Epigraphia Indica Vol 30

Author(s): Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 71

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[Vol. XXX eulogy is all about the Early Gangas, and the donor, Mahārāja Indravarman, is said to be the establisher of the spotless Ganga family, the years may be taken to be of the Ganga era till such time as the contrary is proyed.
The date of the inscription is given in words as Satë trinsaty-adhike and then in numerical symbols as samvatsarāh 100 30 3. The last number 'three' is represented by three horizontal strokes one over the other, but between the symbols representing 30 and 3 another horizontal stroke, though shorter in size, is also noticeable. After the date in numerical symbols comes the term Srāvana-māsa. It is possible to interpret the year as 133 if the numerical symbols are taken into account. Then the expression Satë trimsaty-adhikë should be changed to Sate trayas-trimsatyadhikē. The omission of trayas before trimsat may be, as suggested by Dr. B. Ch. Chhabra, a case of haplography due to the carelessness of the engraver.
Notwithstanding the investigations of a host of scholars, the latest of them being Prof. Mirashi, the starting point of the Ganga era is still a riddle awaiting a satisfactory solution. Dr. Fleet? who tried to arrange the Ganga genealogy and fix the starting point of the era by basing his arguments on the synchronism afforded by the Gödāvari grant of Prithivimüla, gave it up as the identification of Indrabhattāraka with Indrabhattāraka of the Chālukya dynasty did not stand scrutiny. On the other hand, Mr. G. Ramadas: basing on the astronomical details supplied by the grants themselves fixed 349 A. C. as the initial year of the Ganga Era ; but this was questioned by Mr. R. Subbarao' who, following the line of argument of Fleet, identified Indrabhattāraka of the Gödāvari grant of Prithivimüla with Indrabhattārakavarman of the Vishnukundin family and fixed the date of commencement of the Ganga era to be some time between 492 and 496 A.C.
This was disputed by Mr. Somasekhara Sarma', as the chronology of the Vishnukundins itself has not been satisfactorily fixed, and as there was no agreement among scholars in the arrangement of the pedigrees furnished by the copper plate records of the rulers of the Vishnukundin family." After an exhaustive discussion with the help of astronomical details supplied by the grants Mr. Somasekhara Sarma surmised that the Pūrņimānta system of reckoning was followed during the rule of the early Gangas and that the "Epoch of the Ganga Era began in the Saka year 426-7 or 504-5 A.C. between June and January of that year". Prof. Mirashi of Nagpur, after detailed exainination of the Ganga dates showed that the "Ganga Era commenced on amänta Chaitra su, di, 1 in the Saka year 420 (the 14th March A.D. 498). In his note on the Ponnuturu plates of Ganga Bämantavarman he also suggested that though the Purnimänta scheme has been used in two of the earlier grants of the Ganga Era, the Amanta scheme has been adopted in later grants. If the surmise that the discrepancy in the numerical symbols employed in the present record is a scribal error and the suggested correction be accepted, then the grant was made in the year 133. It should be taken as the current year. The grant is said to have been made on the occasion of a solar eclipse on the new moon day of Srāvana. Calcluating from the starting point fixed by Prof. Mirashi, i.e., Saka 420 plus 132 expired years of the era, we get 8. 552 (630 A. C.) as the date of the grant. According to Swamikannu Pillai's Indian Ephemeris, on the 13th of August of that year there was a solar eclipse; but this was in the month of Bhadrapada.
The village Tötavataka is said to have been situated in the Kröshtukavartani vishaya. Kroshtukavartani appears in many of the early Ganga plates as the name of a territorial division and has been identified with the area round about the Narasannapeta taluk in the Srikakulam
1 Ind. Ant., Vol. XVI, pp. 131 ff. * J BORS, Vol. IX, pp. 398 ff. : JAHRS, Vol. II, pp. 148 ff. . Ibid., Vol. V, p. 171 ff. and Ind. Cult., Vol. IX, No. 1, pp. 141 ff. . Above, Vol. XXVII, p. 192. 6 Ibid., Vol. XXVIII, pp. 171 fr.