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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

also known by the appellations ‘Vajrāditya, Udayāditya, and Lalitäditya.' Lassen” understands the last two verses, quot ed and translated above, to indicate that Pra

tāpāditya had seven sons, whose names were Chandrápida, Târâpida, Avimuktāpida, Muk tàpida, Vajrāditya, Udayāditya, and Lalitäditya. But that interpretation is inadmissible on philo logical grounds, and is refuted by the summary of the Kashmirian history in the eighth Ta ranga, as well as by an independent Chinese ac

count of some of the Karkota kings. For a Chi nese writer, first brought to light by Klaproth,t states that C he n to lo p i li of Kashmir sent several embassies to the Chinese Court in order

to ask for help against the Thibetans, and re ceived the title “king' from the emperor. The same authority asserts that Chentolopili's succes sor Mutopii likewise sent an embassy. Lassen has pointed out the identity of the names Chentolopili–Chandrápida, and Mutopi–Muk tàpida. He has also shown that the embassy said to have been sent by Mutopi did fall in the times of Lalitāditya. Though, after what has been said above, it is impossible to agree with him in assuming that Muktāpida might have been the foreign-secretary of Lalitāditya, and for this reason might have been considered

by the Chinese the sender of the embassy, his arguments that the embassy of Mutopi was sent in Lalitäditya's times, go towards confirming my view, viz. that the two names belong to the same person.

[APRIL, 1873.

relied on in preference to any calculations based on the statements of Hindu chroniclers.

Hence

General Cunningham has lately" corrected his former adjustment of the chronology of the Karkotas. He now admits that if a title was granted to Ch a n drà pi da in 720, that prince—even if due allowance is made for the time which the transmission of the intelligence of his death from Kashmir to Pekin

would

require—must have been alive in 719. Conse quently Târâpida's death and Lalitäditya's ac cession cannot have taken place before 724. But to return to Abhinanda's family, his father Jay a n ta also seems to have been a person of some note. He was a poet and a com mentator, probably, of the Sūtras of the Aśva

lāyamašīkhā of the Rigveda. For a Jay an t a

is quoted in an Aśvali y an agrihya kā rika, * and some years ago, in a list of MSS. from Nāsik, I came across a Jay a n tav r it ti on the Aśvalāyanasūtras. Unfortunately I did not secure the book.

But it would be worth

while to look out for it, as Jay a n ta is certainly

older than any other known commentator of Aśvalāyana. As regards Abh in and a himself, he cannot be placed later than 830–850 A.D. The dura tion of a generation in India is little more than 26 years. If, therefore, Abhinanda's fourth ancestor, Saktisvämin, lived under Muktapida about 725, we shall have to add, say, 110 years to that date in order to obtain our poet's age. Abhinanda seems to have lived not in Kashmir, but in Gauda,

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If then, Saktisvämin lived under Lalitäditya, his tenure of office must have fallen in the

second quarter of the 8th century. A.D. Accord ing to Troyer's, Lassen's, and Cunningham's calculations, the beginning of Lalitäditya's reign is placed in the last decade of the seventh century, in 695 or 693, while H. H. Wilson fixed it in 713.S. None of these dates is, how ever, tenable, as the Chinese historian states

that Chandrápida's first embassy arrived at Pekin in 713, and that the same king received the grant of his title in 720.

It must be con

sidered a settled principle for Indian historians that dates given by Chinese writers are to be

• Ind. Alt. III. 992. t Lassen, Ind. Alt. III. 993, note 1.

I Lassen, Ind. Alt. III. 996. | Ind. Alt. III. 996.

the country of his forefathers. This is indicated by his surname, ‘the Gauda,' and by the fact that the name of the ancestor of his patron, Dharm a på la, is not to be found among the Kashmirian kings, but belongs to a powerful monarch of the Pāla dynasty of Gauda. Lassen places this D harm a pala about 815. I am unable to trace the Yuvarāja Här a vars h a the compiler of a Kośa of poetical extracts, as well as his father, Vikram a sila.

Lastly, I may mention that Abh in and a was apparently a Vaishnava, as he invokes

Sauri in the Mangalácharana of the Kādam barikathására.

§ See Prinsep's Useful Tables, p. 245.

• Anc. Geog. p. 91.
• Aufrecht, Oxf. Cat. 405a.

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