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No. 33.]
TWO COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTIONS FROM BERAR.
217
words like Märgasiraha-paurnamāsyām are inadvertently omitted in the record. As for the discrepancy of the nakshatra Pushya not being current at the time of the eclipse as mentioned in the record, it can be explained by supposing that though the grant was made at the lunar eclipse the plates were actually issued four days later when the moon was in conjunction with the asterism Pushya. Analogous instances in justification of this explanation can be easily cited from the records of the period. There are, thus, no insuperable difficulties in admitting the Manne plates of Saka 724 to be genuine. All the important conquests of Govinda III seem, therefore, to have been made during the first seven or eight years of his reign.
It seems that soon after Govinda III's accession the twelve kings headed by Stambha rose in revolt against him. Govinda released the Ganga prince apparently to create a rival in the Karņāțaka to his rebellious brother, but as he seems to have joined Stambha and his allies, Govinda III defeated them all and put the Ganga prince into fetters again. The ease and rapidity with which these victories were attained are graphically described in two stanzas included in all records of the second group. These operations could not have taken more than two years ($. 716 and 717) after his accession. The next four or five years seem to have been occupied by his campaigns in the Northern and Central India at the end of which his son was born in circa $721. In Ashādha of the next year we find him again at his capital Mayūrakhandi, issuing his Añjanavati plates. Engrossed in planning and fighting wars as he was during all these years, he had apparently no time to think of getting a new draft prepared for the plates which he issued in that year. His expedition against the southern kings may have occurred in $. 722 and 723. At the end of it when his position was supreme both in the north and in the south, he seems to have caused a new draft descriptive of all his important conquests to be prepared which we find him adopting in all his later charters. This draft is composed in an ornate kävya style recalling, as Kielhorn has shown, 'many expressions and poetical devices used in the works of Bāna and Subandhu. Noticing the king's predilection for it, his governors in the Karnataka also seem to have adopted the same draft in their charters issued during his lifetime.
If the chronological order of events in Govinda III's reign as stated above is correct, his son Amõghavarsha must have been a fairly grown-up youth of about sixteen, when he ascended the throne in circa Saka 736. In that case the statement in the Sanjān plates' that Govinda III went to heaven, because he felt sure that his son was able to bear the burden of the three worlds, need not be taken as exaggerated. Amoghavarsha I, must, therefore, have been nearly eighty at the time of his death.
See the wording of the grant-'afanynig wag ang w arna: waterafora [a]eum? मान्यपुरमधिवमति विजयस्कन्धावार सीमग्रहणे पुष्यमक्षवे भलये......'
* As shown above, the present plates were issued a day after the solar eclipse. [ See note 1 on p.214. -Ed.) We may also note that the date of the Manne plates (second set) fangutanay nay n g ....... etcaret 998 hari yauwa... According to S. K. Pillai's Indian Ephemeris the lunar eclipse occurred on the lithi mentioned in the grant, but the week day was Saturday and the asterism Punarvasu. It seems, therefore, that the plates were issued two days later on Monday when the asterism was Pushya as required.
. See e..., vv. 12 and 13 of the present grant. • See v. 24 of the Sanjän plates, above, Vol. XVIII, p. 246.
6 Two of these, the Pallava king and the lord of Vēngi are mentioned in the present record. The kings of Kõrala, Pandya, Chola and other countries are mentioned in verses 21-23 of the Nésarl and v. 32 of the Sanjau plates.
• See notes to his translation of the Rādhanpur platos, above, Vol. VI, pp. 246-250. 7 V. 25, above, Vol. XVIII, p. 246.
