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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(MAY, 1886.
earliest and latest dates for Kumäragupta. But we have the well-known Bilsad inscription of Kumaragapta, which is dated, in words, in the year 98 (Archæol. Sure. Ind. Vol. XI. p. 19, and Plate viii.); and General Cunningham quotes a coin of his which gives the date of 130 odd (id. Vol. IX. p. 24, and Plate V. No. 7.)
Art. XXI."An Insoription of Asokavalla." (p. 357 ff.), by Dr. Bhagwanlal Indraji, gives his text and translation, with remarks, from an impression sent by General Cunningham. This is a Buddhist inscription of the twelfth century A.D., and is of interest as tending to support Dr. Bhagwanlal Indraji's previous suggestion (Ind. Ant. Vol. X. p. 347) that the date of Buddha's nirvana, relied on in the Gaya inscription of the year 1813 from that event, is the Peguan date, B. O. 638.--Dr. Bhagwanlal Indraji origi- nally read the name of the king as Asokachalla. He now corrects this into Agokavalla, and is probably right in doing so. But what is his authority for saying that the second part of the name, valla, is a contraction of vallabha P-His treatment of the details of the date, in line 12, is wrong. He reada Bhadra di 8 rd 29, and translates "the 8th day of the dark half of Bhadrapada, the 29th solar day." But there is nothing in the text, even as he gives it, to represent the
dark half " nor is it explained by him how rd comes to mean " the solar day." The real reading of the original is Bhadra-dind 29.
Art. XXII. "Böhtlingk's Indische Sprüche," (p. 361 ff.), by Pandit Durga Prasada, gives, in a tabular form, the results of a careful examination, based on independent sources, of Professor Böhtlingk's collection of Sanskrit proverbs and lyrical pieces. The paper consists of emendations and brief notes which, judging from the two specimens to which particular attention is drawn on p. xxii., will be of considerable use to students of the original collection.
The concluding paper, Art. XXIII. " An in. scription from Kotah" (p. 378ff.), by Professor Peterson, gives his revised version of an inscription edited by Professor Kielhorn in the Ind. Ant. Vol. XIII. p. 162.-This paper is accompanied by a lithograph, which might as well have been omitted : apart from its peculiar colour, the details of it shew, either that the preparation of it was not properly supervised, or, more probably, that it reproduces a very indifferent impression. I am not at present in a position to say how far Dr. Peterson's rendering of the text is an improvement on Prof. Kielhorn's; but I notice that in the first line he follows a slip of Prof. Kielhornin writing the upadhmaintya, instead of the jihvdmúllya, before k; even his own
lithograph suffices to shew that the original has the jihvdmuliya, as of course might be er. pected, Svátadvip.dnukdrdl=kevachid, &c.-" This "inscription is dated in the 796th year of the "Lords of Málava," which corresponds, as Dr. Peterson tells us further on, to A.D. 740, since "it can be shewn that this era of the Lords of "Malwa is no other than that now known as the "Vikramaditya era." The proof is furnished by an inscription at Mandasôr, discovered under my direction, and incidentally mentioned first by Dr. Bhandarkar on p. 219, note 10, which gives for Kumiragupta the date of the year 494 of this era; or, according to the original," when four hundred and ninety-three years had elapsed by (the reckoning from the tribal constitution of the MAlavas." Dr. Peterson's proposed translation of this date (p. 381), is slightly different, - " when four-hundred and ninety-three years from the establishment (in the country P] of the tribes of the Malavas had passed away." He admite, however, that gana-sthiti, which I render by tribal constitution,' may have another meaning than that which he has suggested for it. And, in passing, in connection with the understanding of these MAlava dates, I would deprecate the translation of Malavesandm by the specific expression of the Lords of Malava" (Prof. Kielhorn, Ind. Ant. Vol. XIII. p. 163; and Dr. Peterson, in the paper under notice, p. 380), or by " of the kings of MAlava" (Dr. Peterson, in his translation, p. 389). It is safer at present to use the legs binding expression of "the Malava lords ;" especially as an inscription at Gyárispur' or
Gyaraspur,' dated when the year 936 of the era had expired (Archeol. Surv. Ind. Vol. X. p. 33f. and Plate xi.), uses the simple expression "MalavaKala," in commenting on which General Cunningham in 1880 recorded his opinion that this MAlava era must be the same as the era of Vikramiditya of Ujjain. Following Dr. Bhagwanlal Indraji in erroneously quoting Gupta-Samvat 98 and 129 as the earliest and latest known dates of Kumaragupta, Dr. Peterson proceeds—" What is the era in the " 494th year of which Kumaragupta was "ruling the wide earth? This is a question to which "I take it there can be but one answer. It is the "era now known as that of Vikramaditya. This "can perhaps be most effectively demonstrated "by beginning at the end, and assuming for the "sake of argument what I desire to prove. "Kumaragupta, then, let us take it, was reigning "in the year 49.1 of the Malava era, that is, of the " Vikramiditya era, that is, in the year AD. 438. "Kumaragupta's earliest and latest known dates, " in the era of his House, are 93 and 129, that is, "the years A.D. 407 and 448. On our hypothesis
