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No. 35. ]
MANDASOR INSCRIPTION OF NARAVARMAN.
319
earliest epigraphical mention of the name of this era is to be found in the new inscription in the following words :
Srir-mmalava-gan-āmnatë prasasti krita-sajfitë.
Sir R. G. Bhandarkar has commented on this line at length in a paper contributed to the Indian Antiquaryl which appeared before my paper in which the discovery of the inscription was announced. I am afraid I am not able to agrea with his conclusions. In the first place he says that the word āmnāta means "authoritatively laid down", but the word ūmnāte is derived from the root mnd, to repeat. Therefore amnata means 'repeatedly used'. The word āmnāya from the same root means the Vēdas, which are constantly repeated. Samāmnāya and Samāmnāta occur in the beginning of the Nirukta, which is regarded as a sort of commentary on the Nighanta, which always precedes the former. The phrases mean that which is to be learnt by heart. The question of authoritativeness is to be derived from the context and not from the word.
In the second place he takes the word gana to mean a body politic or corporate body, for which I am afraid there is no warrant of so ancient a date. Gana, pūga, nigama or sangha always denote & congregation or collection, and I am afraid there is nothing in ancient literature to connect it with a political body.
The word sthiti has not been used in this inscription but it has been used in conjunction with the word gana in two other Mandasör inscriptions, viz.--
(1) Bandhuvarman's inscription of the year 493. (2) Yasodharman's inscription. Sir Ramakrishna takes it to mean "the formation",
" the condition" or "the constitution". But sthiti usually means convention or tacit consent, and this is supported by the phrase gana-sthits-vasat kilajnandya likhitēshu, i.e., written for the knowledge of the time owing to the tacit consent of the gana or congregation of the Mālavas. Kalajtiānāya means for fixing the
date. Vaša here means owing to. Both Sir Ramakrishna and Mr. D. R. Bhandarkar have taken krita as another name of all the years of the era used in this inscription. Krita is, however, the name of the first year of a oycle of years, which was used in the Vedic Period. Now this Vedio cyole seems to have been continued in use in the country surrounding Mandasor in the 5th century A.D., though Mr. Shamasastry asserts that it had gone out of use in the 12th century B.C. The word has been found in three inscriptions :
(1) The Bijayagadh pillar of Varika Vishnuvardhana, the year 428. (2) The new Mandasör inscription of the year 461.
(8) The Gangdhär inscription of Visvavarman of the year 480.
Our supposition that the year krita is the first year of a cycle of four years, becomes tenable if the year of the Malava-Vikrama era to which it is applied, is divisible by four after the sabtraction of one. Now this is so in two cases out of three. In the now Mandagor inscription the number of years are divisible by four after the deduction of one. The date of the Gangdbar insoription is an expired year, as is indicated by the words yātēshrs and söttarapadoshu; yatëshu means "expired', and sõttarapädeshu means 'when one quarter had expired', and 1 Vol. XLII, pp. 199 f.
* Ibid., pp. 217 . See also D. R. Bhandarkar, Progress Report of the Archaelogical Survey, Western Circle, 1912-13, p. 68. • Gupta Issor., PP. 150 ft.
See also Dr. Thomas, Journal Roy. ds. 800., 1914, p. 418, and Dr. Fleet, ibidem, pp. 746 t. . B. Shamasastry's Gapamayana, p. 4
