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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXVII
[temple of Siva by Purushottama, a minister plenipotentiary (Sarvadhikarin) of Prithvidēva's father and predecessor, Ratnadēva II, and the grant of some land in honour of the gods installed in the temple and to a Bramhana named Vasudeva.
The record is dated in the year 900 (expressed in decimal figures only) of an unspecified era, without any further details such as month, fortnight, tithi and week-day. The date must evidently be referred to the Kalachuri era which was current in that period in Chhattisgarh. It falls in the reign of Prithvidēva II whose known dates range from K. 8901 to K. 915. Verse 35 mentions a solar eclipse, on the occasion of which Prithvidēva II granted a village to the minister Purushōttama. No year is mentioned in connection with this eclipse, but supposing that it occurred in the same year in which the present record was put up, we get some data for verification. I have shown elsewhere that the epoch which satisfactorily explains all later dates of the Kalachuri era is A. D. 247-48 and that the Kalachuri year began on the 1st tithi of the bright fortnight of the purnimanta Kärttika. According to this epoch the year 900 mentioned in the present inscription will have to be taken as current; for there was a solar eclipse in the current Kalachuri year 900 (corresponding to A.D. 1147-48), which occurred on the purnimanta Vaisakha amācāsya (20th April A.D. 1148), while in the expired Kalachuri year 900 (A.D. 1148-49) there was no solar eclipse at all. The date may therefore be said to be regular. This is one of the few later dates of the Kalachuri era, mentioning a current year.
After four mangala slokas in praise of Šiva, his vahana (the bull Nandi), the goddess of speech and Ganapati, the author states in one verse the importance of having a poetical record of one's achievements. He then proceeds to state the pedigree of the ruling king Prithvidēva II from his great-grandfather Prithvidēva I who is called the lord of Tummana. The description of this king as also of his son Jajalladeva I and grandson Ratnadeva II is mainly conventional. The only historical event referred to is the defeat which a king of Kalinga suffered for the first time at the hands of Ratnadēva II. The reference is evidently to the defeat which that Kalachuri king inflicted on the mighty Ganga king Anantavarman Chōdaganga and which is mentioned in several records of his descendants."
With verse 14 begins the genealogy of Purushottama who erected the temple of Siva recorded in the present inscription. His ancestor Sōdhadeva belonged to a Brahmaṇa family which served the Kalachuri princes for several generations. Sodhadeva was appointed Minister by Prithvidēva I (v. 15). His son was Nimbadeva. He and his wife Lakhamā (Lakshmi) are glorified in three verses (vv. 16-18). Their son was Purushottama who was appointed to the post of Sarvadhikarin (Minister Plenipotentiary) by Ratnadeva II. He is eulogised in as many as eight verses. We are told that all kings having been subdued by the policy or prowess of this minister, the king Ratnadeva II was able to rule without any trouble.
1 This date is furnished by the Daikoni plates still unpublished, of which a set of ink impressions has been kindly supplied to me by the Government Epigraphist.
This date occurs in the Ratanpur stone inscription of Brahmadeva. See Hiralal's Inscriptions in C.P. and Berar, 2nd ed., p. 127.
See my article Epoch of the Kalachuri-Chedi Era', above, Vol. XXIV, pp. 116 ff.
Another solar eclipse had occurred just before the commencement of that Kalachuri year, on the amaväsyä of the purnimanta Kärttika (26th October A.D. 1147).
5 The original epoch of the Kalachuri era was A.D. 248-49 which suits early dates of the era found in Gujarat and Northern Maharashtra as shown by me elsewhere (A.B.O.R.I., Vol. XXVII, pp. 1 f.). That epoch does not suit later dates of the era and would not at all suit the date of the present inscription; for according to that epoch the solar eclipse should have occurred in A.D. 1148-49 if the year 900 was current and in A.D. 1149-50 if it was expired. But in neither of these years was there any solar eclipse.
Tummana was the earlier capital of the Kalachuris in Dakshina Kõsala. That Prithvidēva I was ruling at Tummana is known from line 28 of his Amoda plates, above, Vol. XIX, p. 80.
See, e.g., the Ratanpur stone inscription of Prithvidēva II, dated V. 1207, above, Vol. I, pp. 45 ff.; the Mallär stone inscription of Jajalladeva II, dated K. 919, above, Vol. I, pp. 39 ff.; the Pendrabandh plates of Pra tapamalla, above, Vol. XXIII, pp. 1 ff., etc.
