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SEPTEMBER, 1878.)
SANSKRIT AND OLD CANARESE INSCRIPTIONS.
209
SANSKRIT AND OLD CANARESE INSCRIPTIONS.
BY J. F. FLEET, Bo. C.S., M.R.A.S.
(Continued from p. 192.) No. XLIV.
silhasya had to be interpreted as a proper name THE date that has hitherto been accepted by at all, it would be a title of Jayasi ha, not
1 Sir Walter Elliot and other authorities, for of Ranaråga. the era of the early Chaluky a king Puli. The grant then mentions a feudatory of his, kesi I., is Saka 411 (A.D. 489-90), based on a Sâmiyâ ra, of the Rundranila-Saincopper-plate grant presented by Captain T. B. draka family, who was his governor for the Jervis, of the Bombay Engineers, to the British Kuhun di district. It then purports to record Museum. A transcription of this grant is given that Samiyar a built a Jain temple at the city at Vol. I., p. 9, of the Elliot MS. Collection, and of Alaktakanagara, which was the chief has also been published, with an abstract trans- town of a circle of seven hundred villages in lation, by Mr. Wathen, at Jour. R. As. Soc., that district, and, with the permission of the Vol. V., p. 343. The authenticity of this grant king, made grants of certain lands and villages has been questioned by Mr. Fergusson and Dr. to the temple on the occasion of an eclipse of Eggeling. I now reëdit it with the object of the moon on the day of the full-moon of the dispelling any doubt that may remain as to its month Vais A kh a irr the Vibhava saivatbeing really a fabricated document of compa- sara, when the Saka year 411 had expired. ratively modern date.
It is just possible that Saka 411 is the corThe plates are five in number, each about 8" rect date for Pulike sil. Bat I am inclined long by 45" broad. The edges of the plates to doubt even this. For, he was succeeded by are raised into rims to protect the writing. Dr. his son Kirttivarma I.; and he, again, Burnell tells us, at p. 72, para. 4, of his South- by his younger brother Mangaliśvara, at Indian Palæography, that the earliest instances whose death the succession went back to of this practice belong to the ninth or tenth Pulike si II, or Satya éra ya, the son of century. But I find it, accidental or not as Kirttivar må I. I know of no other inthe case may be, in the plates of the grant of
scription purporting to be of the time of PuliVijayabhattarika, No. XLI. of this Se- kasi I., and of none of the time of Jay &ries, at p. 163 above; and two other sets of simha, Raņar & ga, or Kirttivarma I. the Nerar grants, which, also, I have no reason Of the time of Mangaliśvara, there is only for assuming to be forgeries, have very decid- one that bears a date,--the stone-tablet inscriped raised rims, undoubtedly intentional. The tion in Cave No. III. at Badâmi, my transcription ring on which they are strung is about thick and translation of which are published at Vol. and 31" in diameter. It has the appearance of IV., p. 363. It is dated in the twelfth year of his not having been cut; but, as both photographs reign," when Saka 500 had expired." This and casts have been taken of these plates, it makes his reign commence in Saka 488 or 489. must have been cut and very carefully joined Of his successor, Pulike si II., again, there are again. The seal of the ring is oval, and has two inscriptions with dates ;-one, a copper-plate the representation of a boar, facing to the grant, No. XXVII. of this Series, at Vol. VI., proper right. I have no information as top. 72, dated in the third year of his reign, where the plates were found, except that it was " when Saka 534 had expired"; and the other, somewhere in the Southern Maratha Country, the stone-tablet inscription at the Mégati or in the Karnataka.
temple at Aihole, No. XIII. of this Series, at The grant gives the genealogy of Pulikesi, Vol. V., p. 67. When I published this latter from his grandfather Jayasinha, and his inscription, I took the date of it to be " when father Rana råga. In 11. 7-9 occurs the pas- Saka. 506 had expired"; but, for reasons that sage, Jayasinhasya rája-siinhasya sunuh... I shall explain on a future occasion, I now Ranarágô bhavat, from which Sir Walter Elliot, hold, and will show, that it is dated" when at Madr. Jour. of Lit. and Science, Vol. VII., Saka 556 had expired", and that Pulike si p. 200, deduced, but doubtfully, 'Rajasimh a' II. did commence to reign in Saka 531 or 532. as a second name of Ranaråga. If rája. From the mention in l. 8 of the Aihole inscrip
