Epigraphia Indica Vol 08

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

Page 65

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(Vol. VIII
Râchamalla of the Chikmaga!år record. And, as has been shown by me in Vol. VI. above, p. 69, it is a record of Nitimårga-Ereyappa.
And as regards the Hire-Basûr inscription (2), in the first place, the extant remnant of its date may be understood to mean Saka-Samvat 922 (expired), in A.D. 1000, quite as well as S.-S. 822 (expired), in A.D. 900.And in the second place, its date cannot be A.D. 899 or 900); because there was then ruling, not a Nitimârga, but Satyavákya-Batuga I.: see my remarks in Vol. VI. above, p. 68 f., and my Table, ibid. p. 59. It is highly probable that the Hire-Bâsür inscription really is another record of the Nîtimârga-Rachamalla of the Chikmagalur record ; but, if so, then its date is certainly S.-S. 922 expired, in A.D. 1000.
There remains the Hirêmaga!ûr inscription (3), the published text of which gives a Nitimârga), with the biruda of Jayadutta(ramga]. It is quite possible that this is another record of the Nîtimârga-R&chamalla of the Chikmaga!ûr inscription. But that point depends a good deal upon whether the biruda which has been read in it as Jayadutta[ranga] should rather be read Jayadanka[kâra), or whether a biruda in an inscription at Elkúru in the Mysore district (Ep. Carn. Vol. IV., Ch. 10; and see note 4 on page 56 below), which has been presented to us as Jayadankakara, should rather be read Jayadattaranga. And, in any case, this Hiremagalûr andated record does not help us to arrive at a date for the Chikmagalur record.
In coming now to my own determination of the real period of this Chikmagalûr inscription, I may premise that this is not the first occasion on which I have had the matter ander consideration. In August, 1899, Mr. Rice sent me the texts of the dates of this inscription, and of the spurious Jávali copper-plate record (Ep. Carn. Vol. VI., Mg. 36) which purports to register a giant made by Sripurusha-(Muttarasa) in his twenty-fifth regnal year, on a specified Coasion in the month Vaisakha, Saka-Samvat 672 expired. I had not then received the photograph of the Chikmagalûr inscription. All that I could say at that time, was, that the inscription might be a record of the Rachcha-Ganga who ruled between Batuga II. and Marasimha II.; that is to say, between A.D. 949-50 and 963-64 as matters then stood, but, as we know now (see Vol. VI. above, pp. 59, 71), between A.D. 953 and 963-64. Disregarding the nakshatra, and calculating for the full-moon, I found that the only possible result, for that period, is Monday, 5th November, A.D. 960, on which day the full-moon tithi, of the second Kerttika if we take Karttika itself as the intercalary month, or of the only Kårttika if we take Bhadrapada as the intercalary month, began at about 4 hrs. 41 min. after mean sunrise (for Ujjain). This result was not altogether satisfactory, inasmuch as there was no apparent reason why the tithi should have been used with the day opon which it began. But I communicated the result, such as it was, to Mr. Rice, in September, 1899, and sent him at the same time the result for the Javali date, the details of which are quite correct for Monday, 20th April, A.D. 750. And this leads me into a short digression, for which I must be excused. Mr. Rice has not mentioned the suggestion that I then made about the Chikmagaļur record; which, however, is not a matter of any importance. But he has quoted my result for the Jâvali date, in Ep. Oarn. Vol. VI. Introd. p. 7, and note l. It is not, however, to be thought, though it might easily be so imagined from the way in which the matter is there put, -that the opinion is mine, that the date of Sripurusha-Muttarasa is now fixed by this result of my own calculations (see loc. cit. p. 29, line 23 f.), or that "this confirmation of an exact date is important” (loc. cit. p. 7, line 5 f.). There are the facts, that, amidst all the mass of information about Mysore which we have now available in Vols. III. to VII. and XI. of Mr. Rice's Epigraphia Carnatica, and in his books entitled Mysore Insoriptions, Coorg Inscriptions, and Inscriptions at Sravana-Belgola, the earliest instance that is forthcoming, of the use of the Saka era in Western Ganga records the authenticity of which is or seems to be
It could equally well menn Saks-Sarhvat 722 (expired), in A.D. 800, but for a point, stated by me on page 56 below, about the period of the adoption of the Saks era in the Western Gange records.