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No. 21.]
TWO INSCRIPTIONS FROM BERAR.
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mandapa. It may, therefore, be presumed that the original image was destroyed when the place was occupied by Muhammadans and the present stones installed at a later date. It is also doubt ful if the temple was originally dedicated to the worship of Bhavāni. The benedictory stanza in the beginning of the record is in praise of Hari (Vishnu). The building is referred to in l. 10 as the temple of Hari (Hari-vēsma). It is noteworthy that in addition to the figures of MahishaBuramardini and Ganapati noticed by Mr. Cousens, images of Narasimha and other deities of the Vishnu cult occur on the door frame of the garbhagriha as well as on the exquisitely carved pillars of the mandapa, which support the Vaishnava origin of the shrine. It seems, therefore, certain that it came to be dedicated to Bhavāni, when the original image of Vishnu had been destroyed and the people had, in course of time, lost sight of the deity in whose honour the temple had been originally erected.
The fragmentary state of the inscription does not admit of a detailed and connected account of its contents. After the customary benediction, the inscription mentions the name of Ghatāma who was born in the family of Danturāja. It then proceeds to describe a battle in which & young king, who is perhaps identical with Hồmadridēva mentioned later on in 1. 6, defeated Rājala, the son of Mālugidēva, who was advancing on the capital, confident of success, on account of his large forces. The king is further stated to have converted his capital Tökkall into the holy city of Benares by his virtuous deeds. The inscription then gives the genealogy of his hereditary ministers, who belonged to the Vālabhya-gõtra, Bhillama, his son Palama, his son Mäila, and his son Gamiyāya or Gāmayāja, who was apparently the donor of the present record. He is described in line 10 as having built a temple of Vishnu in this town (evidently Tēkkali), of which the midday sun formed the chakra finial, the quarters the fringe and the sky the blue umbrella'. From lines 11 and 12 we know that Gāmayāja excavated, for the use of the people, a deep tank, smiling with lotuses in bloom. In line 13 we are told of the building of a well (vāpi). In line 14 two brothers are referred to, but their names have been lost. The inscription seems to have closed with the usual imprecatory verses as appears from a half-verse preserved in the last line.
The date of the inscription is stated with full particulars as Thursday, the seventh tithi of the bright fortnight of the month Vaisakha in the Durmukha SamvatsaraŚaka 1098, the Nakshatra being Pushya, the Yoga Ayushmat and the Karaņa Vanilja*). According to D. B. Swamikannu Pillai's Indian Ephemeris, the cyclic year for the Chaitrādi Saka 1098 expired was Durmukha, as stated in the record. The seventh tithi of the bright fortnight of Vaisakha, however, fell on Saturday and not on Thursday as stated in the inscription. In Saks 1099 (expired) that tithi fell on a Thursday and the nakshatra was Pushya as mentioned in our record, but the cyclic year was Hēmalamba and not Durmukha as required. The date would, thus, appear to be irregular, but there are so many instances of only one detail of the date being stated wrongly in epigraphs. According to the view adopted by D. B. S. K. Pillai in his Indian Ephemeris, the Saka date, as used at present, denotes expired years, but the name of the cyclic year denotes the current year. Accepting the discrepancy of one year in the number of Saka years and treating the cyclic year mentioned in the record as expired, we find that Vaibākha Sukla Saptami in Saka 1099 (Durmukha expired), (i.e. Hēmalamba current), ended at 12 ghatikās (4 h. 45 m.) on Thursday after apparent sunrise and the nakshatra was Pushya which ended at 51 ghatikās (20 h. 25 m.) after apparent sunrise. This combination of a Thursday and the Pushya Nakshatra (an amrita-siddhi-yoga as it is called) is considered specially auspicious and probably represents the time when the original image of the deity was installed in the temple. The karana for the seventh tithi on Thursday was Vanija, but the yoga was süla and pot Ayushmat as stated in the inscription. This discrepancy may be explained away by taking Ayushmat
