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154
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JUNE, 1883.
known to me, occurs in the Vastupálacharitas | 15, 795. The Kârkán forgot to give the two of Rajasekhara and Harshagani where it is dates separately, and thus made the same asserted" that Simha, the maternal uncle of muddle as the writer of the Morbi plate, who Visala deva Vaghela (Vikrama samvat asserts that the grant was made on the fifth 1300-1318) was a Jeth vâ. The evidence of day of the bright half of Phålguna, on the the style of the Bhûmli temples, taken together occasion of an eclipse of the sun. with that of the two grants is, however, strong The object of our grant is to convey the enough to show that the advent of the Jethvas village of Dhenik & to a Brahmana, called in Kathiâvâd must fall at the latest in the sixth Isvara, who belonged to the Muntalla, (read or seventh century. The question whether the Mudgala), gotra and to a race the name of Morbi and Dhiniki grant belong to the same which is not decipherable. The correctness of person or have been issued by two homoge- the reading Mudgala is attested by the fact nous kings will be discussed in the second part | that the Mudgalas really have three pravaras of this paper. It may suffice to state here that as asserted in the grant." Dhenik & is, of the data contained in the two grants alone do course, the name of the ruined village, now not admit of a definitive settlement of the called "old Dhiniki," where the plate has been question.
found. According to the information collected The date of the Dhiniki sâsana is given as by Colonel Watson and Rão Bahadur G. S. Vikrama samvat 794, new-moon-day of Karttika, Desai, it was a place of great antiquity. The Sunday, under the Nakshatra Jyeshtha. The Râo Bahadur informs me that the ruins contain figure for the year probably refers, as is usual in a pálio, or funeral monument, which shows the Indian dates, to completed years, and the grant date Samvat 779 Asad Sudi 2, or 722-23 A.D. was therefore issued at the end of Kirttika
ned at the end of Karttika If this statement be correct, it certainly fur(in Gujarat the first month) of Vikrama samvat nishes collateral evidence that the village 795. On this supposition the day of the week existed in the beginning of the 8th century. and the Nakshatra have been given correctly. The uncertainty in the readings of the names For Kárttika vadi 15, 795 Vikrama, corresponds of the boundaries given in the grant makes it to Sunday, Nov. 16, 738 A.D., when the difficult to identify them. If it is really true Nakshatra was Jyeshthâ. The grant further that the ocean is mentioned as the northern states that an eclipse of the sun occurred on
boundary, this statement may refer, according that date. But this is a mistake. An eclipse to the authorities quoted, either to a large of the son, which, however, was not visible in creek, into which some streams, rising northKathiâvâd, happened on the new moon of the east and north of old Dhiniki, fall, or to the Ran preceding month Aśvina, i.e., on Saturday, between Okhamandal and Kathiâvåd, which October 18, 738 A.D." The well-known fact formerly seems to have been more extensive that the grants were rarely written on the day than at present. There are also a good many when the donation was made, permits us to dhárs "hillspurs or ridges" near Dhiniki, explain the error with respect to the eclipse.
though none of them now bears the name It may be safely assumed that the village was Rohar which the plate mentions. As given on the last day of Aøvina 794, when the regards the remaining localities mentioned, calculated eclipse occurred, and that the docu. I abstain from all attempts at identifications, ment was drawn up a month later, on the last because the basis afforded by the plate is too day of the following month, Karttika vadi unsafe.
1 Ind. Ant. vol. VI, pp. 190-191 ; vol. XI, p. 99.
The astronomical data in this grant have been kindly caloulated for me by Professor Jacobi of Munster, Dr. Burgess, and Mr. Hutcheon, of Stonehaven, and Dr, Schram, of the Vienna Observatory. All four gentlemen have independently obtained the same results. A separate calculation has also been made in order to ascertain if " Vikrama" could stand for Saka, and decidedly negative result has been obtained.
16 See e.g. N Asik No. 11 B; Burgess, Reports, vol. IV, p. 106.
16 It may be noted that socording to the modern treatises on dana, bathing and gifts are unnecessary on the occasion of calculated eclipses which are invisible in India. But it is, of course, very possible that a king who wished to make a present, chose, in caso no visible eclipse WAS available, the day of a calonlated one, in order to secure greater spiritual merit.
11 Max Müller, Hist, Anc. Sanak, Lit., p. 382.
