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OCTOBER, 1894.]
FOUR CHOLA DATES.
297
years of accession as recorded in the grante. Nos. 2 and 3 fix the date of the accession of Kulottunga I. within narrower limite, and No. 4 yields the very day of Vikrama-Chôļa's accession. Before publishing these three dates, I shall discuss afresh the only date admitting of calculation, which has hitherto been found in Chola inscriptions previous to Kulottunga I.
A. - RAJARAJA.
No. 1. - Inscription in the Bilvanathesvara temple at Tiruvallam in the
North Aroot District. This inscription mentions a lunar eclipse which occurred on the day of the autumnal equinox in the 7th year of the great Rajaraja. Dr. Fleet bas pointed out that, within the period to which Rajaraja's reign must be allotted, the only two years in which a lunar eclipse took place at or near the autumnal equinox, were A. D. 991 and 1010. In the first of these two years the eclipse occurred on the day after the equinos, while that of the second year was invisible in India. If the first eclipse is meant in the inscription, the year of Rajaraja's accession would be A. D. 084 or 985, and in the second case A. D. 1003 or 1004. If the second alternative is accepted, the conquest of Vèngi, which according to Rajaraja's inscriptions was effected between the 12th and 14th years of his reign,7 must be placed between A.D. 1015 and 1017, i. e, within the reign of his own son-in-law Vimaliditya. Secondly, as Rajaraja's reign probably terminated in the course of his 29th year, the reign of his son and suocessor RajendraChôļa I. would have commenced about A. D. 1033, and the latter's expedition against Jayasimha III., with whom he fought in the 8th or 9th year of his reign, would fall between 1040 and 1041, while Jayasimha III. refers to wars with Rajendra-Chôle in inscriptions of A. D. 1019 and 1024.o Consequently, we are forced to accept the date of the first lunar eclipse, and the year A. D. 984-85 as that of the accession of the great Rajaraja. With this starting-point, the expedition against vangi fell between A. D. 996 and 998, i. e. within the break of thirty years in the succession of the Eastern Chalukya kings; the accession of Rajendra-Chola I. in about A. D. 1014; and the war between Rajendra-Chola I. and Jayasinha III. which is referred to in the inscriptions of the former, in A. D. 1021 or 1022 An earlier encounter between the two is recorded in an inscription of Jayasimha III. which is dated in A. D. 1019, i. e. the 6th year of Rajendra-Chô!a's reign. The Satyasraya whom Rajaraja boasts of having conquered in the 21st year of his reign 10 (A. D. 1005), must be identified with the Western Chalukya king Satyabraya, who ruled from A. D. 997-98 to about 1008.
B. - KULOTTUNGA-CHOLA I. No. 2. - Inscription in the Nataraja temple at Chidambaram in the
South Arcot District. 1. I Svasti śri | Tiribavanachchakkaravattiga! éri-Kulottunga2. "Sôļađêvar tira-ttaigaiyár Rajarajan Kundavaiy=Alvår 5. .......... nå-pilattai molud-anda Jaya6. dararku når patta-nâl=åņdil 11 Mina=niga! nkyarru Velli pe7. Tra Urðsagi-nål-Idabam pôdal.
. In the forty-fourth year (of the reign) of Jayadhara, who ruled all the four quarters, - at the time (of the rising of the sign) Rishabha on the day of (the nakshatra) Rohiņi, which corresponded to a Friday in the month during which the sign) Mina was shining, - Kundavai 6 ante, Vol. XIX. p. 71. " See my Annual Report for 1891-92, p. 4.
See ibid. • South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I. p. 98, notes 2 and 3, and p. 112 1.
10 See note 7, above. 11 Read Minam.
11 This was a biruda of Kulôttunga-Choļs I.; see South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. II. p. 290, note 11. The actual name of the king is mentioned in connection with the donor, the princess Kundavai.
