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256
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XII.
The details of the date of this record (lines 32-5) are, the Saka year 948 expired, the Kshaya samvatsara; the fifteenth tithi of the bright fortnight of Karttika; Ravi, i.e. Ravivåra (Sunday); an eclipse of the sun. The date is an irregular one; because, on even a preliminary point of course there cannot be an eclipse of the sun on the fifteenth tithi of the bright fortnight, i.e. at the fall-moon. For the rest the position is as follows:1-The Kshnya samvatsara in question began, as a Chaitrādi lunar year according to the southern lanisolar system of the cycle, on 22 March A.D. 1026. The full-moon tithi of Kårttika answered in that year to 28 October, on which day it ended at 18 hrs. 18 min. after mean sunrise, 1.e. 18 min. after midnight, (for Ujjain); but the day was a Friday (not a Sunday as stated): there was a large eclipse of the moon, visible in India ; but, as has been said, the record specifies an eclipse of the sun. The new-moon tithi of Kärttika answered in that same year to 12 November, on which day it ended at about 1 hr. 38 min. after mean sunrise (for Ujjain); but the day was a Saturday (not a Sunday): there was an annular eclipse of the sun; but it was not visible in Indias; and, as has been said, the record specifies the foll-moon tithi. In these circumstances, while the intended date seems to have been either 28 October or 12 November A.D. 1020, and while there may be a preference in favour of the earlier date because of the eclipse which certainly occurred visibly then, we cannot decide which of these two days was really meant; because the week-day is not right from either point of view.
Of the local places mentioned in this record, the first is a town named Puri, which is marked as the chief town of a province consisting of fourteen hundred villages (line 20 f.) : it and its province are thus referred to in the record with a view to locating in a general way the village at which the grant was made. Various proposals have been made to identify Puri: but the name is too vague for any certain conclusion to be arrived at. An iden, however, as to the position and extent of the fourteen-hundred province of which it was the chief town, is got as follows. As will be seen, the places mentioned in the present record were in the Sålsette taluka of the Thana District. Further, in the Thana plates of A.D. 10175 there is the same reference as in our present record to "the fourteen hundred villages headed by Puri": and at any rate one of the villager granted by that record, namely Cbāvinára, can be identified (see p. 260 below), and is found in the Bhiwndi talaka of the same district, immediately on the north-east of the Salsette täluka. Again, the Bhādåna giant of A.D. 9976 places in the Mahiribära vishaya of what it calls "the Konkan marked out by fourteen hundred villages" the village Bhädāna, which is about seven miles farther on towards the east-north-east in the Bhiwņdi taluka. And the record on the Khárēpatan plates of A.D. 1095, which makes the same reference that we have in our present record to the whole land of the Konkana and the fourteen hundred villages beaded by Parl, shows by its statements in lines 77-9 that the Puri province included the ports of Sthanaka, Nägapurs, Surpäraka, and Chēmüli or Chêmülya, which it says, were "on the coasts in the Kunkana
Compare Professor Kielhorn's examination of this date in Ind. Asf., vol. 24, p. 13, No. 179. • Sewell, Eclipses of the Moon in India, table E, p. 23. • Von Oppolzer, Canon der Finsternisse, p. 214, and plate 107.
see Dyn. Kas. Distrs., p. 294. . See p. 252 above, note 2, No. 306. • See p. 262 above, note 2, No. 305. * See p. 262 above, note 2, No. 309.
# In this passage this name may be taken either as Chēmüli (48 was practically done by Mr. Telang, who, however, wrote "Chemuli"), or as Chēmulya: but it is given plainly us Cbomulya in lines 29 and 57 of the Kbiropátan plates of the Southern Silähira prince Rattarāja ; ante, vol. 3, p. 297. The place is of considerable antiguity and repate, and is mentioned a Chēmula (perhaps for Chemula) in early inscriptions at Kanhöri; Lüdors, List of the Brahmi Inscriptions, ante, vol. 10, appendix, Nos. 996, 1033. For some twenty different corraptions of the name in foreign writings, beginning with the Simylla and Timouls of Ptolemy, see the Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, vol. 11, Kolába and Janjira, p. 269.
