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102
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. IX.
the northern side of the village of Kolchunko[nra) has been given by Us, with libations of water, with exemption from all molestation, to Our own preceptor (uuru) Srimêghacharya of the Vâsishtha gôtra, who knows the Vēdas with (their) Angas and Upårigas, in order that (Our) mother and father and Ourself might obtain merit and fame. As long as the moon, the sun, the earth and the oceans shall exist, (this grant) should be protected without distinction from their own gifts by those who desire to accumulate fame."
[Verses 2-4 contain the usual admonitions to future rulers.]
(L. 31.) (This odiot in favour of the family of Sriméghacharya was written by the illustrions Vajravarman of the Vaidya family. Let there be welfare to cows and Brahmaņas! Oin.
POSTSCRIPT. BY PROFESSOR F. KIELHOEN, C.I.E.; GÖTTINGEN. The inscription edited above by Prof. Haltzsch is dated in the 6th year of the reign of the W. Chalukya Vikramaditya I., at the time of a solar eclipse in the month Sråvaņa. From page 2 of Appendix II. to Vol. VIII. of this Journal it will be seen that this date must necessarily fall between A.D. 635 and 685; and from what we know to be the general rule regarding eclipses that are quoted in dates, we may conclude that the eclipse here referred to most probably was one that was visible at Bådêmi, the capital of the W. Chalukyas, situated in about Long. 76o and Lat. 16o.
Now it so happens that during the fifty years from A.D. 635 to 685 there was, in both the půrnimanta and the aminta month Sravaṇa, only a single solar eclipse that could have been at all visible at Bådåmi, vis, the eclipse whicb took place 3 h. 5 m. after mean sunrise of Monday, the 13th July A.D. 160. That eclipse, an annular one, was fully visible at Badami, and the 13th July A.D. 660 was the 15th of the dark half of the pirnimánta Srávaņa. We may compare expecially the solar eclipse in the date of the Pattadakal duplicate pillar inscription of the reign of the W. Chalukya Kirtivarman IL. (No. 48 of my Southern List), of the 25th June A.D. 758, which likewise took place in the půrninánta Srávaņa ; and to show that in early times the purnimanta scheme of the months was prevalent in Southern India, we may also cite the solar eclipse in the date of No. 9 of the List, which took place in the purnimanta Bhadrapada, and the solar eclipse in the date of No. 551 of the List, which took place in the půrnimanta Phålguna.
Monday, the 13th July A.D. 660 (in Saka-sachvat 582) would thus be in every way & suitable equivalent of our date; that it is its true equivalent is rendered more than probable by the date of the Nerûr plates of the queen Vijayabhattårikå (No. 23 of my Southern List). That date corresponds to the 23rd September A.D. 659, and is of the 5th year of a reigo of which hitherto it appeared doubtful whether it was the reign of Vikramaditya's eldest brother Chandråditya or of Vikramaditya himself. Since we now have a date in A.D. 660 which would be a most proper equivalent for a date of the 6th year of the reign of Vikram Aditya I., the date in A.D. 659 must surely be definitely assigned to the 5th year of the same reign, and the two dates in my opinion must be taken to prove that Vikramaditya I. commenced to reign between some time in September A.D. 654 and July A.D. 666.1
1 Dr. Fleet, in his Dynasties, p. 883, arrived at the conclusion that "we shall probably be rery close to the mark, if we place the formal commencement of his reiga somewhere in the autumn of.... A.D. 666."
