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No. 31.)
SASANAKOTA PLATES OF GANGA MADHAVAVARMAN; 1ST YEAR.
237
in the next generation and Skandavarman or Vijaya-Skandavarman crowns Mädhavavarman who was surnamed Simhavarman by his father, evidently, as a token of political feudality and personal gratitude also. The fact that Madhava II, son of Aryavarman, claims in the Penukonda plates to have been led up to his ancestral kingship (ma-varsa-kram-āgata-rajya-pranita) also suggests the correctness of this view.
Rice alternatively designates the later Madhavavarman as Mādhava III on the ground that a comparatively later inscription at Nagar, containing several traditional and mythological statements, designates Konkanivarman also & Madhava' and so he calls him Madhava I. Since we have no early epigraphical data designating Konkanivarman as a Madhava we need not confuse issues by creating a Madhava II. It will be clear and precise to consider the latter only as Madhava II and not Madhava III.
Collecting the genealogical information furnished in all the known documents of this family and taking into consideration the probable causes for the Pallava intervention suggested above we may tentatively arrange a revised genealogy as follows:
Konkanivarman
Midhaya I
Aryavarman or Ayyavarman or
Harivarman (Crowned by Pallava
Simhavarman)
Krishnavarman
(Kudithiyam and Bendigāna halli plates)
Madhava II alias Vishnugops
Simhavarman (crowned by Pallava Madhava III Skandavarman or Vijaya-Skanda
Avinita Varman)
Durvinita The names Arivarman and Harivarman occur only in the spurious or later copper-plates ana stone inscriptions of this dynasty (Kielhorn, Southern List Nos. 108 ff.). These names must be given up in favour of "Aryavarman" of the earlier plates. Professor Dubreuil makes Harivarman & different person from, and a younger brother of, Aryavarman. But in the light of the Tanjore plates Hari might be the same as Ari and the latter & colloquial or pet form of Arya. Rice's diffi culty in allocating to Vishnugopa the proper place in the family genealogy is also overcome by adopting the scheme suggested above. His supposition that Vishņugõpa's name was dropped out by mistake in the Penukonda plates requires corroboration.
The inscription is dated not with reference to any era but gives the occasion of the grant as sukla-paksha-dasami in the month of Phālguna in the first year of the king's reign. In determining the dates of the Penukonda plates of the present king's grandson Mädhava II, Fleet has given A.D. 475 as a very good date for it. Shifting back by two generations of 25 years each our plates will have to be assigned to about A.D. 425, which is not improbable in the light of its palaeography which has been fully discussed already.
1 The name is given in this form in the Kadalur grant of Madhavavarman (Mys. Arch. Rep., 1930, p. 259). * Above, Vol. XIV, p. 335, text-line 11. • Ep. Carn., Vol. VIII, Nr. 35. • Above, Vol. XIV, p. 331.
