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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XXII.
No. 7.-DAYYAMDINNE PLATES OF VINAYADITYA-SATYASRAYA; SAKA 614. By R. S. PANCHAMUKHI, M.A., MADRAS.
The subjoined inscription1 is engraved on three copper-plates discovered at Dayyamdinne a village in the Adoni taluk of the Bellary District. It is noticed in the Annual Report on South-Indian Epigraphy for the year 1916 and described as follows: "The ends of the ring are fixed into the bottom of an almost circular seal, one inch in diameter, bearing on its counter-sunk surface the crude figure of a standing baar facing the proper right, as in the case of the Harihar Grant of Vinayaditya-Satyasraya published in Indian Antiquary, Vol. VII, pages 300 ff. The plates measure between 87" and 9" in breadth and between 38" and 3" in height. The ring, which is oval in shape, measures 43" and 3" in diameter and is about 1" thick. The plates and the seal weigh 112 tolas". The inscription is edited below for the first time from the ink-impressions prepared in the office of the Assistant Archæological Superintendent (now Superintendent) for Epigraphy, Madras.
The inscription is in a fairly good state of preservation though some letters in the second plate are damaged and rendered indistinct. Only one side of the first and last plates bears writing. The characters beleng to the southern class of alphabets and resemble closely those of the Sorab and Harihar grants, which belong, like the present one, to the Chalukya king Vinayaditya-Satyasraya. The language is Sanskrit. Excepting the invocatory verse at the beginning and benedictive and imprecatory verses at the end, the record is throughout in prose. In respect of orthography it may be remarked that the consonants n, t, d, n and v are doubled after ras in ārņṇavam (1. 1), kirtti (1. 14), Senänir-ddaitya-balam (1. 19), etc. The rules of sandhi are not strictly observed, as for instance in pañchäśad-nivarttana (11. 29-31). There are numerous clerical mistakes in the record owing to the carelessness of the engraver.
The object of the record is to register the grant of fifty nivartanas of land each, to Düsasarman and Kappasarman of the Kausika-götra, and Sarvasarman of the Atreyagötra, in the eastern quarter of the village Ulchal in Naļavāḍi-vishaya, and fifty mivartanas, to Sarvasarman of the Gargyāyaṇa-götra, in the southern quarter of the same village, made by the Western Chalukya king Vinayaditya-Satyasraya who was encamped at Talayakhoda-grama near the northern bank of the Tagara river. The grant was made at the request of a certain Marddakari, on the full-moon day of Ashaḍha in Dakshinayana-kala falling in the twelfth year of Vinayaditya's reign, when six-hundred and fourteen Šaka years had expired. The record was composed by Śri-Ramapuṇyavallabha who also wrote the other charters of this king.
The details of date given in the present record have been calculated by the late Mr. L. D. Swamikannu Pillai whose remarks on them run as follows: "If the reference were to Saka 614 (expired)....the Ashadha full-moon would be that which fell on June 4 (Adhika-Ashāḍha)...... or that which fell on July 4 (Nija-Ashadha).... Neither day would be the summer solstice whether of the tropical or sidereal sun. But if we took Saka 614 as referring to the current Saka year, i.e., to A.D 691-92, then Ashadha full-moon would have been on June 16, A.D. 692* which would be......very near the tropical summer solstice". It is proved in the sequel that the intended date of the record must be July 4, A.D. 692, and that Dakshiṇāyana-kāla
1 C. P. No. 7 of 1915-16.
M. E. R. 1916, App. G, p. 102. Indian Ephemeris, Vol. I, part ii, p. 35.
It ought to be A.D. 691, since the commencement of the year (Chaitra, bu, 1) fell in March A.D. 691.
