Indian Antiquary Vol 42

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 242

230
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[AUGUST, 1913.
THE INDIAN INSCRIPTIONS AND THE ANTIQUITY OF INDIAN
ARTIFICIAL POETRY.
BY G. BÜHLER. [Translated by Prof. V. S. Ghate, M. A., Poona.]
(Continued from p. 193.) v. The NAsk-Inscription No. 18, from the ninteenth year of Siri-Pulumägi.
A further contribution to the knowledge of the Kavya style of the second century and especially of the poetic ideas and comparisons in vogue at the time is made by the prasasti of a cave which was given over to the monks of the Bhadra yaniya school, in the ninteenth year of the reign of the Andhra king Siri-Puļamâyi. The date of the inscription can be only approxi. mately determined at present. Nevertheless it must be somewhat older than the Girnår prasasti discussed above. Siri-Palumâyi like Chashtana is, as we know, mentioned by Ptolemäus, under the name of Siro-Polemaios or Siri-Polemios, as the ruler of Baithana, i.e., Paithana or Pratishthana on the Godavari river. Accordingly the inscription in question will have to be placed somewhere about the middle of the second century. To the same result leads another circumstance which is put forth by Dr. Bhâû Dâji in Journ. Bo. Br. Roy. As. Soc., Vol. VIII, p. 242. According to l. 6 of our inscription, Polumâyi's father Gotamîputa Satakaļi extinguished the family of Khak baráta. In the inscriptions of Násik,60 Junnar, and Karle is mentioned a Kshabarata king and satrap or great gatrap Nahapana, whose son-in-law, the Saka Ushavadêta or Usabhad Ata was a great patron of Brâbmans and Buddhists and made many grants in the western Deocar. as well as in Konkan and Kathi&våd, and we are provided with the several dates of his reign, from the year 40 to 46. The similarity of the names Khakhar&ta and Kshaharata makes it very probable that they denote one and the same person, a supposition which is also favoured by the circumstance that just the very districts, in which Ushavadâta made his grants, have been mentioned in 1, 2 f. our inscription as parts of Satakani's dominion.61 The title satrap or great satrap borne by Nahapâna leads to the further conclusion that he was a dependent prince and the fact that on his coins, the Kharoshţrt lipi is used side by side with the southern alpbabet, proves bis connection with the north-west where the Indo-Soythians were rulers. We may, therefore, suppose that he, like Rudradâman used the Saka era, and thus his last date, Samvat 46, would correspond to A.D. 124/5. Very probably his unfortunate war with Satakani took place soon after this year. According to his inscriptions,62 Satakaņi ruled for at least 24 years, and extinguished the Kshaharâta king and satrap before the eighteenth year of his reign. For, the Nasik inscription No. 13, bearing this year, disposes of a village in the district of Govardhana, which had in earlier times belonged to the dominion of Nahapana. If then we assume that the battle between Nahapana and Satakani took place in the year 47 of the Saka era used by the former, i, e., in A. D. 125/6, and in the fifteenth year of the reign of the latter, then the year of the writing of our inscription would be A. D. 153/4, by adding the 9 years of Såta kasi and the 19 years of Palumâyi to 125. OF course it is possible that the date in question may be from ten to twelve years earlier or a very few years later even. A later date than this does not seem to be probable, because the mention of Pulumayi's name in Ptolemans shows that he must have been on the throne a long time before A. D. 151, the date of the completion of the Geography,
If we accept these conjectures which at least possess a very high probability, then our inscription is about twenty years older than the 'prasasti of the Sudarkana Lake ; and its style must be regarded as a proof for the growth of kedvya in the middle of the second century. Although it is
40 Archeological Survey of Western India, Vol. IV., p. 99-103 (Nos. 5–11).
11 Soo especially Insaription No. 20, in which , village given a prosent by Usabhadata is again given away by an Andhraking, Aroh. Sur. W. India, Vol. IV., p. 106 (No. 6) and p. 112-118 (No. 20).
62 Arch. Sur. W. India, Vol. IV., p. 106 (No. 14, last line.) As Ibid. p. 105, where 14 is to be correoted to 18.
Compare also Dr. BhapdArkar's remarks in his Early History of the Dokkan, p. 20 ff. where the date of the [uscription is placed somewhat earlier. In several particulars, I can not agree with Dr. BhApdarkor.