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August, 1889.)
THE COINS AND HISTORY OF TORAMANA.
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Sura michandra is governing, with the qualities of a regent of one of the quarters of the world, (the country that lies) between the rivers) Kalindi and Narmada, (and) is onjoying in the world the glory of (being) a Maharaja." And so far, with the exception of the words saxit 100 60 5, the record is in verse, with an irregularity in the first pada of each of the first two stanzas. Then, in prose, commencing with the words “on this (lunar) day, (specified) as above by the year and month and day," there comes the description of the brothers Mâtsivishnu and Dhanyavishnu, with their ancestry for three generations; and the statement that they conjointly set up the column, as a flag-staff of the god Janârdana. And the record ends with the benediction, -"let prosperity attend all the subjects, headed by the cows and the Brahmaņa!" The boar inscription opens with a verse in praise of Vishņu in the form of the Boar. Then follows the date, -"in the first year; while the Vahárájádhirája, the glorious Tôramâna, of great fame (and) of great lustre, is governing the earth ; on the tenth day of the month) Phálgana ; on this (lunar day), specified) as above by the regnal year and month and day, (and) invested as above with its own characteristics." And, in a very similar fashion to the irregularity in the metre in the opening verses of the pillar inscription, the first half of the passage containing the date, lying between two verses in the Arya metre, commences in the same metre, and was evidently intended to be completed as a verse; but it winds up in prose, probably because the composer found it difficult to adapt the paramount title, mahárájádhirúga, to the metre. The rest of the record is in prose; and except for the differences due to the necessity of here describing Mâtsivishņu as deceased, and to the fact that the object of this record was & stone temple of the god Nårâyaņa (Vishnu) in the form of the Boar, it is word for word identical with the corresponding portion of the pillar inscription. And it ends with the same benediction, — " let prosperity attend all the subjects, headed by the cows and the Brâhmans !" The analogous shortcomings in the metrical portions, suggest that the two records were composed by one and the same person, - a man not quite perfect in the art of versification. But at least it is plain that all the formal part of each was taken from the same standard draft. And from either point of view, the contrast between the manner in which the year of the Gupta era, and no regnal year, is used in the pillar insoription, and the manner in which the boar inscription is dated, not in any year of an era, but only in the first regnal year (rajya-varsha), shewa emphatically that this latter record was composed and engraved during the very first year of Tôramâna's possession of that part of the country.
But, ooming down, as Toramana did, from the extreme north-west corner of India, it is impossible that he could establish himself, as the first of a new, hostile, and foreign dynasty, in the most southern part of the Gupta territory, in absolutely the first year of his reign. Such a journey and such a conquest can only have been the work of much time, facilitated by power socumulated during several years of sovereignty elsewhere. And such Bovereignty elsewhere, in his own part of the country, is proved partly by the use, on his coing, of the year 52, which, as we have now seen, cannot possibly denote the duration of his reign in Málwa, and must be reckoned from some initial year considerably anterior to the date of his appearing in that part of the country; and partly, and even still more plainly, by the
Kara' ingoription referred to above. In that record, indeed, he has the title of Maharaja; which, interpreted in accordance with the purely Hindu custom of the period, would indicate only feudatory rank. But before it there stands another title, now partly effaced, which was either Rdjdtirdja or Rájddhiraja. And the two together are precisely the two titles which the IndoScythians, differing from the Hindu custom, and in spite of the fact that many of their records must have been drafted by Hindus, used to indicate paramount sovereignty.
It is plain, therefore, that Toramana did exercise sovereign sway in the Panjab; at the beginning of his career, and before he commenced the campaign in the course of which he eventually reached Malwa, If, now, we interpret the year on his coins as a regnal year, it
I hope to write ere long = fall note on Hindu and Indo-Soy thian Titles of Paramount Sovereignty. Meanwhile see some remarks, in connection with the title Mahdrája, in Corp. Inser. Indio. Vol. III. D. 15. cote 4.
