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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY,
A JOURNAL OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH.
VOLUME XX.-1891.
THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EASTERN CHALUK YA KINGS.
BY J. F. FLEET, Bo.C.S., M.R.A.S., C.I.E. A FEATURE of special interest in the grants of the Eastern Chalukya kings is the record, A that many of them give, of the length of cach successive reign, commencing with that of the founder of the dynasty, Vishnuvardhana I. or Kubja-Vishnuvardhana, a younger brother of the Western Chalukya king Satyasraya-Pulikesin II. There has been no difficulty in deducing from these details the approximate historical period of each member of the family. But, the lengths of the reigns are mostly stated in even years, without fractions ; the earliest case in which a specific date is given in the Sakn era, is that of Amma II., whose coronation is recorded to have taken place in 'Saka-Samvat 867 (expired); and the reigns anterior to him covered, According to different records, from three hundred and twenty-nine to three hundred and forty years. Consequently, the limits within which the commencement of the reign of Vishņu. vardhana I. might be placed, were rather far apart; and a good deal of uncertainty attended also the dates of some of the intermediate ralerg. As a matter of fact, in the most complete and authentic genealogical list of the family that has yet been given, - that published by Dr. Hultzsch in his South Indian Inecriptions, Vol. I. p. 32, – the initial date of Vishņuvardhana I. has been placed no less than eleven or twelve years before what I shall show to be really the correct time; and Dr. Burnell, in his South-Indian Palmography, placed it, in the first instance five years after, and in the second instance eight or nine years before, the proper time (see page 4 below, note 5). The objects of the present paper are, to determine the exact period within which the starting point of the Eastern Chalukya chronology must be placed ; to adjust the dates of the successive reigns from that time, and to group together such historical details as are furnished by the records of the family and other documents.
There is a record from which we can determine very closely the period of the commencement of the reign of Satyakraya-Pulikasin II. And obviously, this is a preliminary point which must be considered first. The information is given in the Haidark båd grant (ante, Vol. VI. p. 73, line 11 ff.), which records that, while residing at the city of Våtập (Badâmi in the Bijapur District, Bombay Presidency), Pulikesin II. granted the village of Makarappi to a Brâhman, - Atmanah pravarddhamana-rajyabhisheka-samvatsaré tritiye Sakanipati-samvatsara-satêshu chatustrims-fidhikesha pañchagv-atitêshu Bhadrapad-åmâvâsyå7&m sûryya-grahaņa-nimittam, -"in the angmenting third year of (my) own installation in the sovereignty; when five centuries of the years of the Saka king (or kings), increased by the thirtyfourth (year), have gone by; on the new-moon day of the month) Bhadrapada; on account of an eclipse of the sun." I bave had this date ander consideration twice before ; and it is
