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FEBRUARY, 1897.]
THREE DATES OF THE HARSHA ERA.
So
THREE DATES OF THE HARSHA ERA. BY PROFESSOR F. KIELHORN, C.I.E.; GÖTTINGEN.
A. - An inscription of [Harsha-]Samvat 184, from the Panjab.
AOME five years ago Dr. Fleet sent me an impression, which he had received in 1887 from the late Prof. J. Darmesteter, of an inscription which is somewhere in the Pañjab. This inscription contains four lines of well-preserved writing which covers a space of about 11" broad by 6" high. The average size of the letters is between 1" and 1". The characters are closely related to those of the Sarada alphabet, as is shown by the forms of the letters t, dh, v, ś, s, h, the medial á, and the superscript ô; but for n the peculiar form of that letter is used which we have, e.g., in the Kâmâ or Kamavana (in Bharatpur) fragmentary pillar inscription of the Sûrasêna family (ante, Vol. X. p. 34, Plate), and in the Bengal As. Soc.'s plate of the Maharaja Vinayakapâla of [Harsha-] Samvat 188 (e.g. in the word sasanasya, 1. 16, ibid, Vol. XV. p. 141, Plate). They include numeral figures for 1, 4, and 8, in line 1, and for 1 and 5, in line 2. Of these, the figure for 4 is the numerical symbol, resembling the akshara nka, which we find (employed like an ordinary numeral figure) e.g. in line 30 of the Chambâ plate of Sômavarmadeva and Asaṭadêval (ibid. Vol. XVII. p. 13); and the figures for 1, 5, and 8, are almost identical with the figures for the same. numerals in the Bakhshâli manuscript (e.g., ibid. p. 47, Plate i.,3 lines 8 and 9). The language of the inscription is Sanskrit; and the whole is in prose. In respect of orthography, it may be noted that g is donbled before r in the word Viggraha, in line 3.
After the words om svasti ml, the inscription has the date samvat 184 Srávana-vati 15 atra pine, in the year 184, on the 15th tithi of the dark half of Sravana, on this day.' This date does not admit of verification, but there can be no doubt that it must be referred to the Harsha era, and that, therefore, it approximately falls in A. D. 789-90, a time which well accords with the palæography of the inscription. As regards the wording of the date, attention may be drawn to the employment, instead of the ordinary vadi, of the term vati, with which we may compare its counterpart suti, for sudi, in the dates of the Delhi Siwàlik Pillar inscriptions of Visaladeva (ibid. Vol. XIX. p. 218). In editing those inscriptions, I have stated that suti and vati are commonly used in Kasmir, and that, therefore, it is not at all strange that we should and instances of the usage of them also in the northern parts of India proper. After the date, the inscription apparently refers itself to the reign of a certain Vigraha, and it then records the foundation of a well or tank by Dhôn[dh]a, the son of Aghôrašiva. It ends with the word likhitam, but the name of the writer is either broken away or was not accessible in the original, when the impression was taken.
Text.
1 Om3 s[v]asti ôm II Samvat® 184
2
Sravana-vati 15 atra di
nê mahâ-śri-Viggraha-râ[jyê ?]7=ghôrasi
3
4 va-putra-Dhon[dheus vipt pratishthit [11]Likhi[ta]m
29
1 The same sign is used (in '847'), like an ordinary numeral figure, in line 20 of the Kôtâ inscription of the Samanta Devadatta (ante, Vol. XIV. p. 45); and similar numeral figures for 4 we have in the Bakhshalt MS.
2 The same figure for 1 is also used in the Chamba plate of Somavarmadêva and Asaṭadeva.
3 The figure for 8 in the plate differs very considerably from the figure given, ante, Vol. XVII. p. 36. From Prof. J. Darmesteter's impression.
The word ôm is both times denoted by a symbol.
• Read sathwat.
I am doubtful about the akshara in brackets; the original, possibly, may have ja or jyå.
Originally pratishthitam was engraved; pratishthitâ is used for pratishthapita (in the sense of kârita). The name of the writer is not given in the impression.
