The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s5.11

Language: English

c7.s5.11.1

The excavations are 102 in number, besides a good many now fallen in or choked with rubbish. They are all distinctly Buddhist, and contain fifty-four inscriptions, which vary in date from the first to the ninth century.³ Only two of the inscriptions, however, contain dates, Shak 775 (A.D. 858) and Shak 779 (A.D. 877). They belong to the Silhára kings of the Konkan who were tributaries of the Ráshtrakutas of Málkhet.⁴ These inscriptions have been all more or less completely deciphered. Except the Pahlavi inscriptions in cave 66, two, in caves 10 and 78, in Sanskrit, and one in cave 70 in peculiar Prákrit, the language of all is the Prákrit ordinarily used in cave writings. The letters, except in an ornamental long inscription in cave 84, are the ordinary cave characters. As regards their age, ten appear from the form of the letters to belong to the time of the Andhrabhritya or Shátakarni king Vasisthtiputra (A.D. 133-162), twenty to the Gotamiputra II. period (A.D. 177-196), ten to the fifth and sixth centuries, one to the eighth, three to the ninth or tenth, and one to the eleventh. Three inscriptions in caves 10 and 78, bear dates and names of kings and three in caves 3, 36, and 81 give the names of kings but no dates. The dates of the rest have been calculated from the form of the letters. Though almost all are mutilated, enough is in most cases left to show the name of the giver, the place where he lived, and the character of the gift.

c7.s5.11.2

Of the fifty-four inscriptions, twenty-eight give the names of donors, which especially in their terminations differ from the names now in use. In twenty-one the profession of the giver is mentioned; the majority were merchants or goldsmiths, some were recluses, and one was a minister or leading officer of the state. Except seven women, four of whom were nuns, all the givers were men. The places mentioned in the neighbourhood of the caves are the cities of Kalyán Sopára and Chemula, and the villages of Mangalsthán or Mágúthan, Sákapadra probably Sáki near Tulsi, and Saphád. Of more distant places there are Násik, Pratisthán or Paithan near Ahmadnagar, Dhanakot or Dharnikot near the mouth of the Krishna, Gaud or Bengal, and Dáttámitri in Sindh. The gifts were caves, cisterns, pathways, images, and endowments in cash or land. Of the six inscriptions which give the names of kings, one in cave 36 gives the name of Madhariputra and one in cave 3 gives Yajnashri Sátakarni or Gotamiputra II. two Andhrabhritya rulers of about the first or second century after Christ. Of the two, Madhariputra is believed to be the older and Yajnashri Shátakarni to be one of his successors. Madhariputra's coins have been found near Kolhápur, and Professor Bhándárkar believes him to be the son and successor of Pudumáyi Vasisthiputra who is believed to have flourished about A.D. 130 and to be the Sri Pulimai whom Ptolemy (A.D. 150) places at Paithan near Ahmadnagar.

c7.s5.11.3

Yajnashri Shátakarni or Gotamiputra II. appears in the Násik inscriptions and his coins have been found at Kolhápur, at Dharnikot near the mouth of the Krishna the old capital of the Andhrabhrityas, and on the 9th April 1882 in a stupa or relic mound in Sopára near Bassein. Two of the other inscriptions in which mention is made of the names of kings are caves 10 and 78. These are among the latest inscriptions at Kanheri both belonging to the ninth century, and the names given are of Siláhára kings of the Konkan. They are interesting as giving the names of two kings in each of these dynasties as well as two dates twenty-four years apart in the contemporary rule of one sovereign in each family. Kapardi II. the Siláhára king, the son of Pulashakti, whose capital was probably Chemula, was reigning for the twenty-four years between 853 and 878, and apparently Amoghvarsh ruled at Málkhet during the same period. This Amoghvarsh is mentioned as the son and successor of Jagattung; Amoghvarsh I. was the son of Govind III. one of whose titles was Jagattung; and he must have ruled from 810 to 830. Amoghvarsh II. was the son of Indra himself who may have borne the title of Amoghvarsh and he succeeded Jagattung about 850.