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No. 14.]
KANKER INSCRIPTION OF BHANU DEVA.
129
As the date cannot be verified, it would be useless to indulge in further speculations. To me the wording of it seems certainly to be suspicious. And I can only say that, assuming the figures for the year to be correct and the date to be really a Saka date, it would correspond the purnim dnta Jyaishtha, to Monday, the 28th April A.D. 1320, and for the amanta Jyaishe. AB stated by Mr. Hira Lal, to Tuesday, the 27th, or Wednesday, the 28th May, A.D. 1320.
Of the two copper-plate inscriptions of Pamparaja, one is clearly dated as follows:[L. 7] . . . . . . . . . . . . . Isyara(L. 8] samvatsarê Kârtika-misê Chitra-rikshê Ravi-dinê suryOparêgê [L. 10] . . . . . sarvat 966 . .
i.e." in the Isvara year, at an eclipse of the sun on a Sunday, in the nakshatra Chitra in the month Karttika, . . . . in the yeur 966."
I have no doubt that the year 966 of this date must be referred to the Kalachuri era.
In Festgruss an Roth, p. 53 ff., I have tried to prove from the 12 dates between the years 793 and 958, which hitherto have been available, that the Kalachuri (Chedi) era commenced on the 5th September A.D. 248, that the years were Asvinadi years and the months půrnimánta months, and that therefore, to convert an expired Kalachuri year into an expired year of the Kaliyuga, we must add 3349 when the date falls in the bright half of Åsvina or in any month from Karttika to Phâlguna, and 3350 in all other cases. Applying this here, we find that our date, for the půrnimunta Karttika of the expired Kalachuri year 966 = Kaliyuga expired 966 +3349=1315, regularly corresponds to Sunday, the 6th October A.D. 1214, when the 15th tithi of the dark half ended 3 h. 33 m., and when the nakshatra was Chitra, by the equal space system and according to Garga for 2 h. 38 m., after mean suprise. On the same day there was a total eclipse of the sun, the greatest phase of wbich at Kanker (in about Long. 82o and Lat. 20%) was four digits.
It will, I think, be generally admitted that Sunday, the 6th October A.D. 1214, undoubtedly is the proper equivalent of our date; but, in connection with this date, the writer apparently has wrongly quoted the year fśvara instead of the immediately following year Bahudhânya. By the northern mean-siga system Isvara lasted from the 2nd September A.D. 1212 to the 29th August A.D. 1213. By the northern luni-solar system therefore Isvara was the proper name of Kaliyuga 4314 expired, and not of the year of our date, vis. Kaliyuga 4315 expired, which according to the northern luni-solar system, as already intimated, would have received the name Bahudhanya. For the present, I can ascribe the error only to the writer's carelessness, but the error is of such a nature that it confirms rather than invalidates our general result.
The date of the other copper-plate of Pamparaja I read thus :[L. 9]. . . . samvata | 965 Bhadrapadé vadi 1[O] (L. 10] Mriga-rikshê Soma)-dinê
Here everything is perfectly clear and certain in the impression excepting the number of the tilhi and the second akshara of the name of the weekday. As regards the latter, it appears to
1 If the ysar were 1244 (instead of 1242), it might be taken to be a Kalachuri year, in wbich case the date would have fallen in R Raudra year. I do not mean to suggest hereby that the inscription could be assigned to 50 late a period (A.D. 1492-93).
The 5th tithi commenced 1 h. 4 m. before mean sunrise of the Tuesday and ended 0 h. 30 m. after mesa sun. rise of the Wedneslay.
Between A.D. 1201 and 1250 this is the only solar eclipse in the month Kárttiks that could bave been visible at kanker.
Mr. Hira Lal quite lately has sent me for calculation a date from the Central Provinces, which c ould corresponds to Weduesday, the 5th October A.D. 1065. According to the original date, this day should fall in the year Parabhava': but by the northerri luni-solar system it would fall in the year Plavanga which follows imme dintely upon Parabhava, and by the southern system in the year Visvavasu which immediately precedes Parabhava
