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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXXIII
the Buddha, is said to have flourished long before Udayana, the grandfather of Bhavadēva. He cannot therefore be later than the beginning of the fifth century A.D. In this period, the Chanda District and the surrounding territory were included in the dominions of the Vākātakas. Several inscriptions of the Vākāțaka king Paravarasena II, who flourished in this period, have been found in this region. No king named Suryaghosha could have ruled over this territory in the beginning of the fifth century A.D.: There was, however, another king of this name ruling in Chhattisgarh in this period, viz., Sūra, whose descendant Bhimasēna Il's copper plate inscription dated in G. 182 (501-02 A.D.) was discovered at Ārang itself. Sūra (often written as Sūra) and Sūrya are synonyms in Sanskrit, both meaning the sun'. This also proves the correctness of Aurangabadkar's statement that the inscription of Bhavadēva Raņakēsarin was originally at Arang.
The question still remains: What was that record which, as Cunningham's informants told him, was removed from Bhāndak to Nagpur ? In the absence of reliable information on the point, I previoulsy conjectured that it may have been the Nagpur Museum prasasti of the rulers of Malwa. Here also Aurangabadkar comes to our aid. He has given elsewhere a transcript of the so-called Sitäbaldi inscription of the time of Vikramaditya VI, edited by Kielhorn in this journal, Vol. III, pp. 301 f. Cunningham found this record at Sitebaldi, á suburb of Nagpur ; but it did not evidently belong to that place originally ; for Sītābaldi or Nāgpur was not in existence in the time of Vikramāditya VI of the Later Chālukya dynasty. Abo it four years ago, Dr. Deshpande showed me the transcript of an inscription which Aurangabadkar had found near the old caves at Bhāndak and asked me if it had been published anywhere. I at once identified it with the aforementioned inscription of Vikramaditya VI. This is, therefore, the inscription which, as Cunningham was told at Bhāndak, had been removed by Major Wilkinson from the Wijason Caves of Bhandak to Nagpur.
The foregoing discussion must have made it plain that Bhavadēva Raņakesarin's epigraph originally belonged to Arang. Devarakshita, the ririster of Nannarāja, may have raided the country up to the bank of the Wardhā, but that does not prove that the Pāņduvaṁsis were ruling over the region round Chanda.
Cf. Gachchhati bhūyasi kälē bhūmipatik........ Udayana-námå samutpannab in Bhavadēva's ingcription, JRAS, 1905, p. 626.
*[Soe below. p. 256.-Ed.]
. This has already been pointed out in my aforementioned article on the three ancient dynasties of Mahikosala.
. Above, Vol. XXIII, p. 117.
