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 MAnch 1, 1872.]

A CHALUKYA GRANT.

and the date of his accession to the throne is given as Shaka 998.

This Kali Vikram a is describ

ed in one of Mr. Elliot's inscriptions as having set aside the ancient Shaka, and established the Vikrama Shaka in his own name,” &c. Tribhu

vana Malla, therefore, mentioned twice in this grant is most probably the same as that of Mr. Elliot's list, and the Vikrama Samvat of the grant is the era established by that prince. From the fact that he called himself Vikramāditya, gave the name of Vikrama Samvat to the era he estab

lished, and lastly, that he began it on the first tithi of the Shukla fortnight of Kārtika, the day on which the year of the old Vikrama epoch com mences—one of two inferences may be drawn. He

may have set his era in opposition to that of the Shaka King, Shālivāhana, which was then, as now, prevalent in the Dekhan, and attempted to super sede it the more effectually by giving his own the appearance of a revival of the older era of Vikrama, the great rival of the Shaka King, i.e. by calling

83

that, according to Mr. Elliot, appears to be contained in an inscription at Galaganātha,t that the Shaka year 1003 corresponds with the fifth year of his reign, in which “he overcame Ball a v ar àja of the Palav any a or Pal a race.” The inscription purports to record a grant of twelve villages made by Mu nj a Mahi pati, or King Munja to K a n n a Sām a n ta. Bhim a is the first mentioned ancestor of King Mu nja, and is described as born of the race of the Sind a

kings. His eldest son was Sind a Rāja. His son Munja Rāja is the grantor of the Shasana. The grant accordingly makes mention only of the father and the grand-father of M unja. B him a is further described as being pratyandakachatu%

sahasradeshādhipatih, about the meaning of which I am not quite certain. Pratyandaka might be a square measure of land, and the epithet may mean, ‘lord of four thousand pratayndakas of land.” One of the titles of Mu nja is ‘Bhogavatipura

parameshwara,'—‘lord of the city of Bhogávati.”

himself Kali V i krama or Vikrama of the Kali

As no other place is mentioned that appears to have

or modern age, and commencing it on the same day of the month of Kārtika as the older era of Vikramāditya. This is probable from the fact, that, according to Mr. Elliot, he is described in an in scription as “rubbing out the Shaka,” and institut

been his capital; but I have not been able to identify

ing the Vikrama Era in its stead. The other in fe ence is, that wishing to perpetuate his own me

mory by the establishment of a new era, he set him self in oppºsition to the older Wikramāditya, and attempted to blot out the older era. But whatever

might be his object, the fact of its institution is placed beyond all doubt by some of the inscriptions collected by Mr. Elliot. Referring then the date given in the grant to the era commenced by Tribhuvana Malla, we find that the cycle year Dundubhi, which is men tioned in the grant as falling in the seventh year of the ra, falls in Shaka 1004, according to the Dekhan

or Telingana method of calculation; but in that year

this city with any town in the Dekhan. Another

epithet of King Mu nja is Phanindraramīshodbhava, or ‘born in the family of the serpents' or the

‘Nāgas.' B h ima, the grand-father of Munja, is described as depending for his subsistence on the lotus-like feet of King Trib h u v an a Mall a Deva, from which, as also from the manner that that prince is mentioned in the grant, it appears that he was a chief under, or a Raja paying tribute to, Tribhuv an a M. all a Deva.

The grantee is K a n n a

Sá m a n ta, one

of the chiefs subordinate to King Munja, and is also described as being a worshipper of the feet of Tribhuvana Malla Deva, from

which it appears, that, besides being subordinate to Munja, he also owed allegiance to the Chālukya king. He is further described as a devotee of Shiva and was married to a daughter of the

the first of the Shukla fortnight of Kārtika falls on

Lá t a s. The grant is silent as to the country or

Tuesday. The coincidence of Sunday on the first

residence of Kanna Sámanta, though he probably belonged to the Karnātaka, as some of his titles are taken from the Canarese language. The grant records the conveyance by sale of twelve villages which, if I am not mistaken, went by the collective name of Vä y v a da, which appears quite distinct in the plate. Out of the Vây v ad a villages, the grant states that one village named Takk alik Å is excepted. It is interesting to note that there is still a village called T âk a l k i in the B fi ge v di Tāluka of the Kalādgi district, not far from the place where the copper

tithi of Kārtika takes place in 1005, but the year Dundubhi cannot be made to agree with the Shaka year 1005. As, however, the coincidence of the day of the week with the tithi of the month is more

important, as not being likely to have been wrongly stated, than the coincidence of a given year of any era with a certain year of the Bârhaspatya cycle, which, at different courts of kings, has from time to time been subjected to different methods of cal culation,-it may safely be assumed that the grant

was dated upon the first tithi of Kārtika of the Shaka year 1005, or 15th of October, 1083, N. S. The

plate was discovered. There is also a village called

choice of Shaka 1005 as corresponding with the

Täkli on the northern bank of the Bhimä about

seventh year of the new Vikrama epoch of the Chālukya prince is strengthened by a statement

fifteen miles north of Tid g undi, and near the

collection.
 * Gadega inscription No. 7, VII, p. 235 of Mr. Elliot's

village of D h (, l k h ed. + Noticed by Mr. Elliot in his paper on Hindu Inscrip tions, printed in the Journal Royal Asiatic Society vol. IV.