South Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLY GURJARAS

lower right hand corner of the plate, the expression is partly mutilated. The symbols denoting the same year, which have been preserved in the beginning of the extant portion of 1.25, leave no doubt, however, that it was 486. Life other dates of the Early Gurjaras this must, of course, be referred to the Kalachuri era.¹ the tithi, on which the grant was recorded (nibaddha), was also mentioned along with the year in 11.24 and 25, and like the latter, is partly mutilated. The words Āshādha śu . . Ādityavāre are perfectly clear in 1.25. As regards the symbol following śu, I cannot do better than quote Dr. Kielhorn’s remarks: ‘In 1.25 the numerical symbol following upon śu is decidedly indistinct. What is clearly seen both in the impressions and in the photograph is the symbol for 10, as it occurs, e.g., at the end of the Valabhī grant of Dharasēna II…minus the curved line on the right ; but there are indications that that curved line had been engraved and that, therefore, 10 was intended.² It is more difficult to say whether certain marks after the symbol for 10 are accidental scratches or intended to denote the unit 1 or 2.’ ³ The grant was, therefore, recorded on a Sunday, the 10th, 11th or 12th tithi of the bright fortnight of Āshādha in the (Kalachuri) year 486.

With the epoch of 248-249 A.C., which Kielhorn at first fixed for the Kalachuri-Chēdi era and which he found applicable in the case of the date of the Navsāri plates of Jayabhata III, the date of the present plate should fall in 735 or 736 A.C. “according as the figure 486 denotes the current year or the number of years expired’. Kielhorn found by calculation that ‘in A.D. 735 the Karkata-samkrānti took place on Thursday, June 23, which was the 13th of the dark half of a month, while the 10th of the bright half of Āshādha had fallen already on Sunday, June 5, i.e., no less than eighteen days before the samkrānti. In A. D. 736, on the other hand, the Karkata-samkrānti took place about 8 hours after sunrise of June 22; and the tenth tithi of the bright half of Āshādha began 21 minutes after mean sunrise of June 22, and ended 1 h. 21 m. before mean sunrise of June 23. The tithi, therefore, in all probability, was a Kshaya-tithi, but, under any circumstances, the Karkata-samkrānti, in A.D. 736, did take place during the tenth tithi of the bright half of Āshādha. June 22, however, was a Friday, not a Sunday ; and the nearest Sunday, June 24, was the 12th of the bright half of Āshādha, because the 12th tithi of the bright half ended on it, 20 h. 37 m. after mean sunrise’⁴. Friday, the 22nd June 736 A.C. is, therefore, the date of the grant, and Sunday, the 24th June of the same year, the date of its recording

The localities mentioned in the grant were fully identified by Dr. Bühler⁵. ‘The village Kēmajju is the present Kīmōj or Kīmaj. Straight to the west from Kīmaj at a distance of five or six hundred yards, there is the temple Āsamēśvar, Āśramadēva of our grant. The present temple is a small brick building erected a few years ago; but it contains an ancient Linga, and near it to the east are an old well and a depression in the ground which looks like the remnant of a small tank. To the west of the village lies Sīgām or Śīgām, the Sīhugrāma of the grant ; towards the south-west there is the village of Jāmadi, called also Sāmadi, which corresponds to Jambhā ; and to the north we have the ruins of Gōlēl (on the Trigonometrical map erroneously called Galōl), the
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¹Bühler referred it to the Vikrama era and as, according to the calculations of Prof. Bahudēva Śāstrī, in 429 A.C. corresponding to V. 486, the 10th tithi of the bright of Āshādha fell on Sunday when the sun entered the sign of Karkata, Dr. Bühler concluded that it demolished the theory that the Vikrama era was a forgery and was invented after the battle of Kōrur.
²The same symbol is used to denote 10 in the Prince of Wales Museum plates (No 24, below.)
³Ind. Ant., Vol. XVII, p. 220.
⁴Loc. cit., p. 221.
⁵Ibid., Vol. V, p. 112.