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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
INCRIPTIONS OF THE KALACHURIS OF TRIPURI the three pravaras Audala, Viśvāmitra and Dēvarāta. They were sons of Ṭhakura Chaturbhuja, son’s sons of Ţhakura Gayādhara and son’s son’s sons of Ṭhakura Trilōchana. The inscription was written with the consent of Ṭhakura Ratnapāla by Vidyādhara the son of Ţhakura Mālhē, son’s son of Ţhakura Dhārēśvara and son’s son’s son of Ṭhakura Rājēśvara. It was engraved by the blacksmiths Kūkē and Kīkaka. Kirtivarman, who made the present gift, was evidently a feudatory of the Kalachuri king Jayasiṁha. He was the son of Vatasrājā who was himself the son of Jayavarman. All the three princes bore the feudatory title Mahārāņaka. They claimed descent from the Kauravas, the legendary heroes described in the Mahābhārata. The inscription is dated, in line 14, on Thursday, the fourth tithi of the bright fortnight of Bhādrapada in the year 926. The year is again repeated at the end of the record. In both the places it is expressed in decimal figures only. This date must, of course, be referred to the Kalachuri era and falls in the reign of Jayasiṁha. Dr. Kielhom, who at first supposes that the Kalachuri era began on the first tithi of the bright fortnight of Bhādrapada in 249 A.C., found by calculation that in 1175 A.C. ( corresponding to the expired Kalachuri year 926) the fourth tithi of the bright fortnight of Bhādrapada commenced 8 h.9 m. after mean sunrise on Thursday, the 21st August.¹ The tithi was not, of course, civilly connected with that day, bur as it was the Gaņēśa-chaturthi, Dr.Kielhorn thought that the religious ceremonies and the gifts to Brāhmaņas connected with them must have been performed after the tithi commenced on that day.² Later on, even though he shifted the beginning of the Kalachuri era to 248 A.C., he had no difficulty in showing the date of the present grant to be regular; for he had come to the conclusion that the Kalachuri year commenced on the first tithi of the bright fortnight of Āśvina. I have shown elsewhere that the Kalachuri rea probably commenced on the first tithi of the bright fortnight of the pūrṇimānta Kārttika, but that also does not affect the present date. The date, therefore, corresponds, for the expired Kalachuri year 926, to Thursday, the 21st August 1175 A.C., but the reason why the tithi is mentioned here as chaturthi though it was not current At sunrise on that day is not that the ceremonies of the Gaņēśa-chatruthi were performed in the afternoon on that day as supposed by Kielhorn and Fleet, but that the śrāddha of the donor’s father, in connection with which the donation was made, was performed in the afternoon when the fourth tithi was current. It is well known that for the performance of a śrāddha, the afternoon is preferred to the forenoon.3
Of the place-names mentioned in the present record, Kakkarēḍikā is clearly Kakreri (long. 810 12’ E lat.240 55’N.).Khaņḍagahā the headquarters of the pattalā in which the donated village was situated, is perhaps identical with Kandaihli, about 6 miles west by south of Kakreri. The Village Ahaḍāpāḍa cannot, however, be traced in its vicinity. TEXT4
1Ind. Ant., Vol XVII, p. 219. According to S.K. Pillai’s India Epbemeris, the tithi commenced
9 h. 20 m. after mean sunrise on Thursday. |
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