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MAY, 1890.)
SORAB GRANT OF VINAYADITYA.
147
formed. Of the record itself, the language is Sanskrit throughout. There is a standard verse in praise of Vishnu in line 1; and three of the customary benedictive and imprecatory verses are quoted in lines 27 to 31; with these exceptions, the record is in prose. - In respect of orthography, we have to notice (1) the use of the an usvára instead of the proper nasal, in ánaitara, line 11; kanchi, lines 11 and 12; srinngasya, line 12; nuramjanah, line 15; and peripärakusatrát, line 16; (2) the use of the Dravidian ! and !, in chôļa and kerala, line 12, álupendra, line 20, and edevolal or edevolal, line 23; (3) the use of v for b throughout, in pranivaddha, line 6; váléndu, line 14; valam, twice, line 14; vádhá, line 24; and vahubhir, line 27; (4) the doubling of k before r, once, in parákkram, line 5; (5) the doubling of sh after r, in varshsha, line 30; and (6) the omission to double t after r, in kártikeya, line 3, where the second t is etymologically necessary, and in kirti, twice, line 6, where the doubling is customary, though not necessary; in the same word in line 10, the t is doubled as usual.
The inscription is a record of the Western Chalukya king Vinayaditya, who had the biruda or secondary name of Satyabraya; and the charter recorded in it, is issued from his victorious camp at the village of Chitrasedu. It is non-sectarian; the object of it being only to record the grant of a village to a Brahman, which was made at the request of the Maharaja Chitravaha, the son of the Alupa king Gunasagara.
The local places mentioned are, the village of Chitrasedy,' at which Vinayaditya's camp was, when he made the grant, and which is specified as being in the Toramara vishaya; and the granted village, Salivoge, which is defined as being in the Edevolal vishaya in the north-east quarter in the vicinity of the town of Vaijayanti. This last word, Vaijayanti, is a name of the modern Banawasi, in the 'Sirsi Tâlaka, North Kanara, Indian Atlas, Sheet No. 42 (see Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts, p. 7, note 2, and p. 8, note 3), which is also mentioned under the names of Vanavasi in line 6 of this record, in a standard passage, and of Banavasi at the beginning of the Old-Kanarese endorsement; another of its names was Jayantipura. The names of Edevolal, or Edevolal, for which some other references are given in the second of the notes quoted above for Vaijayanti, and of Salivoge, which in the OldKanarese endorsement has the later form of Salivuge, remain to be identified.
The details of the date on which the grant was made, and which is of interest because it gives the earliest mention but one of a week-day in an inscription from Southern India, are: -'Saka-Samvat 614, distinctly specified as expired; the Dakshiņayana-Samkranti or summer solstice, which is to be taken as represented by the Karka-Sankranti or entrance of the sun into Cancer; the Rohini nakshatrs; and Sanaiścbaravåra or Saturday. The lunar month, and the tithi, or the civil day, are not given. With Prof. K. L. Chhatre's Tables, I find that in Saka-Samvat 615 current, -. e. applying the given year as an expired yeur, in accordance with the text, - the Karka-Sankranti occurred on Saturday, 22nd June, A. D. 692, at about 2 ghatis, 26 palas, after mean sunrise, for Banawasi. Any rites and ceremonies conneoted with the samiránti, would be performed on this day. And this is evidently the correct English equivalent of the given date. On this day there ended, at about 2 gh. 37 p., the tithi sukla 2 of the second or natural Ashadha; acoepting the statement of the published Tables that in this year the month Asha dha was intercalary. But the nakshatra does not work out correctly. Por, by Prof. Jacobi's Tables, at sunrise on the 22nd June, the moon, instead of being in Rôhiņi, No. 4, was in Asleshâ, No. 9, by the equal-space system of the nakshatras and by the Garga system of unequal spaces, and in Magha, No. 10, by the Rrahma-Siddhanta system of unequal spaces. Nor can the nakskatra be intended to apply to,
1 See page 143 above, note 1. In the present name, the first two syllables suggest that the last two are probably a corruption of the Sanskrit aétu; but the real name may be Chitrasedu, with the lingual & in the last syllable.
The other instance from Southern India, earlier than this, is in the grant, dated in the second year of the Kastorn Chalukya king Vishnuvardhana II., ante, Vol. VII. p. 189, line 66.; the equivalent English date is in A.D. 164. The only earlier instance, from any part of the country, is in the Beap pillar inscription of Budhagupta, dated in A.D. 484, from the Central Provinces, Gupta Inscriptions, No. 19.
3 The times here are for Banawasi, all through.
