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230
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1889.
certainly indicates a long reign. But analogous instances could be quoted for this; and no special exception need be taken to it. And this interpretation of the date is at any rate better than the assumption that it is reckoned from some period, anterior to Tôramâna's accession, at which his own branch of the H&ņas first rose to power; for that would mean that, not satisfied with the Saka era, which was the hereditary and national era of that part of the country, and probably of his own ancestors also, he sought to establish a new era, dating from that event. This, accordingly, is the interpretation that I place upon the date. And, reckoning back from A.D. 515, which is very closely the latest terminal date that can be applied, it follows that the commencement of his reign, at his own capital in the Panjab, is to be placed approximately in A.D. 460.
SANSKRIT AND OLD-KANARESE INSCRIPTIONS.
BY J. F. FLEET, Bo.C.S., M.R.A.S., C.I.E. No. 181.-MULTAI COPPER-PLATE GRANT OF NANDARAJA.-SAKA-SAMVAT 631. This inscription was first brought to notice and published, with a lithograph, by Mr. James Prinsep, in 1837, in the Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. VI. p. 869 ff., and Plate xliv., from the original plates, which were sent in to him by Mr. Mannaton Ommanney, C.S., who had them from Kamal Bharti, a Gosain, resident at Multa1, the chief town of the Multat Tahsil or SubDivision of the Batala District, Central Provinces. Owing to certain inaccuracies in the passage containing the date, Mr. Prinsep was not able to determine the exact period of this record; but had to leave this point uncertain," wavering between 630 and 830” of the Saka era. This question has remained unsettled up to the present time. And, in fact, owing to the omission of a syllable in the published lithograph, it could not well be finally decided without a re-examination of the original. I am, therefore, glad to be able now to re-edit this inscription from the original plates, which were recently re-discovered, and have been sent to me, by Colonel J. A. Temple, Deputy Commissioner, who obtained them from Suphal Bhårti. From Colonel Temple's memorandum it appears that this line of Gôsains, the members of which are celibate, and the succession in which passes from teacher to disciple, inhabit & matha or religious college on the banks of a small tank at Maltai, in which there are the springs that are considered to be the source of the Tapi or Tapti. The tradition is that the first settlement here was made in the middle of the eleventh century A.D., by one Tậpi Bhârti, who threw up an earthen dam, enclosing the springs in question, and built the present matha. By the records of the matha, Suphal Bharti, who is the immediate successor of Kamal Bhårt and the present representative of the line of Gosains, is the tenth in succession after Tapi Bhartf; and he holds, rent-free, the village of Khada-Amla. The matha claims to have possessed, under the Gônd dynasty and the Marathås, also the villages of Barchhi, Bhawari, Datörå, Dhérni, Jamwada, Jarwadi, Pisaca, Rajgaum, and Tawlt, which were resamed by the Government in or about 1815, when Kamal Bhårti and a number of other Gosains refused to accept the introduction of the British rule, and attacked the British forces. And the present grant is supposed to be the titledeed of Khada-Amla and the other nine villages ; and it came to notice through being produced before Mr. Ommanney in the course of an inquiry into rent-free tenures. It does not, however, contain any name answering to any of the above. And Mr. Ommanney, who read the names, except that of Arjunagrama, with sufficient correctness for the purpose, reported that neither have the villages mentioned any resemblance in name to any in the Multat District, nor could he discover any at all like them at Hôshangabad or Jabalpur. It is, therefore, not even certain that the grant really belongs to the locality in which the holders of it have resided for so long
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1 The Mooltai, Mooltye, Multaye, Multai, and Multái,' of maps, &o. Indian Atlas, Sheet No. 78. Lat. 21° 46 N.; Long. 78° 18 E.
- The Baitool, Baitul, and Betúl,' of mapa, &o.
