INSCRIPTIONS. 



263 



As the matter now stands lists of the kings of Vijayana- 

 garam have been published by Horace Hayman Wilson both 

 in his Descriptive Catalogue of the Mackenzie Collection 2 and 

 in the 20th Volume of the Asiatic Researches, 3 by E. C. 

 Ravenshaw in the same volume, 4 by A. C. Campbell in the 

 introduction to his Telugu Grammar, 5 and by Dr. Buchanan 

 in his Journey from Madras. 6 With these I have compared 

 an original list composed towards the end of the seventeenth 

 century by Krsnasvami Pillai, 7 the Karnum of Candragiri, 

 and some other lists contained in the Local Records. 



Though most of the lists taken from manuscript records 

 give also the years of accession and termination of the differ- 

 ent kings, yet much credit cannot be attached to these dates. 

 Most of these lists have been prepared in comparatively recent 

 times, and in consequence while they are pretty correct about 

 more modern events, they otherwise often contain some manifest 

 mistakes. The principal cause of the inaccuracy with respect to 

 earlier dates seems to be the manner in which they were fixed. 

 Starting from a comparatively modern date, the first year in 

 the lists was found by subtracting gradually from this modern 

 date the reputed length of the respective reigns of the different 

 kings, and the initial date of the first reign, which ought to 

 have been the terminus a quo, is thus the result of backward 

 calculation or the terminus ad quern. 8 Otherwise it is impossi- 

 ble to account, e.g., for the differences prevailing as to the 



2 See Calcutta edition, 1828, pp. 292, 293. 



3 See Asiatic Researches, vol. XX, p. 7. 



4 See ibidem, Pedigree of the Kings of Vijayanagar, pp. 18, 19. 



5 See p. xii in the fourth edition. — Dr. Burnell appears to have, in his 

 Elements of South. Indian Paleography, Second Edition, pp. 54, 55, closely- 

 followed Campbell's list. 



6 See A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara, 

 and Malabar, second edition, 1870, pp. 283-288 and p. 535. 



7 See Mahratta Kyfeat, No. 45. 



8 A similar practice was adopted in fixing the first year of the Dionysian 

 iEra, as shown by me in my monograph on the origin of the Christian 

 iEra : London, 1876. 



