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No: 29) A NOTE ON THE PONNUTURU PLATES OF GANGA SAMANTAVARMAN 171 No. 29-A NOTE ON THE PONNUTURU PLATES OF GANGA SAMANTAVARMAN
V. V. Mirashi, NAGPUR In the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXVI, pp. 236 f. I have examined in detail several early Ganga dates and showed that the Ganga era commenced on amanta Chaitra su. di. 1 in the expired Saka year 420 (the 14th March A. D. 498). Since my article was sent for publication, Mr. Somasekhara Sarma also has examined that question. According to him the era commenced in the Saka year 426-27 or A. D. 504-05 some time between June and January. He did not fix the exact starting point of the era, but tried to prove that the months of the Ganga year were pūrnimānta. Recently Mr. Sarma has published the Ponnuţūru plates of the Ganga kiny Samantavarman, dated Gn. 64. As these plates contain some data for calculation, one would have expected Mr. Sarma to calculate their date in the light of the epoch fixed by him, and to give its equivalent in the Saka or the Christian era. He has not, however, done so. I therefore propose to examine this date to see how far it agrees with the epoch of the era fixed by me.
The Ponnutūru plates record a grant by the Gănga king Sāmantavarman in the year 64, on the occasion of the Uttarāyaṇa or Makara-sankranti. The date on which the plates were actually issued is given at the end as the thirteenth tithi of the bright fortnight of Pushya. According to the epoch fixed by me, the expired Gänga year should correspond to S. 484 (A. D. 562-63). Now, the Makara-sankranti in S. 484 occurred 1 h. 15 m. after mean sunrise on the 20th December A. D. 562. The tithi, Pushyd bu. di. 13, in the same year ended 10 h. 20 m. after mean sunrise on the 24th December A. D. 562. The plates were thus issued 4 days after the grant was made. This appears quite likely. The date of the Ponnutūru plates thus corroborates the epoch of the Ganga era fixed by me.
On tha other hand, this date disproves the other epochs proposed for tha era, viz. A. D. 494 by Mr. Subba Rao, A. D. 496 by the late Mr. J. C. Ghosh, A. D. 497 by Mr. B. V. Krishna Rao and A. D. 504-05 by Mr. Somasekhara Sarma. I state below in a tabular form the date of the Uttarāyana and that corresponding to Pushya bu. di. 13 in the Ganga year 64.4
In all these cases the Uttarāyana or Makara-sankrānti occurred some days after Pushya Sukla trayodasi and so the grant made on the occasion of the sankranti could not have been recorded on that tithi in any of these years.
In his article on the Gänga era as well as in that on the Ponnutūru plates Mr. Sarma has drawn attention to certain dates of the era which, according to bim, are recorded in pūrnimānta months. On the other hand I have shown in my article on the epoch of the era that the following three datos are recorded in amānta months,
Gänga Year 64 Proposed Epoch Date of Uttarayana
Date corresponding to of the Era
Pushya su. di. 13. A. D. 494
20th December A. D. 558 9th December A. D. 558 A. D. 496
19th December A. D. 560 16th December A. D. 560 A. D. 497 19th December A. D. 561
5th December A. D. 561 A. D. 504
19th December A. D. 568 18th December A. D. 568 1 Subsequently I showed that the date of the Tekkali plates of Anantavarman (above, Vol. XXVI, pp. 174 f.) also corroborates that epoch. See above, Vol. XXVII, p. 192.
* Ind. Cult., Vol. IX, pp. 141 f. * Above, Vol. XXVII, pp. 216 f.
.I have calculated these dates according to the Arya Siddhanta with the help of the tables in S. K. Pillay's Indian Ephemeris.
