The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s5.11.1

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.