affiliation of Amg. would be to regard it as descended from one of the Middle Indic dialects, perhaps contemporary with As. Mg. and certainly akin to it.

C. Asoka Magadhi and Magadhi-Grammatical
and Dramatic.

It has been said that As. Mg. insers. have their original in a dialect of Magadha. But that does not preclude the possibility of more than one such dialect. The points of difference may not have been marked but perhaps some resembled Aś. Mg. more than others. The grammatical and dramatic Mg. may have been directly descended from the latter. Ramgarh represents one such (with s) and is called by Lüders "Old Mg.", parent of Mg. but it lacks some special features of its descendant. There was even another with s for s viz, Kālsī. Any way, the later Mg. is more easily explained as descended from one of these sister dialects of As. Mg. than from As. Mg. itself. The following features of (i) agreement and (ii) disagreement serve as illustrations: (i) (a) nom. sing. -a stems in e. (b) rl, (c) assimilation of r in conjunct consonants (some exceptions cf. valisa; As. Mg. vassa); (d) ava >o also in Shb. and Mans; (e) s and ss-Aś. Mg. Kal. tasi, i. e. tassi siya, pasavati, Bairat svage. (ii) where it differs from As. Mg. but agrees with other As. dialects, viz. Gir. Shb. Mans. etc. (a) idha (As. Mg. hida), (b) a of dadha (As. Mg. didha, (c) sth > st, (d) sth > st, (e) formation of imina, (f) retention. of st, (g) initial bh of bhodi (Aś. Mg. hoti, (h) instru. laññā (Aś. Mg.lājinā), (i) j> y1 (j) piduņā Aś. Mg. pitinā). Where it differs from all As. dialects including As. Mg. (a) tassim As. Mg. tasi-tassi), (b) nom. acc. pl. neut. a-stems in -āiṁ, (c) smi (As. Mg. sumi), (d) gerunds in -ia. Lüders considers the latter i e. points of divergence of Mg. from As. Mg. or Ramgarh" old Mg." as secondary features and late; but their occurrence in some contemporary sister dialects like Gir. Shb. and Mans. militate against the supposition of lateness in those Such differences, however, become prefectly intelligible 1 Michelsor, J.A.O.S. XXX, p. 83.

cases.

if As Mg. be regarded as only one among other co-existent Mg. dialects out of which grew the later Mg. recorded by grammarians and found in dramas, which again, in their turn, had to submit to the surrounding influences and in course of time acquire new traits and lose some old ones and likewise split up into co-dialects.

References to the above numbers.

Page 1-981-ṭhambhasi; 982-ṭhabe,

Page 3-2172 lājā; 701 kaṭaviytala; 3518 supathāye; 3551 supāthāye; 2013 mige; 3613 hida; 1343 na; 1889 piyadasī; 2013 mige; 3555 se; 3476 si.

Page 4-168 alabhiyiśamti.

Page 5-86 añе; 1688 piyadasisă; 1689 piyasa; 1244 dhammanusathiyā; 2188 likhāpitā; 849 galahā; 3173 viyaṁ (janate); 671 olodhanasi;) 1530 pavajitāni; 2164 lahukā; 3676 hoti; 72 aja; 122 atapāsamḍa; 133 atikamtam; 853 gahathāni; 1778 bambhanasamānānaṁ; 3068 vadhi; 2177 lājinā; 2178 lajine; 1916 mache; 1991 mahāphale; 94 aṭhaye; 621 etaya; 622 etaye; 3405 savată; 1761 priyadarsisa ; 1687 piyadasine; 3142 vijitasi; 1993 mahāmāta; 675 osadhāni; 1620 pādesike.

Page 6-86 añe; 36 aṁnāni; 348 ayam; 531 ima; 543 iyam; 613 eta; 642 etesu; 764 kim ; 768 kimpi; 1014 tā; 1006 tam; 1017 tanam; 1022 tasu; 1959 mamaya; 1960 mamā; 2059 ya; 2060 yam; 3560 so; 748 kaleti; 848 galahati; 1084 dakhati; 1893 bhoti; 3676 hoti; 467 alabhiyamti; 270 anusăsisaṁti; 202 anapayisṁti; 2091 yujaṁtū 410 asu; 1485 patipajaya; 3479 siya; 469 alabhiyisu; 500 aha; 8005 lekhapita; 3599 halapitā; 3022 lopapitā; 466 àlabhitu; 818 khamitave; 711 kata; 3140 vi[ji]ta."

II.-The Telugu Academy Plates of
Saka 814*.

Bhima I.

By K. V. Lakshmana Rao, M.A., Editor-in.-Chief, The
Telugu Encyclopaedia, Vedavilas, Egmore.

It is not known where and when these plates were found. They came to the Telugu Academy in 1916, whence they were sent to the Government Epigraphist, who noticed them as C. P. grant No. 14 of 1917-18. I am now editing and publishing them for the first time from the originals in the Telugu Academy, Madras.

This grant consists of three copper plates, each measuring 31′′ × 71′′. The middle plate is thicker than the two outer plates and the third one is the thinnest of all. It has therefore small holes at several places. The edges of these plates are raised a little into rims. The three plates are hung together on a circular ring with an inner diameter of 31". An oval seal (2"x1") is attached to the ring, with the usual emblems of the sun, the moon, elephant's goad, the boar, and a picture which is not clear but looks like a Swastika, and the legend Sri Tribhuvanankusa-all these are cut in relief.

Language.

The language of the grant is Sanskrit, prose and poetry. There are a very few grammatical mistakes. In 11. 22-23 only half of the verse is given and the other half is perhaps omitted by mistake by the engraver Chamikurrachārya. I could trace the omitted half verse in the Narasapur plates of Bhima I, the originals of which can be seen in the Madras Museum. The alphabet of the grant is the South-Indian TeluguCanarese script current on the east cost in the ninth and the tenth centuries. The letters belong to the round script and resemble the round letters in the Sataloor plates of Gupaka

2

The footnotes to this article were not available at the time of printing. Norsince, the author having died in the meantime.-Editors.

Masulipatam and Eduru

3

Vijayaditya, Bezwada plates of this King (Bhima I), and the plates of Amma 1. There are no orthographical peculiarities specially to be pointed out, except that the writer always doubles the consonants preceding 'r' (Repha), though a rule of Panini makes it optional.

Gist of the grant.

The grant, after giving the usual titles of the Chalukyas (11. 1-6), enumerates the number of years each king ruled, from Kubjavishnuvardana to Gunaga-Vijayaditya, the predecessor of Bhima I (11. 6-14). It tells us about Vijayaditya II Narendramrigaraja, (though it does not use this epithet) that he defeated Bhima Salki together with the army of the Southern Gangas that came to his help and that he built 108 temples of Narendreswara (11. 10-12). His grandson Vijayaditya III (Gunaga) burnt the cities of Kiranapūra, Achalapura and Uru-Nellurapura and acquired the appellation of Tripuramartya-Maheswara (11. 13-14). He took away easily silver from the Gangas of Kalinga, elephants from the kings of Kosala and gold from the Pandyas and Pallavas (11. 14-16). He made Gangas ascend Ganga-kuta, (i. e. defeated them and made them run away) and off the head of Mangi and defeatel Krishna (11. 16-17). His younger brother's son Chalukya Bhima [I] was crowned on Monday, the 2nd day in the dark fortnight of the month of Chaitra in Saka 814 (11. 19-22). Bhima 1 defeated the army of Krishna-vallabhā (Rastra-kuta) (11. 2223). There was a woman called Thundaka who could be compared with a nymph. Her son Mallapa, who was himself a good singer like Thumbura, had a daughter by name Challava, who was an expert in the art of music (11. 23-26). She was given by the king in the village of Attili, a ground containing one thousand betel-nut trees and a field sowable with fifty khandikas of paddy and a house-site (11. 28-30). The executor of this grant was Kadēyarāja. The inscription was composed by Bhatta Vamana and was executed by Chamikuṛṛācharya (11. 33-35).

8

The importance of this grant lies in the fact that it is the earliest of the grants in which the exact date of the coronation of a Chalukyan king is given together with the number of years of the reigns of his predecessors from Kubja-Vishnuvardhana, the founder of this dynasty of kings. Amma II was the earliest king whose date of coronation (945 A. D.) was hitherto known to us, from his plates 6. We also know from their grants the dates of Vimaladitya's (1011 A. D.) and Rajaraja's (1022 A. D.) coronations. The present grant gives the date of the coronation of Bhima I, as Monday, the 2nd thithi of the dark fortnight, of the month of Chaitra, when the sun was in the sign of Mesha (Aris) and the moon was in the Asterism of Maitra (Anuratha) in the Saka year 814 (11. 19-22) when the lagna was yugma (mithuna. Dr. Swami Kannupillay says thus about the details of this date: "In Saka 814 Chaitra ba-dwitiya did not fall in Mesha but coincided with tedi (date) 29 of Mina preceding and was on Sunday on which day the Nakshatra was Svati; but on ba-dvitiya of Vaishakha following, corresponding to Mehsha (Chittrai) 27, Monday, the Nakshatra was Anuradha (Maitra) A. D. 892, April 17, Monday."

It is clear from the above calculation that we are to take the second of the above two as the real date of Bhima's coronation, as the day, asterism (nakshatra) and the position of the sun on that day correspond to those mentioned in the grant. As to the name of the month, the discrepancy is only apparent. Though the month is Paishakha according to the luni-solar method of calculation curreut în the Telugu country at the present time, it is called Chittrai (Chaitra) according to the solar method of calculation current in the Tamil country. The solar month during which the sun travels in the sign of Aries (Mesha) is called Mashamasa or Chittrai masa according to that system. Perhaps Bhatta Vamana, the poet of the grant, belong to the Tamil country and hence named the month according to the terminology best known to him. Or it may be that solar months were current in the Telugu country in the tenth and eleventh centuries.