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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXXII
The details of the date on which the grant was made are:-Saka-varsha 630 (specifically mentioned as expired), eleventh regnal year, Ashāḍha, paurṇamāsī. The date is not verifiable, since the week-day is not given. Fleet has shown, on the strength of the Aihole inscription, that the month Śravana of Saka year 619 current (A.D. 696) was the first month of the first year of this king. Accordingly Ashadha of Saka 630 current would fall in the eleventh regnal year and not of the expired Saka year as mentioned in the record. The date mentioned in the record would fall on Monday 20th June, A.D. 707.3
The inscription under study is interesting in more than one respect. The grant was issued when the royal camp was at the place called Kisuvolal. This place has been identified with modern Paṭṭadkal in Hungund Taluk, Bijapur District. It occurs as Kesuvolal in the Mahākuța inscription of Mangalesa and as Paṭṭadakisuvolal in later records. Paṭṭadkal, together with Bādāmi and Aihole, formed the metropolis of the early Chalukyas of Badami and it was specially at Paṭṭadkal that the festival of patta-bandha (fillet-binding, i.e. coronation) was being celebrated. It may be pointed out that Kisuvolal is called a sthāna in our inscription whereas Vātāpi, i.e. Bādāmi is styled as adhishṭhāna in some of the early records. Some of the other grants of Vijayaditya have been issued from Rāsēnagara, Karahaṭanagara, Eläpura, Kuhunḍinagara, 10 and Raktapura.11 The last name Raktapura also occurs as the place of royal camp in the Kendur plates of Kirtivarman II, the grandson of Vijayaditya. While editing the Kendur plates, Prof. K. B. Pathak suggested the identification of Raktapura with modern Lakshmeśvar in the Shirahatti Taluk of the Dharwar District. Fleet also was inclined to hold the same view. 13 This view is, however, not correct. We know that the ancient name of Lakshmeśvar was Puligere, Purigere, Pulikara, or Purikara. In the inscription under study itself the forms Purigere, Pulikara and Purikara occur. We have to identify Raktapura with Kisuvolal from where the graut under consideration was issued. In fact Kisu or Kesu-volal in Kannada means 'red city' (kisu 'red', volal polal' city') and it is quite clear that Raktapura is only a Sanskrit rendering of the Kannada name.
In line 32 of the inscription under study it is stated that Vijayaditya had gone to Vanavasi in order to see the Alupa king and lines 32-36 inform us that the name of this Alupa ruler was Chitravahana and that he belonged to the Pandya lineage. The early history of the Alupa rulers is still shrounded in obscurity. We know from the Sorab plates 15 of the Chalukya king
1 Ind. Ant., Vol. VIII, p. 284.
1 Bomb. Gaz., Vol. I, part II, p. 370, note 5.
See Indian Ephemeris, Vol. I, part ii, p. 18.
Ind. Ant., Vol. XIX, p. 17.
Progress of Kannada Research in Bombay Province, 1941-1946, p. 54.
Karnatak Inscriptions, Vol. I, Nos. 1, 2 and 4. For a discussion of the terms sthana and adhish!hāna meaning celebrated centres of religion, see Introduction to the same volume, pp. iii-v.
Ind. Ant., Vol. IX, p. 125.
Above, Vol. X, pp. 146 ff.
Ind. Hist. Quart., Vol. IV, p. 425.
10 An. Rep. S. I. E., 1934-35, App. A, C. P. No. 22.
11 Above, Vol. XXV, pp. 21 ff.
12 Ibid., Vol. IX, pp. 201 ff. A few stone records of Vinayaditya, Vijayaditya and Vikramaditya found at Lakshmesvar are also issued from the city of Raktapura. Fleet has pointed out that these records, which are in the nature of copper-plate grants, were put on stone sometime later in the 10th century A. D. See Bomb. Gaz., Vol. I, part II, pp. 368, 373 note 1, and p. 376.
13 Bomb. Gaz., Vol. I, Part II, p. 304 note 6.
14 The Halmiḍi inscription of Kadamba Käkustha dated circa 450 A.D. mentions one Alapa (Mys. Arch-Rep., 1936. p. 73) and the Mahaküte inscription of Mangalesa (Ind. Ant. XIX, p. 17) refers to an Aluka. We do not know whether they belonged to the early Alupa or Alupa dynasty.
1 Ind. Ant., Vol. XIX, pp. 146 ff; Ep. Car., Vol. VIII, Sb. 571.
