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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XVII.
the third section and then returns to the first section to begin the second line. The name of the sculptor is given in the fourth section in two lines
The characters used are the ordinary north-eastern characters which gave birth to the modern Bengali script, and which even at this stage show distinct resemblance to the modern script of Bengal. Paleographical considerations would lead us to assign the latter half of the 10th century as the time when this inscription was incised. The date is missing; but it may be that the lost portion of the second line in the beginning of the third section contained a date. There are some data from which a date perhaps is obtainable by mathematical calculation. The image was consecrated on a Thursday, under the star Pushya, on the fourteenth day of the dark half of the month, the day being the 14th of Ashadha counted by the movement of the moon. It would be a very interesting calculation to lovers of astronomical problems to find out in which year or years between 900-1100 A.D. all these data met. I myself do not possess the necessary equipment for the calculation. Dewan Bahadur L. D. Swamikannu Pillai who was consulted by Mr. Krishna Sastri on my behalf kindly writes :
"Between 900 A.D. and 1000 A.D. there are three dates which agree perfectly, viz. A.D. 912, 939 and 983. I have marked these with an asterisk in the accompanying list which shows also dates of less perfect agreement. There must be an equal number between A.D. 1000 and A.D. 1100. We cannot tell which of these dates is meant.
Thursday Ashadha, ba. 14. Pushya.
A.D. 905. Th. 4 July; .32; n. f. d. .75.
A.D. 912. Th. 16 July; .09; .63.
A.D. 925. Th. 21 July; f. d. t. .52; f. d. n. .68.
A.D. 932. Th. 5 July; .52; f. d. n. .90,
A.D. 939. Th. 18 July; .41; .86.*
A.D. 942. Th. 14 July; f. d. t. .12; f. d. n. .89.
A.D. 966. Th. 19 July; .71; f. d. n. .09.
A.D. 969. Th. 15 July; f. d. t. .21; f. d. n. .90.
A.D. 983. Th. 12 July; .03; .94.
A.D. 993. Th. 20 July; f. d. t. .01; f. d. n. .30."
He adds: "14th tithi means nothing more or less than 14th day by the movement of the moon. A solar month date would be different, but in a lunar month the days and tithis are the same in the Indian Calendar. In the Muhammadan, Jewish and Greek Calendars there may be a slight difference."
The inscription refers itself to the 18th year of the reign of a king Layaha-Chandra by name. Kings with the surname Chandra are found on the thrones of two adjacent countries, viz. Vanga and Arakan. The Chandra kings of Vanga, who, like the Sena and the Varman kings, had their capital in Vikramapura, are known from two copper-plates. But no name in their geneology resembles Layaha-Chandra, which sounds indeed rather outlandish. We find an account of the Chandra kings of Arakan in Phayre's History of Burma, p. 45, and Numismata Orientalia, Vol. II, Pt. I, p. 42, by the same author, where we learn that the dynasty came to an end in 957 A.D. We know of another isolated Chandra king of Vanga, Govinda-Chandra by name, from Rajendra-Chola's inscription. Layaha-Chandra-děva must have belonged to one of these three lines. If Layaha-Chandra was of the Arakan line, 939 A. D may be taken as the date of this inseription.
1 Ep. Ind., Vol. XII, p. 188. and Dacca Review, Vol. II, p. 250. Recently a third plate of Śri-Chandra, dova was found and edited by me in the Darca Review for May and June 1919, 17. XII. 1919,
Bp. Ind., Vol. IX, pp. 232,483,
