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No. 29-NOTE ON WADAGERI INSCRIPTION OF CHALUKYA V. S. 1
D. C. SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND
(Received on 21.8.1959)
The inscription from Wadagēri in the former Hyderabad State, which belongs to the reign of Chalukya Vikramaditya VI and is dated in the Chālukya Vikrama year 1, is well known to the students of South Indian history for a long time. Fleet refers to it while discussing the date of the uccession of the said Chalukya king in his Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts, 1896. Thus he assigns the beginning of the reign of Vikramaditya VI towards the end of 1076 A.D. and says, "For, on the one hand, we have a date in the reign of Sõmēsvara II that falls in August-September, A.D. 1076 and none after that time. And, on the other hand, the epigraphic records of the time of Vikramaditya VI show that the year A.D. 1076-77, the Anala or Nala sarhvatsara, Saka-Samvat 999 current, commencing with Chaitra sukla 1, which corresponded, approximately, to the 9th March, A.D. 1076, was reckoned as the first year of his reign. That Vikramāditya VI was actually reigning at the commencement of this Saka year does not necessarily foilow. But an inscription at Wadagēri, in the Nizam's dominions, records grants that were made towards the close of the same year, on Phālguna sukla 5, corresponding to the 31st January, A.D. 1077, on account of the festival of the pattabandha or coronation. This shows that he was crowned at least before the end of the year in question, A.D. 1076-77. But whether the record fixes the coronation day, or an anniversary of it, or whether it simply registers grants that were made when the news of the coronation reached the locality, is not clear."
Fleet therefore regarded the occasion of the grants recorded in the Wadagēri inscription alternatively as the coronation of Vikramaditya VI or as its anniversary or as an event occurring sometime after the date of the coronation, although he was obviously more inclined to lean on the first of the three alternative suggestions since he speaks of the epigraphic records of the time of Vikramaditya VI showing the year Nala-1076-77 A.D. to have been the first year of his reign. The third alternative suggestion is, however, unlikely since, as will be seen below, the inscription records the grants of Vikramaditya VI himself. The second alternative is also unlikely as there is no indication in the inscription that the occasion was an anniversary of the coronation and not the coronation itself.
As regards the date of the Wadagēri inscription, Fleet points out, "Prof. Kielhorn has shown (Ind. Ant., Vol. XXII, p. 110) that the week-day (Thursday) given in this record does not work out correctly for the given tithi. But, as he has also said, the results are unsatisfactory with many of the dates of this period. And the records are not necessarily to be rejected as not genuine. In the preceding year and samvatsara, the given tithi and week-day are connected...... And this suggests, to me, that the record may possibly, in a confused manner, refer to an anniversary festival." It will be seen that Fleet assigns the accession of Vikramaditya VI to the close of 1076 A.D. on the strongth of the Wadagēri and other inscriptiong, although here he lays a little
Bomb, Gas., Vol. I, Part ii, p. 446. . Loo. cit. . Loo. cit, noto 6.
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