscr. p. 224.