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No. 23] NARWAN PLATES OF CHALUKYA VIKRAMADITYA II
125 1263 A.D. Should this date be accepted, it brings his era near to that of the Muhammadan writers, and as his reign is said by Wassif to have been a long one, it is so far confirmatory of their narratives ; but then comes the difficulty of the earlier Ceylon date, for it is not probable that two such contentions for a precisely similar object between two brothers of the same names should have taken place so soon after each other, although the dates differ so materially as the middle of the twelfth, the middle of the thirteenth, and beginning of the fourteenth centuries."
Since Sir Walter Elliot made the above remarks, a number of inscriptions giving astronomical details admitting of calculation and verification had been found and thanks to the labours of Kielhorn, Swamikannu Pillai and others, the accession of Jațivarman Kulasēkhara I with the introduction of the Tiruppūvanam plates had been fixed at A.D. 1190 and these have been noticed in my article on the plates. I need hardly add anything to Sir Walter Elliot's careful descriptions of the symbols on the seal. But so far as I know, no attempt seems to have been made to decipher the legend on the scal during these sixty odd years. I think I can only give a tentative reading of it here, but before doing so I may be permitted to say that on & close examination of the letters I am led to think that the woodcut is either not perfect or that the original is faulty in engraving. The legend is a Sanskrit verse in the Anushtubh metre. The first half of it can be confidently read as Samasta-jagatipäla-mauli-mal-Opalālitam. The first word of the next half is certainly sāsanam and the last word is Jațilavarmmanah. The last syllable appears as në in the woodcut. All that could be said about the seven syllables between these two words is that they may stand for sasvatan rājño ēlat'. Sasvatam looks like mrāsanan or srasanam in the woodcut and etat looks like jayatu ; und rujno is also not beyond doubt. The whole legend may be tentatively read :
समस्तजगतीपालमौलिमालोपलालितम् ।
शासनं [शाश्वतं राज्ञो एतत् जटिलवर्मणः ॥ A fresh endeavour should be made to secure the seal. If this is done and a good facsimile of it taken, it will be quite possible to read the second half of the legend with certainty. This seal and the other referred to in the extract given from the Coins of Southern India might have been returned to the temple authorities sometime after the plates had been sent and they, pechape not knowing that the seals belong to the two sets of plates, might have kept them loose. A careful search of the temple treasury may bring the seals again to light. For the present, we must be satisfied with the woodcut which we owe to the sagacity and forethought of the late Sir Walter Elliot.
No. 23.-NARWAN PLATES OF CHALUKYA VIKRAMADITYA II; SAKA 664
(2 Plates)
G. H. KHARE, POONA The ring of the subjoined grant was being noticed by some of the inhabitants of Narwan (Ratnagiri) on its old site for a long time. But fearing that it was something connected with devilism they dared not excavate and see what it really was. Mr. D. H. Joshi, a relative of Mr. D. L. Kanade of Buldana (Berar), happened to see it, unearthed it and found it to be tho ring which held the five copper-platos bearing the inscription edited here. The latter presented the plates to the Bhārata Itihāsa Samsodhaka Mandaļa. I edited them in its journal in Marathi." I now re-edit them here with many emendations.
1 [ Tho facsimile clearly roads Tatvejufca : -Ed.) * Quarterly of the Bharata Itihasa Sanfödhaka Mandala, Vol. X, No. 1 p. 12.
