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MARCH 1, 1872.]
A CHALUKYA GRANT.
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and the date of his accession to the throne is given that, according to Mr. Elliot, appears to be contained au Shaka 998. This Kali Vikrama is describ- in an inscription at Galaganatha,t that the Shaka ed in one of Mr. Elliot's inscriptions as having set year 1003 corresponds with the fifth year of his aside the ancient Shaka, and established the reign, in which he overcame Balla vargja of Vikrama Shaka in his own name, &c. Tribhu- the Palavanya or Pala race." vana Malla, therefore, mentioned. twice in this The inscription purports to record a grant of grant is most probably the same as that of Mr. twelve villages made by Munja Mahî pati, or Elliot's list, and the Vikrama Samvat of the King Munja to Kanna Så man ta. Bhima grant is the era established by that prince. From is the first mentioned ancestor of King Munja, and the fact that he called himself Vikramaditya, gave is described as born of the race of the Sinda the name of Vikrama Samvat to the era he estab- kings. His eldest son was Sinda Raja. His lished, and lastly, that he began it on the first tithi son Munja Raja is the grantor of the Shasana. of the Shukla fortnight of Kartika, the day on The grant accordingly makes mention only of the which the year of the old Vikrama epoch com- father and the grand father of Munja. Bhima mences--one of two inferences may be drawn. He is further described as being pratyandalachatuh may have set his era in opposition to that of the sahasradeshadhipatih, about the meaning of which Shaka King, Shâlivahana, which was then, as now, I am not quite certain. Pratyandaka might be a prevalent in the Dekhan, and attempted to super- square measure of land, and the epithet may mean, sede it the more effectually by giving his own the lord of four thousand pratayndakas of land.' appearance of a revival of the older era of Vikrama, One of the titles of Munja is Bhogavatipurathe great rival of the Shaka King-i.e. by calling parameshvara,'-lord of the city of Bhogavati.' himself Kali Vikrama or Vikrama of the Kali As no other place is mentioned that appears to have or modern age, and commencing it on the same been his capital; but I have not been able to identify day of the month of Kartika as the older era of this city with any town in the Dekhan. Another Vikramaditya. This is probable from the fact, that, epithet of King Munja is Phanindravamshodbhava, according to Mr. Elliot, he is described in an in- or born in the family of the serpents' or the scription as “rubbing out the shaka," and institut- Nagas. Bhima, the grand-father of Munja, ing the Vikrama Era in its stead. The other in- is described as depending for his subsistence on the ference is that wishing to perpetuate his own me- || lotus-like feet of King Tribhuvana Malla mory by the establishment of a new era, he set him- Deva, from which, as also from the manner that self in pposition to the older Vikramaditya, and that prince is mentioned in the grant, it appears attempted to blot out the older era. But whatever that he was a chief under, or a Raja paying tribute might be his object, the fact of its institution is to, Tribhuvana Malla Deva. placed beyond all doubt by some of the inscriptions The grantee is Kanna Så manta, one collected by Mr. Elliot.
of the chiefs subordinate to King Munja, Referring then the date given in the grant to and is also described 29 being & worshipper the era cominenced by Tribhuvana Malla, we of the feet of Tribhuvana Malla. Deva, from find that the cycle year Dundubhi, which is men- which it appears, that, besides being subordinate tioned in the grant as falling in the seventh year of to Munja, he also owed allegiance to the Chalukya the era, fall in Shaka 1004, according to the Dekhanking. He is further described as a devotee of or Telingana method of calculation ; but in that year Shiva and was married to a daughter of the the first of the Shukla fortnight of Kartika falls on Latas. The grant is silent as to the country or Tuesday. The coincidence of Sunday on the first residence of Kanna Samanta, though he probably tithi of Kartika takes place in 1005, but the year belonged to the Karnataka, as some of his titles Dundubhi cannot be made to agree with the Shaka are taken from the Canarese language. year 1005. As, however, the coincidence of the day The grant records the conveyance by sale of of the week with the tithi of the month is more twelve villages which, if I am not mistaken, went by important, as not being likely to have been wrongly the collective name of V & y vada, which appears stated, than the coincidence of a given year of any quite distinct in the plate. Out of the Vâyvad a era with a certain year of the Barhaspatya cycle, villages, the grant states that one village named which at different courts of kings, has from time Takkalikå is excepted. It is interesting to to time been subjected to different methods of cal- note that there is still a village called Tak alki culation,-it may safely be assumed that the grant in the B â gevd i Taluka of the Kaládgi was dated upon the first tithi of Kartika of the
district, not far from the place where the copperShaka year 1005, or 15th of October, 1083, N. S. The plate was discovered. There is also a village called choice of Shaka 1005 as corresponding with the Takli on the northern bank of the Bhinn& about seventh year of the new Vikrama epoch of the
fifteen miles north of Tidgundi, and near the Chalukya prince is strengthened by a statement
village of Dhulk hed. • Gadega inscription No. 7, VII, p. 285 of Mr. Elliot's + Noticed by Mr. Elliot in his paper on Hindu Inscripcollection.
tions, printed in the Journal Royal Asiatic Society vol. IV.
