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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XXV.
writer, Pandita Gandhadhvaja of the Chapala-gōtra. He was a disciple of Vivekarasi who was again a disciple of the Paramabhaṭṭāraka śrī-Supujitarāśi.
The last line contains the date, undoubtedly of the setting up of the record, which I have read as Samvat 11 120 Kärttika vadi 13. The reading of the second digit is, however, uncertain which may also be read as 2. The same date is given at the end of the Mahimna-stava found engraved on the northern wall which was also written by the same Pandita mentioned there as Gandhadhvaja, and also at the end of the Narmada-stōtra, without giving the month and the tithi in both the places. But in these instances also the second digit is not clear. Unfortunately the date cannot be verified for want of sufficient details. If the year is 1120 the date would ordinarily correspond to Friday, the 21st November, A.D. 1063 and if read as 1220 the corresponding date in Christian era would be Sunday, the 27th October, A.D. 1163, taking the year as Chaitrādi and the month purnimanta in both cases.
I have in the Annual Report referred to above discussed in detail the identity of the poet Halayudha and also of Dechaya who wrote a commentary on this stotra in the sixteenth century A.D. I have shown there that the Halayudha of our record could not be any of the three scholars of the same name mentioned by Mr. J. C. Ghosh, all of whom flourished during the reign of the Sēna kings of Bengal. Prof. Sastri has now adduced an additional proof that undoubtedly the same Halayudha has been referred to in the Telugu Dvipada Basavapurana of Pälkuriki Sōmanatha who lived towards the end of the twelfth century. I have also suggested in the same place that our Halayudha may be identical with the author of the Kavirahasya, the Abhidhānaratnamālā and the Mritasanjivani, the last mentioned being a commentary on Pingala's Chhandaḥsutra. It need not worry us that the first named work was written in the court of the Rashtrakuta king Krishnaraja III (A.D. 939-967) and the last mentioned work in the court of a different ruler, viz., the Paramāra Muñja-Vakpati (A.D. 974-993), as it is quite possible that the poet after the death of his Rashtrakuta patron moved to the Paramara court which was noted for its patronage for learning at that time. Mr. Ghosh has identified Navagrāma in Dakshiṇa-Radha with the village of the same name in the Bhurshut pargana of the Hooghly District in Bengal. We cannot argue that it is not possible for a poet hailing from far off Bengal to be at the courts of two prominent Indian rulers, one having his capital at Malkhed in the Nizam's Dominions and the other at Dhar in Central India, when we know of several other scholars from Bengal who held a similar position.*
L. 51 of the record mentions Bhojanagara and a monastery there known as Sōmēsvaradevamatha. One is tempted to identify Bhojanagara with Dhara, the capital city of the Paramaras and the monastery with an establishment built probably by the Chalukya Sōmesvara I who for a time occupied the Paramāra kingdom. But it is to be remembered that the capital city of the Paramāras is always referred to as Dhara even at the time of Bhoja and his successors also continued to use the same name. It is not also certain whether the matha was built by a ruler called Sōmesvaradeva or was simply attached to a temple of Siva known as Sōmēsvara. I am also not able to identify Nandiyada, the original residence of th Saiva ascetic Bhavavälmika.
Indian Culture, Vol. I, p. 503 ff.
According to this work Halayudha belonged to Navapura which is apparently the same as Navagrama of our record, see Basavapuranamu (Andhra-granthamälä series), p. 127.
* Indian Culture, Vol. I, p. 503. Bhurshut is the ancient Bhüriśreshthi in Dakshina-Radha where Sridhara completed his Nyayakandali, a commentary on the Padarthapravesa in Saka 913 (A.D. 991). It is also the Bhūrisreshthika of the Prabodhachandrödaya of Krishnamiśra (11th century), which is stated to be the birth-place of Ahankara'. This leaves no doubt that the place was well known in the 10th and 11th centuries. See Indian Culture, Vol. I, p. 702 and Vol. II, pp. 360 f. See also the Kollagallu Inscription of the Rashtra. kūta Khōṭṭiga (above, Vol. XXI, pp. 263 ff.) which mentions a Gadadhara of Tada-grama in Bengal.
