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334
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XIV.
We have seen already that the Pallava Vishnugopa is mentioned on the Samudra-gupta pillar. It is likewise interesting to note that his father Skandavarman is also said, like the Ganga Vishnugopa, to have 'honoured the gods, twice-born, gurts and old men. Moreover, the phrase that his fame was tasted by the water of the four oceans,' stated of Harivarman, the Ganga Vishnugopa's father, is found applied to Samudra-gupta. The prefix Sri-vijaya to the name of Krishnavarman, the equivalent of Harivarman, is chiefly used in connexion with the Ganga-Pallavas, who, though Pallavas, claimed descent from Kongani, the first Ganga. Madhava (III), again, married the sister of the Kadamba king whose name was Kfishpavarman, and she was probably a daughter of the Kadamba king Käkusthavarman who is said to have given his daughters in marriage to Gupta and other kings, which, it is plain, refers to Samudra-gupta, the only Gupta king who made an expedition to the south. These various items point still farther to the end of the 4th century, or beginning of the 5th, as the period of our inscription.
But by a remarkable coincidence more exact evidence can be adduced in support of this. For the manuscript of a Digambara Jain work in Sanskrit, named Lokavibhaga, has been discovered by the Mysore Archeological Department (see the Reports for 1909 and 1910). treating of Jains cosmography. The contents, it says, were first delivered by the Arhat Vardhamana, and handed down through Sudharma and & succession of other teachers. The Richi Simha-suri (or Simha-süra) produced the work in a translation (P from Prakrit into Sanskrit). And the Muni Sarvanandin formerly (purd) made a copy of it in the village named Påtaliks in the Påna-rashtra. The interesting point is that the precise data is given when this task was completed, namely, the 22nd year of Simha varman, the lord of Kanchi, and in 80 beyond 300 of the Saka years. Two other manuscripts of the work have since been discovered, which give the same information. It is unnecessary to point out the supreme importance of this record; bat Saka dates of such early period are looked upon with suspicion. Dr. Fleet has published his views in full about this date. Having detected a flaw in the calculations of Prof. Sasipala Jha of Benares, who made it the 1st of March 458, he has decided that the real date is the 25th of August 458. In either case the year is the same, and this Simhavarman began to reign in Kanohi in 436. As regards the Simhavarman of our inscription, the latest date so far obtained for Madhava (III) is P 390 ; but he must have lived to o. 430, when his son was growned, being then an infant on his mother's lap. The near approximation of the two dates is evident; and that of the literary work farnishes a limit beyond which we need not go, while it seems to show that the name SimbaVarman was a reourring one among the Pallavas of the period. Patalika, the village in which Sarvanandin made his copy, may be Patalipura, in the South Arcot District. The Poriya-puranam makes it the seat of a large Jaina monastery in the 7th century. Paparishtra is no doubt the territory of the Bana kinga.
TEXT.
Ib
9
1 Jitam Bhagavată gata-ghana-gagan-abhēna Padmanabhēna trimaj-Jahnavöya-kul-amala
vyoma-bhi2 sana-bhāskarasya sva-bhuja-java-jaya-janita-Bujana-janapadasya därun-äri-gana-vida
гар-ора
Svasti
II, V, 51,
* GI, No. 4, p. 27: No. 18, p. 54. “One of the habitual expressions applied always and only to Bamada gupta,", p. 14.
