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APRIL, 1879.]
TWO NEW CHALUKYA GRANTS.
TWO NEW CHALUKYA GRANTS.
WITH COMPARISON OF THE PROFESSED GRANTS BY JANAMEJAYA OF THE SARPA YAGA.
BY LEWIS RICE, BANGALOR.
THE HESE two grants belong to the earliest period of the Chaluky a dynasty. One professes to be of the date S. S. 366 (A. D. 444), and of the time of Vira Nonam ba, a name which is new to the existing list of these kings. The other is without the date of the year, but is a grant by Ambera, the son of Satyaáraya, and therefore belongs to the early part of the 7th century. His name appears as Amara in the original list published by Sir Walter Elliot, but no direct evidence has, so far as I am aware, been hitherto found of his reign.
Vira Nonam ba's grant consists of three copper plates, 10 inches by 6 inches, strung on a metal ring secured with a seal bearing the figure, in relief, one inch long, of what appears something like an elephant, though probably meant for a boar, with the sun and moon above. It was found in the Chief Commissioner's office at Bangalor, and has been there at least since 1859. It is inscribed in Nandi Nagari characters' identical with those used in the Gauj agra håra inscription claiming to be a grant by the emperor Janamejaya, which has been the subject of much controversy. Two other inscriptions similar to that of the Gauj agra hâra are in existence in the same neighbourhood, and the present grant not only resembles all three in the characters in which it is written, but corresponds in many of the details, using the same obscure terms in describing the gift, introducing the same strange mixture of Hale Kannada and Sanskrit, and containing the same spelling of Sanskrit words which disgusted Colebrooke in the Gauj inscription. The present grant, whether it be genuine or not, is thus of value for purposes of comparison, besides the fact of its being dated. The remarks on this inscription will be continued further
on.
Ambera's grant is briefly expressed in pure and accurate Sanskrit, well and very distinctly
See accompanying facsimile of two sides. As. Res. vol. IX. p. 448.
These terse and unambiguous statements seem as if expressly designed to clear up some of the existing doubts
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engraved in Hale Kannada characters. It is on three stout plates, 9 inches by 33, strung on a ring secured with a lump of metal on which is a small stamp of a boar. I met with this interesting inscription at Hosur, about fifty miles north of Bangalor, and there is every reason, I think, to regard it as genuine. After giving the descent of the Chalukya dynasty as usual in the early grants (except that we have Shâriti instead of Hâriti), it commences with Paula kesi, whose second name it informs us was Rana Vikrama. After him it merely mentions "Satya é raya, the conqueror of Harsha Vardhana," and then records the decree as that of "his dear son, called in his own language (sva bhashaya) Ambera." It is not clear what language is meant. Ambera does not appear to be Sanskrit, and the same expression further on undoubtedly refers to Hale Kannada. If formed of the Hale Kannada Ambe and era, the name would signify 'lover of Pârvati.' The gift he made consisted of the grant to thirty-one Brahmans of a village called Periyâli in its (or ? his) own language (sva bhashayd again, and here clearly Hale Kannada), situated in the Konikal district. The only name resembling this known to me is Kunigal, a tâlukâ some thirty miles to the west of Bangalor.
To return to the other grant. The fact of its being in Nagari characters is not in favour of its pretensions, for they were not in use till much later, though an exception is mentioned in an inscription at Seven Pagodas.* The letter J has a second form, T, which I have not noticed before, and which from the places where it is used, is, I think, intended to represent the now obsolete Hale Kannadar, e. It occurs also in the Kuppagade grant.
No mention is made of any former kings of the line-indeed, if the date be accepted,
as to the identity of certain of the early kings. See Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. vol. X. pp. 355, 358.
So. Ind. Pal. p. 43; Trans. R. As. Soc. vol. II. pl. 18.
