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62
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. VI.
Ranavikramayya is taken from the Galigêkere grant. This is another obviously spurious record. It does not include any date, Saka or regnal; and, so, the proposed date of "about A.D. 890" is purely conjectural.
We revert to Mr. Rice's Nitimârga, with the proposed period "A.D. ? 893 to ? 915." Here, the initial date is based on an inscription at Honnâyakanhalli, which was understood to give "reason to suppose his reign began in Saka 815 (A.D. 893);" and the final date is based on an inscription at Iggali, which, however, is dated in the twenty-second year, not of a Nitimârga, but of a Satyavâkya, and therefore does not apply to the case at all. The suggestion has been thrown out, that this Nitimârga may be either Ranavikramayya or B ûtarasa-(Bûtuga I.), or both of them. And to this Nitimârga Mr. Rice has referred, in addition to the Iggali inscription (in reality, a record of a Satyavâkya), an inscription at Gaṭṭavâḍis (again, in reality, a record of a Satyavákya, and not of a Nitimârga), dated in the fifth regnal year, erroneously supposed, in consequence of confusing the appellations, to be A.D. 898,- another inscription at the same place," a record of really a Nitimârga, and dated in his fifth year, and therefore referred to A.D. 898,- and an inscription at Külagere, also a record of really a Nitimârga, dated Saka-Samvat 831 (expired), A.D. 909-910, without any details of the month, etc., and without any mention of the renal year.
Next after this Nitimârga Mr. Rice has placed a Satyavákya, whom he has identified with Ereyappa ; and to him he has assigned an inscription at Malligere," which refers itself to the rule of a Satyavâkya, without disclosing his proper name, and gives for him the date of SakaSamvat 828 (expired), A.D. 906-907, without any details of the month, etc., or of the regnal year. For this Satyavâkya-Ereyappa, he has proposed various other dates ranging from "about A.D. 900" to "about A.D. 925."10 These are based on records which do not include any Saka dates, and, mostly, not even regnal dates; so that the proposed dates A.D. are purely conjectural. And we need notice only one of those records here. It is an inscription at Jinnahalli, which refers itself to the seventh year of a Satyavâkya, whose proper name it does not disclose: Mr. Rice has identified this Satyavâkya with Ereyappa, and has consequently placed this record "A.D. ? 900:" but the record mentions this Satyavâkya by also the biruda of Guttiyaganga; Guttiyaganga was Satyavâkya-Nolambântaka-Mârasimha II. ;12 and the true date of this record is, therefore, A.D. 969-70.
Next after Ereyappa, we have the name of his son Rachamalla I., who was killed by Bûtuga II. in or before A.D. 940. In respect of Râchamalla, Mr. Rice has said13 that ". we "must apparently understand that on the death of Ereyappa, Râchamalla and Bûtuga were "rival claimants to the throne, and that the former did not actually reign, or if he did, only for "a short time." The only record, as yet brought to notice, referable actually to the life-time of this Râchamalla, is an inscription at Hiranandi. It does not contain any date, Saka or regnal. But Mr. Rice has proposed to place it "about A.D. 930." And he has suggested that, by this record, "we seem to be let into the plot by which Batuga endeavoured to get Râchamalla "into his power. He sent an officer to invite him to come to Manne, the royal residence, that "they might make a division of the country and the treasury. But Batuga, as we know, was "not to be trusted. His envoy was therefore met by five feudal chiefs and the headmen with the
1 Ep. Carn. Vol. IV., Yd. 60, with a lithograph.
Ep. Carn. Vol. III. Introd. p. 4.
Ep. Carn. Vol. III., Nj. 139; for the attribution of this record to Nitimârga, see Introd. p. 4, as well as the Classified List after p. 36.
Ep. Carn. Vol. IV. Introd. p. 11.
Ep. Carn. Vol. III., Nj. 97.
Ibid. Nj. 98.
1 Ep. Carn. Vol. III., Ml. 30.
Ep. Carn. Vol. III. Introd. p. 4, and Vol. IV. Introd. p. 11.
9 Ep. Carn. Vol. IV., Kp. 38.
See above, Vol. V. pp. 168, 180.
14 Ep. Cars. Vol. IV., Hg. 116.
11 Ibid. Hg. 110.
11 Ep. Carn. Vol. III. Introd. p. 5.
15 Ibid. Introd. p. 12; see also the translation of the record.
10 Ibid. the Classified List.
