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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(APRIL, 1882.
Three inscriptions of this dynasty have been edited in this Journal ;-1, in Vol. VI., p. 59, by Dr. Bühler, the Rådhanpur copper-plate grant of Govinda III., dated Saka 730 for 729 (A. D. 807-8), the Sarvajit sarivatsara, at the time of an eclipse of the sun on the new-moon day of the month Sravana ;-2, in Vol. V., p. 144, by Dr. Bühler, the Kåvi copper-plate grant of Govinda IV., dated Saka 749 (A. D. 827-8), on the full-moon day of the month Vaiba kha ;-and 3, in Vol. I, p. 205, by Mr. Samkar Pandurang Pandit, the Salotgi stone- tablet of Kộishna IV., dated Saka 867 for 869 (A. D. 947-8), the Plavamga samvatsara, at the time of an eclipse of the sun on Tuesday, the new-moon day of the month Bhadrapada. And, in addition to the Elûrâ inscription mentioned above, six other inscriptions have been edited elsewhere. The published versions of these last six inscriptions, however, are not critical, and are inaccurate in many essential points. I shall, therefore, now re-edit them, with facsimiles prepared for this purpose under my own superintendence; and I shall give, at the same time, several other inscriptions of this dynasty that I have obtained in the Canarese country.
The first of these inscriptions is the Sáma ngad copper-plate grant of Dan tidurga or Dantivarma II., also called Khadgåvaloka, or "he whose glances were as (bright as the polished blade of) a sword." This grant was originally published by Bal Gangadhar Såstrî, in the Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc., Vol. II., p. 371.' I re-edit it now from the original plates, which are in the Library of the Royal Asiatic Society. They were found at Sâmangad, a hill-fort in the Kolhapur territory, about twentyfour miles to the N. by W. from Belgaum, The plates are three in number, each about 93 long by 51' broad; the edges of them were raised into rims to protect the writing, and, though the surfaces are corroded here and there by rust, the inscription is legible throughout. The ring, on which the plates are strung, had not been cut when the grant came into my hands; it is about " thick and 3" in diameter. The seal on the ring is circular, about 2" in diameter; and it has, in relief on a countersunk surface, an image of the god Siva, sitting
with his knees bent so that the soles of his feet touch each other, and holding a serpent in each hand, with the coils of one of them wrapped round his body; over his left shoulder is the sun, and probably there was a moon, now worn away and indistinguishable, over his right shoulder; and beside his left knee there is a svastika. The language is Sanskrit throughout.
The grant is dated in Saka 675 (A. D. 753-4), in both words and figures; and it is the earliest known inscription in which the date is expressed by figures arranged according to the decimal system of notation. The object of it is to record the grant of a village in the bhukti or district called the Koppara Five-hundred. I cannot find this name, or the names of any of the other villages mentioned, anywhere in the neighbourhood of Sâmangad ; and this part of the grant is open to the suspicion of having been tampered with, as the latter part of the name of the village granted, and the names of certainly three out of the four villages specified as constituting the boundaries of it, are engraved over passages that were cancelled by heating the plates and beating in the letters originally engraved. This may have been necessitated by mistakes on the part of the engraver; but it is more likely to have been done with the object of falsifying the grant and making it applicable to another village than that which was really bestowed by it. The grant was made to a Brâhman, Narayanabhatta, an inhabitant of Karah â taka; this place must be the modern Karåd or Karhad, the
Kurrar' of the maps, in the Sattará District, about forty miles to the north of Kôlhåpur.
This inscription gives us no historical information regarding Govinda I. and Karka I. In respect of Indra II, all that it records is that his wife, whose name is not given, was of Chalukya descent on her father's side, and of Soma vans a descent on her mother's side; from this, we are probably justified in inferring that, in the time of Indra II., the Rashtrakūtas had not yet come into any hostile contact with the Western Chalukyas or made any attempt to dispossess them. Of Dantidurga, we are told that he acquired supreme dominion by easily conquering Vallabha, and that he
P. 104
i Compare ratndvaka, in No. XCVI., 1. 2; Vol. X.,
• The Sastri's paper is accompanied by a hand-copy of the original; but it is by no means a facsimile, and it
represents the original very imperfectly. * Lat 16° 11' N., Long. 74° 29' E.
Lat. 17° 18' N., Long. 74° 15' E.
