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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ SEPTEMBER, 1926
arrived at A.D. 978 for the king's accession, this is necessarily the correct initial date of this Chêra king. From another record, which has been edited in the Travancore Archæolo. gival Series, we learn that in the 2nd + 12th year of the Chêra king Bhaskara-Ravi, Govard. dhana-Mârttándavarman, who was ruling over Nanrulai-nadu, was put in charge of Vêņadu also. This would therefore indicate that Srivallabhavkôdai may have governed Vênâdu till about the fourteenth year of Bhaskara-Ravi, i.e., till A.D. 992, and that after his death Govarddhana-Márttándavarman may have succeeded him in the Vênádu administration, and continued in that capacity till at least A.D. 1016, when he figured as a signatory in the Cochin plate of Bhaskara-Ravivarman's 2nd + 36th year of reign-(Ep. Ind., vol. III, pp. 66-9).
Thus we can accept it as proved that the Chêra king Bhaskara Ravivarman flourished in the last quarter of the tenth century A.D., that the date of his accession to the throne was A.D. 978, and that he could not, under any circumstances, be assigned to so early a period as the sixth century A.D. The questions as to whether there were two kings of that name and, if so, how long each of them reigned, require more careful examination. THE KSHAHARATAS. WERE THEY EXTERMINATED OR HAVE THEY LEFT ANY TRACES IN THE POPULATION OF THE DECCAN ?
By Y. R. GUPTE, B.A., M.R.A.S. It is a well-known fact that Nahapâna, the Satrap who was reigning in A.D. 124, in the Nasik district at any rate and most probably in the Poona and Thana districts of the Bom. bay Presidency as well, was ousted or killed about that year by Gautamiputra of the Andhrabritya family. (Cf. Rapson's Andhra8, p. xxvii). In an inscription in cave No. III at Nasik. called the Akasayâna, Gautamiputra boasts that he exterminated the race of the Kshaharâtas (prakrita Khakharátas) to which Naha pâna belonged. (Khakhardta-va sa-niravasésakarasal) That Gautamiputra succeeded Naha pâna is borne out by a good many coins of Nahapâna counterstruck by Gautamiputra. These were found in the hoard discovered at Jøgaltêmbhi in the Sinnar Taluka of the Nasik district of the Bombay Presidency, (vide the Roy. Mr. H. R. Scott's article in the Journal of the B. B.R. A. S.). Perhaps the Andhrabhritya king defeated and killed Nahapana and his sons (if he had any), in a pitched battle and thus to a certain extent justified his proud assertion. The Satraps after Naha pâna are not known to have ruled in the Deccan. Certainly their records have not come to light. The Satraps of Surashtra, it is believed, were altogether a different dynasty. Be that as it may, are there any traces extant of the Kshaharâtas or Khakharâtas in the population of the Deccan ? That the bulk of some castes of the peasantry and members of even some higher castes as well as lower have Scythic features, is an admitted fact. Nahapana was a Scythian. But are there any surnames which correspond to Naba. pâna's family name, and do the features of the members of these answer to the characteristic ones of the Scythians ? I have long been thinking over this point. The surname Gharata, it is possible to derive from Khakharâta. But it can hardly be a direct derivation. Among the shepherds of the Deccan, however, we have a surname which evidently appears to be a short form of Khakharâta. It is Kharâta. The double Kha in it could hardly survive for centuries together and so we have the shorter form of the surname. In other words the first Kha of Khakharâta is omitted as usual and we get the shorter form viz., Kharata. The features of some members at any rate of this family have features similar to those of Nahapana on the coins. Gautamiputra's boast that he annihilated the Kshaharata or Khakharâta clan is similar to the futile one of Parasurama, who claimed to have exterminated the Kshatriyas several times? If they were annihilated where was the necessity of exterminating them again! The Andhrabritya king might perhaps have killed all the members of the ruling Khakharâta family. But he could hardly have extirpated the whole clan or race of the Khakharåtas. 1 Ep. Ind., vol. V:11, p. 80, 1. 6 of the text.
Ibid., vol. 22, 1906, pp. 224.
