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No. 35.]
BETMA PLATES OF BHOJADEVA ; [VIKRAMA-SAMVAT 1076.
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began with the month Kārttika, as is the present usage in Malwa and Gujarat, then it must be looked upon as the later of the two. We have reasons to hold that the latter supposition is correct for, as has been already pointed out by Prof. Kielhorn, in the grant of Bhojadēva of V. S. 1078, the expression we a angfa Hanfeageret 1.6. on the third day of the dark half of Māgha in the year 1078, occurs in the middle of the grant and probably gives the date when the donation was made. At the end of the grant the date of its issue is given as the 14th day of the bright half of the month Chaitra of Samvat 1078. If Mågha of 1078 preceded Chaitra of 1078, the year must have commenced from some month previous to Mägha and ended subsequent to Chaitra. We can, therefore, assume that the Sarvat year began then as now in the month of Kärttika. The Bānswåra grant which is dated in the month Magha of V. S. 1076 (Jan. 1020 A.D.) is, therefore, earlier than the Betma grant which is dated in the month Bhadrapada of the same year, 1.0, 1076 (Sept. 1020 A.D.).
(2) The occasions when the two grants of Bānswāră and Betmi were made are different. In the former grant it is given as taufasyuat while in the latter it is given as
te suferuaf. Dr. Hultzach, who edited the Banswārā grant", translated this historically important expression as 'the anniversary of the conquest of Komkana.' But it is to be noted that the period intervening between these two grants, which record almost an identical expression, is only seven months and ten days. Mr. D. R. Bhandarkar who edited the same grants I think gives a better translation of the expression as “on the festival day (parvani) in consequence of the conquest of Komkaņa." The expression in the Bānswārā grant moans that Bhoja conquered Konkana' and that in the Betmā grant means perhaps that he occupied it.' In the Balagårve inscription of the time of the Chalukya Jayasimha, duted Saka 941 (December 1019 A.D.), it is stated that Jayasimha had pat to flight the confederacy of Mālava'. From this we can conclude that in the contest for power between the Malwa Paramüras and the Decean Chalukyas that was going on for years together, in the first quarter of the eleventh century A.D., both the parties were successful by turns. Soon after his accession, Bhoja must have invaded the Deccan to avenge the esecution of his uncle Vākpati-Muğja by the Chilukya king Tailapa, and he probably suceeeded in defeating and killing Tailapa's succeskor, Vikramaditya V. When Jayasimha came to the throne in 1015 A.D. he must have retaliated by inflicting a crushing defeat on Bhoja and his confederncy sometime before December 1019 A.D. Bhoja apparently did not take long to recover. He invaded the territory of Jayasi ha and conquered Konkana, in Jantary 1000 A.D., which was finally annexed to his empire sometime before September 1020 A.D. From the Miraj plates 6 it seems that Bhoja oould not retain his Pobsession for long as Jayasinha reconquered Konkaņa before the year 1024 A.D. (Šaka 946) and took into his possession the wealth of the Lords of the Seven Konkanus'.
(3) The grantee in the present inscription is a Brihmaņa named Pandita Dolha, son of Bhatta Thatthasis of the Kausika-gotra with the three pravaras Aghamarshaza, Visvä mitra and Kausika and of the Madhyandina-sakha. He hailed from Sthänvisvara, but his anoesture had come from the village Visalagrima.
(4) The property granted to the Brahmapa consisted of a village named Nálatadaga, ane of the seventeen villages in the Nyāyapadra subdivision.
1 Ind. Ant., Vol. XIX, p. 361.
• Rp. Ind., Vol. XI, p. 181. [In the words Kotkan-ahifarişith aarom man grilite occurring in the Miraj plates (see supra, Vol. XII, p. 318, 1, 88) the root grah is used in the sense of taking powion.- d.]
• Ind. Ant., Vol. XLI, p. 201. • Ind. Ant., Vol. V, p. 17. Ind. Ant., Vol. XLVIII, p. 117.
• Ep. Ind., Vol. XII, p. 314.
2.
