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state of things prevailed in other old vernaculars. The use of two diff-rent l-sounds in a series of modern Indo-Aryan tongues, however, shows that it must at some period have spread over wider area : and it would be of interest if we could find out when this new state of things had becomo established in the different places. It is not, however, possible to arrive at certain results.
There cannot, so far as I see, be any doubt that the use of two different signs for 1 in Boine Indian inscriptions, of which the one represents an old initial or doubled 1, the other an old single l between vowels, can only be explained in the light of the modern vernaculars just referred to, the more so because these inscriptions hail from territories in which at the present day Marathi and Gujarati are spoken. But the difficulty is to decide when these grants were engraved.
With regard to the spurious Valabhi and Gurjara grants it is as yet impossible to arrive at certainty. We may state with confidence that they are later than the Kaira plauos of Dadda II Praśüntariga (A.D. 628 and 633), from which the writer's name Röva or Rēvaditya has probably been taken. The Sanjän plates, on the other hand, parport to have been issued during the reign of the Western Chalukya Vikramaditya I, on the occasion of an eclipse of the sun on the new moon day of Pausha. Now we know! "that Vikramaditya I commenced to reign between some time in September A.D. 654 and July A.D. 655," and his son Vinayaditya must have ascended the throne about A.D. 680. I have consulted Professor Jacobi about the eclipses of the sun which were visible in Western India during this period, and he has kindly informed me that the only one that suits the case is the one that occurred on the 7th December A.D. 671. Of the other eclipses which, according to the Párnimänta system, might come into consideration, viz. those of the 18th December A.D. 670, the 25th November A.D. 672 and the 27th November A.D. 680, the first and the last were not visible in India, and the eclipse of A.D. 672 was too unimportant. Professor Kielhorn has shown that in early times the Pūrņimanta system was in use in Southern India. The intended date would accordingly be the 7th December A.D. 671. And it would be possible to date the spurious Gurjars grants about the same time. It is in this connection of interest that the name of the writer of the Sanjän grant is Ròvagana ; compare Rova, Rēväditya of the Gurjara grants. As we shall see, however, there are so many indications showing that the Sanjān plates are not gonuine, that their dato cannot be relied on. On the other hand I see no reason for assigning them to a much later date, and we may provisionally state that the cerebralisation of an ancompound intervocalio l in the Western Marathi country can be dated back to about A.D. 700.
The orthography of the Sanjin grant is rather careless. Thus we find an for a in -bhayannēka-, 1. 15 : i for a in -īnviyah., 1. 29: i for i in mahipati., 1. 11; mahipalana., l. 16; samakalinah, 1. 29 : for u in - Palakëti-, 1.9: si forri in kriy, 1.32 : for a in-bhayannēka-, 1. 15: kt for tt in dakta., 11. 5, 21, 27, 36, 38; kifichiktula, 1. 6: ga for sa in -garira, 1. 7: na for na in - Harinā, 1. 4; Ambārāmēna, l. 21; pratihäröna, 1. 24 : * for an in Matridina, 1. 23 : pu for hu in - Napusha-, 1.7: bhi for dhi in rajabhiraja-, 1. 13 : ya for vya in pitriyo, 1. 14 : sa for sha in -abhiriktäna, 1. 3. A consonant after an ris doubled in kartlikeya-, l. 4; =Arjjuna., 1. 12 ; -karkkas-, 1. 12; sarvo-, 11. 18, 19; nivartta-, 1. 20; pūrurēna, I. 25; -maryyadā, 1. 26 ; saruvādānam, 1. 27; -ārkka-, 1. 28; -chaturuvēdasya, 1. 31; -ksiyotsarppanartthan, 1.32; udakātisarggēna, 1. 34; bahubhiprovasudhā, 1. 34; bhumihartta, 1. 38; pūrova-, 1. 38, but not in - Arjunas, 1. 12, -chaturdanta-, 1. 15, and, of course, not in - Hursha, 1. 8. Letters and syllables have not rarely been omitted. Compare yāva for yāvat, 1. 25; yatna for yatnad, 1. 38; -rifēsha-for-niksēsha-, 1. 12; Dvāsagrāmyā for Dvādasagrāmya, 1. 19.; -adhikari for -ddhikarinah, 1. 18, and perhaps Madanangāfrayal for brimad-Anamgāšrayal, 1. 17. A superfluous
Ep. Ind., Vol. IX, p. 102.
Ep. Ind., Vol. IX, p. 102.
