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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XVIII.
likely to have been the origin of the later Satakarņi than the fanciful fata-karna 'the hundredeared.' But Dr. Konow neither accepts sāta as an abbreviation of Satakarni nor does he read sätt (=sväti). He prefers to have the name Chadasāta (=Chandasátawithout explaining the name-ending sdta.
The date of the record in 11. 3 and 4 has been read by Dr. Sten Konow as "savachare 10 3(?) he pa 3 diva dasame " whereas my reading is "raji vachhare 29 ma 1 he pa 2 di 1." The reading ma 1 after the regnal year is difficult to explain. If this were preceded by he, instead of being followed by it, it would have yielded the meaning hēmantamasa 1, as we find in a very large number of similar dates coming from Northern India ; but, he is required before pa ; for otherwise the latter could not be explained. Besides, the dated Southern Brāhmi inscriptions 48 catalogued by Dr. Lüders in his List of Brāhmi Inscriptions give only the paksha of the season and in no case the month (masa) as the northern dates do. I can only suggest that in this record both the month and the paksha are given and the word he which is an abbreviation for the season hômanta is placed after ma 1 while it should have preceded it, and thus arrive at the probable interpretation of the date as "the first day of the second fortnight of the first month of the winter season." If this interpretation is right, the details of the date would correspond to Margadirsha bahula prathamā, somewhere in. December 310 A.D., the second year of Chanda-sväti.
TEXT. 1 Sidhath [1] Rañ[o] Väsithi2 putasa sami-siri3 Chemdagāt[i][88] [ra]ji-vachhare ? 4 ms 1 he pa 2 a[i] 1 Khadda[valli5 amacha-8a[8]mi khagu.dhama 6 thapita [1]
Notes on letters. L. 1. si-The letter sa throughout is written with loop at the left bottom corner whence it is started. This loop, in certain cases, is almost closed, whereas in certain others it is half open. The si which begins the inscription is one of the former type, though it is a little 'deformed looking as though the loop were written twice.
dham - The position of the anus dra attached to dha is worthy of notice. It is on the left side of the letter and not on its right top corner.
Að -The-mark is very faint.
thi The long iis indicated by two horns as in Kshatrapa inscriptions (Bühler's Tables III, 9),
L. 2. tа -- The development of a loop in this letter is to be noted as in the Nasik inscrip. tion No. 20. (See Bühler's Tables III, 13). Possibly, there was a secondary ta below the letter thos making the word puttasa.
The word Nürupar-Kaynar which occurs in the Tamil poem Silappadikiram, has been translated by some, M. the bundred-eared and taken to be the equivalent of Satakarni (or Satakarni).
The three thick borisontal marks one above the other ench denoting the numeral'one' are visible. Bat the third topmost mark is above the level of the line and not vertically above the other two, I am inclined to read the symbol a'2' and not 8'. * Direct from the stone.
prices are left in the original after the complete morda :-Sidham, maño, etc., w shown in thn text. After Semi-in-Chandasdfina in 1. 8 and after savami in L. 6, where we should have expected a space, it is wanting. The me gutem of separating words by space is found in the Hathigumpha inscription of Khiravēly, the Tythindoni Mihdription of Palumini (above Vol. XIV, plate facing p. 166) and the Hirabadagalli inscription of give-Skanda-varmed, Ep. Ind.. Vol. I, plate faping p. 6.
[The plate pire si-EL)
