Epigraphia Indica Vol 26

SR No.: 032580
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1945
Total Pages: 448
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 24 MB

Page 207

164
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XXVI.
The actual reign of Govinda IV is thus reduced to a short period of about four years only-from May, A. D. 930 to the middle of A. D. 934. Owing to his wicked life, this king, it is stated, was very unpopular, and his ministers and feudatories' conspired to oust him. The Eastern Chāļukya king Bhima II claims to have defeated the army of Govinda IV in about the year A. D. 934'; and this defeat must have been the signal for the discontented elements at the Rashtrakūta capital to flare up into activity. The result was that Govinda was deposed, and Amöghavarsha III, an uncle of Govinda in 8 collateral line, a religious man already welladvanced in years,' was chosen by the feudatories to be the king. It is not definitely stated anywhere that Govinda died on this occasion-he may perhaps have lived some years longer; but his career as a Rāshtrakūta king probably ended with A. D. 934.
Krishna III (A. D. 939-67). The records of Krishna III found in the Kannada country are most of them dated in Saka years, while his numerous Tamil records in the Tondai-mandalam, following apparently the procedure in vogue in the Tamil districts, mention only his regnal years. However, an inscription from Pädürt in the Tirukkōyilür Taluk of the South Arcot District is of interest in this connection, as quoting his regnal year 26, coupled with the astronomical details-Vrischika, ba. 3, Wednesday, Mrigaśirsha. Even here the omission of the Saka and the cyclic years is unfortunate, but the English equivalent can, however, be calculated.
Now. Amoghavarsha III, the father and predecessor of Ksishna III, was alive on December 3, A. D. 939.5 So the date of accession of Kộishņa III must have been somewhere in the neighbourhood of this date, and his 26th year would fall in the interval between A. D. 960 and 970. On verification it is found that A. D. 964, October 26, Wednesday, and no other date in this interval, agrees so well with the given details. This being a day in the 26th regnal year of the king, the date of his accession must have been some day between October 27, A. D. 938 and October 26, A. D. 939.
As stated already, Krishna's predecessor Amõghavarsha was alive on December 3. A. D. 939. If so, how can the date of accession of his successor Krishņa III be some date prior to October 27, of the same year? For this to be possible, we shall have to suppose that Krishna had been formally anointed yuvarāja during the last days of his father himself; and when we take into consideration the fact that Amõghavarsha III was already a man of advanced age with a deeply religious bent of mind at the time of his selection as king, there is nothing out of the ordinary in his having associated his son Kțishna along with himself in the administration, and in bis having actually anointed him some time prior to his own demise. A record' from the Sorab Taluk of the Mysore State furnishes Saka 861 (=A, D. 939), December 23rd, as the earliest date for Krishna III with the imperial titles. The Dēõli plates dated approximately on 30th April A. D. 940, mention that Kțishņa succeeded to the throne only after Amõghavarsha's death and
1 Among such feudatories the Chafukys chieftain Arikēsarin, the patron of the poet Pampa, was one Ante, Vol. VII, p. 34.
• The Kaluobum harru grant of Ammarija II, ante, Vol. VII, p. 177. • Altekar, Rashtrakūkas and their Times, p. 111. • No. 281 of 1936-37 of the Madras Epigraphical collection.
Isamudra inscriptiou dated in Saks 861, Vikärin=A. D. 939, December 3 (Ep. Carn., Vol. XI, Cd. 77).
• According to the Indian Ephemeris, the tithi was current till 54 and the nakshatra till 48 of the day. (An. Rep. on 8. I. Epigraphy for 1936-37, p. 47).
Ep. Carn., Vol. VIII, Sorab 476. The details are Saka 861, Vikarin, Uttarayana, Monday=A.D. 939, Dovember 23, Monday.
• Ante, Vol. V, p. 188.