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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1889.
perhaps some of the latest of the Valabhi records. Another point is the wonderful mixture of verse and prose in lines 2 to 11; in respect of which, as I have said above, anyone who can understand the text can satisfy himself that the metrical passages really are fragments of verses, taken plainly from some other document, and not words which only incidentally have assumed & metilval shape. For this I can eall to mind no parallel whatever. And another point is the abrupt transition from Sanskrit to Old-Kanarese in line 16, not only in the middle of a sentence, but even in passing from an adjective in Sanskrit, used moreover erroneously in the nominative case, to the Kanarege dative which it is intended to qualify. For this, again, I can call to mind no analogous instance. In fine, how anyone can apply the present record seriously, is to me quite incomprehensible. The points to which I have drawn attention stamp it unmistakably as a document that has been pieced together, in the most careless fashion, and by a very ignorant and clumsy person, from perhaps half-a-dozen different sources, so that, whatever substratam of fact there may be in any of the passages included in it, taken as a whole it is a worthless, document, utterly useless for any historical purposes. It is by no means the first specimen of its kind from the same part of the country. On the spurious Western Gaiga grants, of which one is the Mallohalli record referred to above, through which the present record has been connected with them. I have written elsewhere (Dynasties of the Kangrese Districts, p. 11 ff). Wearisome as is the task of dealing in detail with such records, I have now treated fally of the present inscription, because, like the Western Gaiga grants, and in special connection with one of them, it has misguidedly and misleadingly been accepted from a serious point of view; and because, in the face of such treatment, it was necessary that its nature should be plainly exhibited. As far as it can be determined palæographically, and especially by the marked wave in the upper part of the vowel á as attached to consonants, which first began to appear about the end of the seventh century A. D., -see, for instance, the Harihar grant of the Western Chalukya king Vinayaditya, ante, Vol. VII. p. 300, Plate,-the date of its concoction might perhaps be placed about the commencement of the eighth century A.D.; but certainly no earlier. As, however, I cannot find any date in the eighth century which gives us the Rêvati nakshatra, at sunrise or at any time during the day, coupled with an eclipse of the sun on a Sunday answering to either tha párnimánta or the amanta Phålguna new-moon, it would appear that, unless the given details are purely imaginative, the record must be referred to a later time than A. D. 800.
TEXT.2
First Plate. 1 Om? Svasti (11*) Tad'-ann jayati râjâ râjamâna[h*] Sva-diptyä raviraiva
Ravidatto dattavin dharmmal-karal a[isi)- . 2 diśi vijit-îrêreyyasya viryya-pratâpah sakalam-avani-désar Bantatar sam
pada(ta)nti [1] Vidya-v[i]. 3 nå(na)y-Ativihita-vrittaḥ niti®-sastra-prayoga[t*) îsiderâjâ vidita-vijayah Kabyapo 4 Rashtrave(va)rmma tat-putrô=bhůt samara-mukha-huta-pri(pra) huta-sûrapurusha
taraga-va5 ra-våré(ra)pa[b*] chaturddasa (sa)-vidyasthîn-adhigata-vimala-ma’tiḥ gaja-vara(rů)tha
gatire-Nnagadatto nårêndrah tat-putrasya 6 rddantal vimardda-vimsidita-visvamba (mbha)radhipa-maali-mal[AR]-makaranda-punja
pimjarista )-satru-chchô(chů)da-vih[i*]ta-yasas-sûsa . .
? From the original plates.
• Represented by a symbol. • Metre, Malint. This is the only complete verse in the body of the grant: . After this rmma, a na or n seems to have been engraved and cancelled. • Matre, MandAkrántá; as far as putra-bhot or samara. . First mi was engraved ; and then the i was partially cancelled. • Metre, Mandákrantà or Sragdhard; as far as narendral.
. Read chaturddanta.
