________________
146
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JUNE, 1897.
deity, set up an image of Kunram Erinda Pillaiyâr or the young divinity who pierced the hill,' meaning of course Subrahmanya with reference to his destruction of the mountain of Krauucha; and the temple authorities always encouraged the creation of such sub-shrines as it invariably tended to increase the temple endowments and to enlarge the establishment under their control. In this case, the pious son invested 15 achchu for the support of his mother's favourite deity, and since the interest thereon was enough to fetch every day one náli and a half of rice and vegetables, the amount could not but be regarded as considerable. Even at 12 per cent. 15 achchu could not have yielded as interest more than 1-8 achchu per year, which, putting aside the vegetables, was found enough to purchase 549 nális of rice or over 26 purus of paddy, assuming the nali of 396 M. E. to have corresponded to a nali of our own times. The achchu horo referred to therefore must have been a gold coin certainly worth more than 10 of our modern depreciated rupees. Unlike the two previous donors, Paratan appears to have been a native of South Travancore itself, as Alûr, his native village, is a well-known locality in the Erneil Taluka, or, as it was then called, Ranasinganallur. The term Vikramachōlapaṇḍiyapuram used as a synonym of Alûr is of course another illustration of the persistent Chôla policy of creating a geographical nomenclaturo to suit their own vanity. The language of this and the previous inscription being in excellent Tamil, we have to suppose either that there were abont this timo learned men attached to the templo to draft out such documents, or that tho great Chola conquest of Nâñchinâd tended to the spread of general knowledge and learning. It is likely that this endowment was made like the previous one in the reign of Sri-ViraRaman Koralavarman of the Kaḍinangulam inscription.20
ON THE DATES OF THE SAKA ERA IN INSCRIPTIONS. LY PROFESSOR F. KIELHORN, C. I. E.; GÖTTINGEN. (Conchulal from Vol. XXV. p. 204.)
Locality of the Era.
THE earliest genuine inscription, the dato of which is explicitly referred to the Saka era, is the Bâdâmi cavo inscription of S. 500, of the time of the Western Chalukya Mangalisvara and his elder brother Kirtivarman I., No. 13 of my chronological list; and the list contains altogether 15 dates of the Western Chalukyas of Badami, the latest of which is No. 39 of S. 679, of the reign of Kirtivarman II. We next have 30 dates of the Rashtrakutas of Malkhod and the Gujarat branches of the Rashtrakuta family, the first of which is No. 37 of S. 675, of the time of Dantidurga, and the last No. 89 of S. 904, which records the day on which Indra IV. died. Following upon the inscriptions of the Rashtrakutas, the inscriptions of the Western Chalukyas of Kalyana furnish 41 dates of the list, from No. 88 of S. 902, of the time of Taila II., to No. 198 of S. 1106, of the time of Sômêsvara IV. Contemporaneous with some of these dates, we also have 9 dates of the Kalachuryas of Kalyana, tho carliest of which is No. 175 of S. 1079, of the time of Bijjana-Tribhuvanamalla, and the
26 The unfortunate death of this valued Native contributor has brought this paper to an untimely end.
1 Among the dates Nos. 1-12 there are three (of S. 169, 272 (?), and 888) from spurious Western Ganga, and three (of S. 400, 415, and 417) from spurious Gurjara inscriptions. The earliest date of the list from a genuine Western Ganga inscription is No. 62 of 3. 809.
The chronological list actually gives 35 dates, but three of them (Nos. 54, 55 and 61) are reckoned here as belonging to the Silaras, and one (No. 79) to the Western Gangas, while one (No. 60) is not authentic.
The number would have been much larger if the Western Chalukyas had dated all their inscriptions in years of the Saka era. But Vikramaditya VI. mostly used an era of his own, the so-called Chalukya-Vikrama-varsha or Chalukya-Vikrama-kála, or, in other words, had his inscriptions dated in regnal years; and this practice of quoting regnal (and Jovian) years only has been largely followed by his successors (as well as by the Kalachuryas).
A later date for this king is furnished by the inscription quoted under No. 137, which, as I now learn, is oue of Somesvara IV., dated in S. 1111 (not 1011).
