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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXI
been recently edited in this journal. But unlike the known records of the family, which are dated usually in the regnal reckoning of the kings issuing the grants in question, the present charter bears the date in the year 198 (written according to the decimal system of writing numerals) of an era. As already indicated above, this era seems to be no other than that used by the Bhaumo-Karas of Orissa and their feudatories in dating their charters. The chronology of the imperial family of the Bhauma-Karas has so long remained a disputed problem. But as the exact date of the present record can be determined almost with precision, it seems to throw welcome light on the above problem. We shall see below that the issuer of the charter under discussion flourished about the second quarter of the eleventh oentury. The epoch of the era in question may thus be assigned to a date in the first half of the ninth century A.C.
The charter was issued by a Bhañja king of Vañjulvaka, whose name is given as Satrubhatija II alias Tribhuvanakalasa. He is stated to have been the son of Silabhatja and great-grandson of Vidyadharabhafija. As it stands, the description of the issuer's ancestry in our grant is defective inasmuch as it does not speak of the king's grandfather. Under the circumstances, we have to suggest either that the word prapautra is a mistake for pautra so that Vidyadharabhañja was really the grandfather of Satrubhañja Tribhuvana kalasa or that the name of the grandfather of Satrubhañja was omitted from the record owing to the inadvertence of the scribe or the engraver. It is unfortunately difficult to be definite on this point in the present state of our knowledge. But the more important fact about this genealogy is that, while Satrubhanja Tribhuvanakalasa (issuer of the charter under review) and his father Silabhañja are as yet unknown from any another source, Vidyadharabhañja, grandfather or great-grandfather of Satrubhañja Tribhuvanakalasa, is already known to us from several of his own records as well as of his son Nettabhañja Kalyāņakalsa II. I have elsewhere discussed the genealogy and chronology of these Bhañjas. It has been shown how Ranabhañja, who was the great-grandfather of Vidyadharabhañja, flourished about the middle or the third quarter of the tenth century. I have also shown how the successors of Ranabhañja, viz., his sons, Nettabhañja Kalyanakalasa I and Digbhañja, and Digbhañja's son Silābhañja II and grandson Vidyadharabhañja, had all very short reigns so that a Brāhmaṇa named Bhatta Stambhadēva is known to have served all the four kings while a goldsmith named Durgadēva not only served all of them but also Nettabhañja Kalyäņakalasa II, son of Vidyadharabhañja. Considering the fact that the active period of the lives of Stambhadēva and Durgadēva probably covered about half a century, the reign of Nettabhañja Kalyāņakalasa II may be assigned to the first quarter of the elventh century. Silābhañja, father of the issuer of the charter under review, may not have ruled. Satrubhañja Tribhuvanakalasa, as he was the grandson or great-grandson of Vidyadharabhañja, may have flourished about the second quarter of the same century. In any case, the date of our iscription does not appear to be later than the middle of the eleventh century. Certain dates in the latest decades of the second century of the era in question (cf. Dēvānanda's plate edited about and the grants of the Bhauma-Kara queen Dandimahādēvi) are written with numerical symbols instead of figures apoording to the decimal system and the use of such symbols does not appear to have survived. considerably long after the end of the tenth century. Moreover the major part of the dominions of the Bhauma-Karas, who ruled from Jaipur for about two centuries (i.e., upto about the year 200 of the era, so that the date of the present charter, year 198, fell about the latest days of BhaumaKara rule), appear to have been included in the empire of the Sömavarsis during the rule of
1 Above, Vol. XXVIII, PP. 292 ff. * The first king of this name in the family was Satrubhtaja Gandhata of Dhritipura,
See Bhandarkar's List, Nos. 1600-02. * IHQ, Vol. XXVIII, PP. 226 &.; abovo, Vol. XX VIII, pp. 274 #.
