Indian Antiquary Vol 18

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 78

66
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MARCH, 1889.
necessitated forcing back the date of the immediately preceding actual king in each instance to a period long before the true one; and that no completely satisfactory solution can be arrived at, until we are able to determine which of the names have to be eliminated on these grounds.
The first step towards the soquisition of a reliable text of the poem was made by Dr. Bühler, who visited Kaśmîr in 1875, and obtained there a complete Sårada MS. of the Rájataragini itself, which is now in the Bombay Government Collection; a collation of another MS., which he has kindly placed at my disposal; some explanatory treatises and abstracts; and some MSS. of the Nilamata-Purána and other counected works. His valuable report was publishod in 1877, as an Extra Number of the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. And an extract from it, pp. 52 to 60, referring specially to the Rájatarasgimi, and including a translation of verses 1 to 107 of the first Taramga, pp lxvi. to lxxxii., has been printed in this Journal, Vol. VI. pp. 264 to 274. From the materials collected by him, with some others obtained by myself during my own visit to Kasmir in 1885, I am preparing & new edition of the text. But the completion of it, of course, is a work of time. And meanwhile, at the desire and with the support of Mr. Fleet, I propose giving in this Journal translations of some of the earlier portions of the book.
Kalhana's narrative opens with a fragmentary account of 52 kings, who were supposed to have reigned for 1266 years. The earliest definite starting point taken by him is the coronation of Yudhishthira; his authority for which (verse 56) is a verse given by Varkhamihira in the Brihat-Sanhita, xiii. 3, as being according to the opinion of Vriddha-Garga :" When king Yudhishthira roled the earth, the seven) seers (ie, the constellation Ursa Major) were in the nakshatra) Maghih; the Saka era (is) 2526 (years) (after the commencement) of his reign." Accordingly, the coronation of Yudhishthira took place 2526 years before the commencement of the Eaka era, or at the expiration of Kaliyuga-Saṁvat 653 (verse 51), and in B.C. 2448. Kalhana himself was writing (verse 52; ante, Vol. XVII. p. 213) in Saka-Samvat 1071 current, i.e. in A.D. 1148-49 "At this present moment, in the twenty-fourth Laukika year (of the popular Kasmiri reckoning by cycles of a hundred years), there have gone by one thousand years, increased by seventy, of the Saka era." And, as an intermediate point, but how arrived at he does not explain, he had the accession of the fifty-third king, Gonanda III., which took place "on the whole," se, roughly, 2330 years before his own time, i.e. in B.C. 1182.
He then proceeded thus:Coronation of Yndhishthira before the Saka era ..... ......... 2526 years; verse 56. Add the years of the Saka era expired up to the time when Kalhaņa was writing
...... 1070 , 52.
3596 Deduct the years expired from the accession of Gônanda III. up to the same time ..................................................... 2330
53. Remainder, the duration of the period of the first fifty-two kings ... 1266 , 54.
He thus obtained 1266 years for the 52 kings in question; his own words (verse 54) beingHence I am of opinion that 1266 years are comprised in the sum of the reigns of the 52 kings." And he made the first of these fifty-two kings, Gônanda I., a contemporary of Yudhishthira.
* I shall use the following abbreviations in my notes:P= the SArada MS., No. 170 of Dr. Bühler's Kaimir Collection, preserved in the Deccan College, Poona.
I owe the use of this most important MS. to the kindness of Mr. Chatfield, Director of Public
Instruction, C=the Caloutta edition.
T=Troyer's edition. K. 3. Dr. Böhler's Detailed Report of a Tour in Kasmir, &c.; Bombay, 1877. A. G. = Gen. Sir A. Cunningham's Ancient Geography of India, Vol. I., London, 1871.
• See also Dr. Bilhler's Report (quoted hereafter a K. R., p. lxxv.), in the note to which the details sro explained in a different manner, but with the same result. Verse 54 seems to oontain the conclusion whioh Khana drew from verses 61 to 83. I take tat in the sense of tammdt, hence'; and I snpply mand with mata. which is the reading of the Sarada M8.