The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s11.39

c8.s11.39

² A reminiscence of them is contained in an inscription of A. D. 1203-1204, at ‘Bandalike’ in Mysore,—(I owe an inspection of ink-impressions of this, and of the record mentioned just after it, to the kindness of Mr. Rice),—which, aiming at a succinct account of successive dynasties, says that the Nine Nandas, the Gupta family, and the Maurya kings, ruled over the land of Kuntala; then the Raṭṭas (i. e. Râshṭrakûṭas); then the Châlukyas; then Bijjala, of the Kalachurya family; and then the Hoysaḷa king Vîra-Ballâḷa II. And an inscription of about the twelfth century, at Kuppatûr in Mysore, speaks of the district that bore the name of Nâgakhaṇḍaka, i.e. the Nâgarakhaṇḍa country, as protected by “the wise Chandragupta, who was an abode of the excellent observances of the warrior caste,”—referring possibly to the Maurya king Chandragupta.—A legend about an imaginary king of Pâṭaliputra named Chandragupta (twisted by Mr. Rice from its real purport, so as to make it refer to Chandragupta, the grandfather of Aśôka) has been created—(how long ago, or how recently, is not clear)—among the Jains of Śravaṇa-Beḷgoḷa. But, as shewn by me elsewhere (Ind. Ant. Vol. XXI, p. 156), there is no basis at all for it in the Śravaṇa-Beḷgoḷa inscription, of about the seventh century A. D., which contains the epitaph of the Jain teacher Prabhâchandra (for the full text and translation of this record, see Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IV. p. 22); other inscriptions, of the ninth and following centuries, which mention a person named Chandragupta, give no hint whatever in the direction of his being a king, but, on the contrary, distinctly shew that he was simply a Jain teacher, and refer in reality to a pontiff, named Guptigupta; and, as far as present information goes, the legend in question,—claiming to connect with Śravaṇa-Beḷgoḷa, not the great Chandragupta himself, but an otherwise quite unknown grandson of his grandson Aśôka, bearing the same name,—appears first in a Jain compendium, entitled Râjavali-kathe, put together in the present century.