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frequent name for village gateways: it is found elsewhere as Srivagil or Śrivägilu in the Naregal inscription which purports to be dated in A.D. 950,1 and as Sirivagil or Sirivägilu in the Kalboli inscription of A.D. 1204 and the Saundatti inscription of A.D. 1228,
The local governor Ahavaditya-Kuppeya is mentioned as simply Kuppeya, again as governing the Purigere nag, in the Mantrawaḍi inscription of Amoghavarsha I of A.D. 865.* He is also mentioned as the Mahasamanta Ahavaditya-Kuppeyarasa, again as governing the same district, in another inscription of Amoghavarsha at Soraṭar dated in A.D. 866-67.4 This latter record also states the name of his family; but unfortunately the word is even still more damaged there than in our present inscription.
The date of this record is unsatisfactory; perhaps as a result of the record having not been framed exactly at the time mentioned in it. The given details are the cyclic year Virodhin the eighth tithi of the bright fortnight of Ashaḍha; Brihaspativāra (Thursday). The Saka year is not stated. But we know that this Virodhin samvatsara, as a mean-sign astronomical year, according to the First Arya-Siddhanta began on 26 August, A.D. 868, and ended on 22 August, A.D. 869, and according to the Original Sarya-Siddhanta began on 11 September, A.D. 868, and ended on 7 September, A.D. 869. According to the luni-solar system of the cycle (not yet separated into the northern and southern varieties), being current at the Mesha-samkranti in March, A.D. 869, it gave its name to the Saka year 791 expired, A.D. 869-70. In any case, therefore, this month Ashadha fell in A.D. 8€9. But in this year the given tithi Ashadha sukla 8 ended at closely about 23 h. 39 m. after mean sunrise for Ujjain, and a little more than one minute earlier for Soratür itself, on Monday, 20 June, and cannot in any way be connected with a Thursday. Accordingly, the date must be set aside as irregular Curiously enough, in the Soraṭur inscription of A.D. 951, mentioned on p. 176 above, the text gives the Virodhin samvatsara by an undeniable mistake for Viradhikrit. But au assumption of the same mistake in our present record would not holp us. If the assumption were made, the samvatsara would be the Virodhikrit which gave its name to the Saka year 753 expired, A.D. 831-32, and which began and ended at such times in A.L. 830 and 831 that the month Ashadha would fall in any case in A.D. 831: but in this year the tithi Ashadha sukla 8 ended at about 11 h. 7 m, on Wednesday, 21 June, and again cannot in any way be connected with a Thursday.
The only place-name mentioned in this record is that of the Purigere nad. The mention of it tacitly but distinctly places Soratur, as the village from which the record comes, in this district. Another well-known form of the name of this district is Puligere: the earlier form Porigere also is met with: and the name is found Sanskritized as Purikara and Puli. kara. This district is well known, from many records, as a three-hundred district, that is as comprising actually or conventionally three hundred cities, towns and villages; and it and the neighbouring Blvola three-hundred are sometimes mentioned collectively, without names, as erad-aru-nuru, "the two (which make together a) six-hundred ". The town Porigere, Purigere, Puligere, from which the Purigere three-hundred took its name, is the modern Lakshmeshwar, an outlying town of the Senior Miraj State within the limits of the Dharwar District, situated about twelve miles towards the south-west from Soraṭir, and shown in the same Atlas map in
1 Journ. Bomb. Br. R. As. Soc., vol. 11, p. 242, 1. 42, trans., p. 246.
2 Id., vol. 10, p, 226, 1. 60, trans., p. 238; and p. 268, 1, 67, trans., p. 282.
Vol. 7 above, p. 201.
See vol. 6 above, p. 107, note 4: I quote this record from an ink-impression.
See my note on " Ancient Territorial Divisions of India" in Jour. R. As. Soc., 1912, p. 707.
See, eg, the Gundür inscription of A.D. 973, Ind. Ant., vol. 12, p. 271. In the Nilgund inscription of A.D. 982 a different expression is used, namely, dei-trisatam, "the two three-hundreds" : vol. 4 above, p. 207.
