________________
270 EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXVII dated. As in the case of the Mālēpādu plates, the date of this inscription can only be approximately fixed, mainly on palaeographical considerations.
In his learned article on the Mālēpādu platest my father, the late Rao Bahadur H. Krishna Sastri has assigned that charter, on palaeographical and other considerations, to about the end of the 8th century A.D. While discussing the palaeography of the plates under review it has been shown that the forms of the letters in this record compare well with the forms of those of the Kendur and the Vakkalëri plates of Kirttivarman II. The open form of b to which attention has already been drawn calls for some remarks. The short vertical stroke inside the closed form of the letter found in records as early as Saka 500 onwards is perhaps a precursor of the loop with which the open form of this letter begins. This stroke which persists in the Kendür plates referred to above is already seen to assume the rudimentary loop noticeable in the Vakkalēri plates. But it must be borne in mind that all these forms are only transitional stages from the closed form found for this letter in earlier records leading to its open form as it occurs in the inscription under review. It is true that this letter retains its closed form in a dated copper-plate grant of Rashtrakūta king Govinda III (A.D. 804) which has been the basis for Dr. Fleet's theory that the later cursive form of this letter which can be traced back to the time of Amõghavarsha I cannot however be carried back to an earlier date than A.D. 804. If this were really so, the present record will have to be assigned to a date posterior to A.D. 804, a date somewhat later than that assigned for the Mälēpādu plates. Now, except for this single letter , all other test letters and especially kh, I and j still retain their earlier forms in this as well as in the Mälēpādu plates, and it may be observed that in their execution both these records show a moro archaic type of writing than that found in the Rashtrakūta record cited above. Their palucography may be favourably compared with that of the Kendür and Vakkalēri plates of Kirttivarman II and they may be, therefore, assigned roughly to the same date viz., the middle of the 8th century A.D. It will be seen in the sequel and from the synchronistic table appended hereto that this date fits in very well with the contents of the record. As for the cursive form of b that we have in the record under review, we have indeed a case here answering that cited by Dr. Bühler of the occurrence of numerous cursive forms together with very archaic ones, both in the Asöka edicts and also in later inscriptions. The charter being dated in the 10th regnal year of Punyakumara, the initial year of the king might be fixed at c. 740 A.D. Assigning arbitrarily a reign of 15 years for his brother Guņamudita who preceded him and a reign of 25 years, as usual, to Mahendravarman and again a period of 15 years to each one of the three brothers Simhavishnu, Sundarananda and Dhananjayavarman--for it is said of them that they enjoyed the fortunes of the kingdom (i.e., ruled) in succession--and 25 years to Nandivarman, we get for the initial year of this king the year c. 630. The Pallava and the Chalukya contemporaries who were reigning at this period were Narasimhavarman I and Pulakësin II. The names of Nandivarman's BUOOBssors Sinhavishnu, Mahēndravarman and Guņamudita at once bring to our mind the names of Narasimhavishnu, Mahendravarman and Paramēśvaravarman I (Gunabhājana) of the Pallava family.
Above, Vol. XI, pp. 337 ff. * Ind. Ant., Vol. X, plato opp. p. 58.
Above, Vol. V. p. 202, 11.16, 16, 17, 18, 52, 56, etc., on plates opp. p. 202. . Above, Vol. III, p. 163.
Compare platos on p. 126, Ind. Ant., Vol. XI. • Thid., Vol. XXXIII App. 30, Seot. 14. -
