THE work of editing Volume IV of the Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum entitled Inscriptions of the Kalachuri-Chedi Era was offered to me by the Director General of Archaeology in India in his letter of the 7th March 1935. As I was already interested in the study of these records for a long time and had also edited some of them, I gladly accepted the offer, though not without some diffidence; for my official duties as Professor of Sanskrit at the Morris College, Nagpur, left me little leisure, and I knew full well 'how easy it is to glean a few straws, and how laborious to mow a whole field.' After spending most of my spare time during nine years on this work, I made over the typescript of it to the Director General of Archaeology on the 6th March 1944. Its printing could not, however, be taken up immediately on account of war conditions then prevailing. The delay was not without an advantage ; for it enabled me to include in the present Volume some important records which were discovered subsequently, and to shed some more light on the epoch of the Kalachuri era. At last, the work of printing commenced in June 1949. It was again delayed fOr some time for want of matrices with the necessary diacritical marks, but was ultimately completed in December 1954.
The present Volume has been planned to contain all inscriptions of the Kalachuri-Chedi era, by whatever dynasty they may have been issued. It therefore includes, inter alia, records of the Abhiras and their feudatories, the Traikutakas, the Early Gurjaras, the Sendrakas and the Early Chalukyas of Gujarat, the Harischandriyas as well as the Kalachuris of Mahishmati, Tripuri and Ratanpur, and their feudatories. For completing the sources of the history of the Kalachuris it was found desirable to include a few more records of the rulers of Tripuri, Sarayupara, Ratanpur and Raipur, though they are dated in other eras. The inscriptions of the Kalachuris of Kalyana have, however, been excluded as none of them are dated in the Kalachuri era. The records have been arranged dynasty-wise in the chronological order, and named uniformly after the reigning kings. Some more inscriptions, because of their being spurious, or for not mentioning the name of any particular king, or due to some other reasons, have been grouped under the heading Miscellaneous Inscriptions and, for convenience of reference, have been inserted in three places where they were chronologically and territorially connected. As the Volume was going through the press, some more records, either dated in the Kalachuri era or allied to those already included, came to light. They have been inserted at the end under the heading Additional Inscriptions. All these inscriptions have been edited from their originals or mechanical ink impressions. In the case of a few other inscriptions, however, the original stones or copper-plates have since been lost and their facsimiles have not been published. Their texts, where possible, have therefore been given from previous editions or notices, with translations added, in an Appendix under the heading Supplementary Inscriptions. As this matter was being composed, one of these records which had been very briefly noticed before and had long been given up for lost, viz., the Gopalpur stone inscription of Vijayasimha, was rediscovered at Jabalpur. I was consequently able to include its text from an excellent inked estampage kindly supplied by Dr. Chhabra, though it was too late to have its plate prepared for the present Volume.
The Introduction discusses first the important question of the epoch of the Kalachuri-Chedi era which has been at issue among scholars for nearly a hundred years. When Dr. Kielhorn attempted to fix it in 1888, he had only fourteen dated records with the necessary details available to him, on which he based his conclusion. Since then twenty-six more dated inscriptions containing details necessary for computation have come to light, which have enabled me to fix the epoch of the era more accurately. The Introduction next gives the political history of the dynasties that used the era, and an account of the administration as well as the religious, social and economic conditions of the times as gleaned from the inscriptions. The next two sections deal with the literature of the age and the coins of the Traikutakas and the Kalachuris.
In my editions of inscriptions I usually give their texts in the Nagari characters. The same method is followed here. As the book is printed in monotype, some of the conjunct letters could not be displayed exactly as in the original records. As regards diacritical marks, I have used them in all ancient names, whether of persons or of places, and also in some modern place-names which were not sufficiently well-known. They were not considered necessary in the case of such well-known modern place-names as Nasik, Banaras or Allahabad.
The Volume became too bulky to be issued in one part. It has therefore been divided into two parts : the first part containing the Introduction, early inscriptions of the Kalachuri era and inscriptions of the Kalachuris of Tripuri, and the second, the remaining records of the era, additional and supplementary inscriptions and the Index to both the parts.
For some years past I have been suffering from a recurring eye-disease which makes reading difficult and painful. At one time it was even apprehended that I might lose my eye-sight altogether. Though this has, fortunately, not come to pass, my sight is still far from normal. The first 374 pages of the Texts and Translations, which were rushed through the press during 1950-51,when the disease was very troublesome, contain a considerable number of typographical and other errors, for which I crave the indulgence of the reader. The Additions and Corrections are inserted at the beginning of both the parts, which the reader is requested to notice.
I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to the distinguished scholars who previously edited many of the records included here, though I have had occasion to differ from them in some places. For the verification of dates I have used throughout S. K. Pillai's indispensable Indian Ephemeris. With the help of the tables given in that work I have myself calculated some early dates, the equivalents of which in the Christian era have not been given therein. To the late Rao Bahadur K. N. Dikshit, Director General of Archaeology, who first turned my attention to the editing of epigraphic records, encouraged and helped me in various ways, I owe a deep debt of gratitude which I cannot adequately express in words. I am obliged to Mr. Amalanand Ghosh, the present Director General of Archaeology, for kind consideration and help. My thanks are also due to Dr. N. P. Chakravarti and Dr. B. Ch. Chhabra, who, as Government Epigraphists, supplied excellent ink impressions of several records and got illustrative plates prepared for the Volume. Dr. Chhabra, Dr. G. S. Gai, Prof. M. N. Mitra, and Prof. N. R. Navalekar went through parts of my typescript and made some useful suggestions, for which I feel very grateful. I must also thank Mr. G. S. Ramanathan of the Office of the Government Epigraphist for India for the help he rendered me in the correction of proofs when my eyesight became very defective. I am obliged to Dr. S. S. Patwardhan, Curator of the Central Museum, Nagpur, who supplied casts of the gold coins of the Kalachuris from the cabinet of the Museum, and to Pandit L. P. Pandeya, who placed at my disposal the copper coins of the Kalachuris from the cabinet of the Mahakoshal Historical Society. Mr. N. H. Kulkarni, Artist of the Social Welfare Department, Madhya Pradesh, kindly drew the three maps showing places mentioned in the inscriptions, for which my thanks are due to him. I am also obliged to Mr. L. R. Kulkarni, Mr. V. P. Rode, Mr. J. K. Abhyankar and several other friends for the help they rendered me in various ways. Finally, I thank the Director, Eastern Circle, Survey of India, for the excellent plates which illustrate the records, and the Manager, Allahabad Law Journal Co., Ltd., for the consideration he showed to me while the work was going through the press.
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