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of a tank by a certain householder (gahapatika). The only other designation besides Palumävi which the king receives here is Raño Sätavahanānam, of the King of the Satavahanas. One notices here the absence of the metronymic with which the names of the Satavahana kings are as a rule accompanied, such as Gotamiputa and others. Worthy of note also is the use of the family name Sitavaba na, a term of comparatively rare occurrence in inscriptions.
With the scanty information we have in our record about this Puļumivi an identification is preorious. There are in fact at least four kings with the name Puļumăvi (or its variants) kuowu to history, and the chronology of this dynasty is far from being satisfactorily settled. I.lr. Vincent A. Smith,' working upon the Paranic material supplied by Pargiter, gives us tentatively the following dates for the various Palumavis :
1. Puļumávi (I.), the fifteenth king of the dynasty, ruled some time before A.D. 59. 2. Palumivi (II.), Vasithiputa, came to the throne about A.D. 135, and ruled for some
thing like 28 years. 3. Puļamávi (III.), came to the throne about A.D. 163, and ruled for something like
7 years. 4. Palumävi (IV.), came to the throne about A.D. 218, and ruled for something like
7 years. For purposes of identification the Puranic king Puļumīvi (I.), of whom we know next to nothing, may be rejected on palæographic grounds. Further, if the lengths of reigns allotted to these kings in the list supplied by Mr. Vincent A. Smith happen to be correct, then the last two Puļumavis will also have to be rejected, as they are stated to have ruled only seven years each, while our inscription is dated in the eighth regnal year of the king. From this point of view the Palumåvi of our inscription will have to be identified with Visithiputa sami-Siri-Puļumāvi (II.), the [S1po] Toplanos of Ptolemy.. A large number of records dated in the reign of this king have in recent years come to light. The year of his accession to the throne is, as remarked above, put down roughly at A.D. 135. Assuming a plurality of kings with the name Puļumāvi, there is no other criterion in the inscription for identifying him further.
It was mentioned alove that the object of the inscription was to record the sinking of a reservoir (taļāka). There is, however, no reservoir or tank to be seen in the neighbourhood, to which the record may apply. But it may be remarked that the soil in the vicinity of the inscribed rock is alluvial, consisting of sand and finely powdered dast; so that the adjoining land might well at one time have formed the bed of a tank.
Among the localities mentioned in this record Satavahani-hara is particularly interesting. as it occurs once again in the Hira-Hadagalli copper-plate inscription of the Pallava king Sivaskandavarman in the slightly altered form of Satahani-rattha. I am not aware that the James of places mentioned in this grant of the Pallava king have been satisfactorily identified, so that the situation of Satahani-rattha has been, as far as I know, a matter of conjecture. The inscribed boulder bearing the present record is, however, & sure landmark, as far as the situation of the locality is concerned. If, now, the find-place of the grant, Hira-Hadagalli, which is also situated in the Bellary District, be supposed to be not far removed from the subject of that grant, which is described as being located in the Sätāhani-rattha, then the territorial
See Rapson, Catalogue of the coins of the Andhra Dynasty, etc. (London, 1908), p. clxxxix. • See Rapson, op. cit., Index V, .. . Sätavābana.
Early History of India, 3rd Edition (1914), pp. 216 f. • Rapson, op. cit., p. xxxix. . Ep. Ind., Vol. I, pp. 2 ft.
