Indian Antiquary Vol 04

SR No.: 032496
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 410
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

Page 215

JULY, 1875.]
SANSKRIT AND OLD CANARESE INSCRIPTIONS.
SANSKRIT AND OLD CANARESE INSCRIPTIONS. BY J. F. FLEET, Esq., Bo. C. S. (Continued from page 181.)
In connexion with the preceding Kadamba inscription, the notes made by me, when travelling through the Canarese Country as Educational Inspector of the Southern Division, of inscriptions at Bankapûr, Hânagal, and Banawasi,-all of them Kadamba capitals, may usefully be inserted here.
Bonképér.
Bankapur is about six miles to the S. by E. of Siggaum, the present head-quarters of the Siggaum or Bankapur Taluka of the Dharwad
District.
The inscriptions are all in the Fort. No. 1:-Leaning up against a wall to the right of the entrance to the Fort from the E. there is a large stone-tablet bearing an inscription of fiftynine lines, each line containing about thirty. seven letters, in the Old Canarese characters and language. The inscription is for the most part in fine order; but the fourth line has been deliberately cut out and almost entirely obliterated, and there are fissures in the tablet which would probably result in its falling to pieces if an attempt were inade to remove it to a safer place of custody. The emblems at the top of the tablet have been wilfully defaced; but there are traces of the following:-In the centre, a linga; on its right, a seated or kneeling figure, with the sun above it and a cow and calf beyond it; and on its left, an officiating priest, with the moon above him and
Vikramaditya II of Sir W. Elliot; according to the same authority his reign extended from Saka 998 to Saka 1049. The discrepancy between the dates of his reign and of the present inscription may be accounted for on the sup position that Vikramaditya was the Yuvaraja or Viceroy, in charge of the two districts referred to, during his father's reign and before he himself ascended the throne of the Chalukyas on the death of his elder brother Sômésvaradeva II. GangapêrmAnadi or Gangapemmånadi was also adopted as a Kadamba title.
The Kollapura of line 18 of inscription No. II of the series now commenced; the name occurs again as KuvaJalapura in line 33 of Major Dixon's No. 71. This and the following two titles are also Kadamba titles.
The final of this word in the original may be a mistake. The Ninety-six-thousand District is mentioned in the Nagamandala copper-plate inscription published by Mr. Rice at pp. 156 et seqq. of Vol. II. of the Indian Antiquary; in note 11, page 161, the name of it is given as Gangavadi, and it is said to have been called the Ninetysix-thousand District from its yielding a revenue of 96,000 pagodas; but districts are usually named in this way from the number of towns included in them. The Gangavaḍi
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a figure of Basava beyond him. The inscription is dated in the Saka year 977 (A. D. 1055-6), being the Manmatha samvatsara, while the Chalukya King Gangapêrmanadi-Vikramâdityadêva,-the son of Trailôkyamalla. dêva; the supreme lord of the city of Kuvalalapura ; the lord of Nandagiri; he whose crest was an infuriated elephant,-was ruling the Gangavâḍit Ninety-six-thousand and the Banavasi Twelve-thousand, and while the Great Chieftain Harikêsaridêva, the glory of the family of the Kadamba emperor Mayûravarma§, was governing the Banavâsi Twelve-thousand as his subordinate. The inscription proceeds to record the grant of some land in the Nidagundage Twelve, which was a kampana of the Pânungal Five-hundred, to a Jain temple, by Harikêsaridêva, his wife Lachchaladêvî, the assemblage of the five religious colleges of Baúkapura, the guild of the Nagaramahajana, and "The Sixteen." Harikêsaridêva's titles are of much the same purport as some of those of Śivachitta in the Kadamba inscription of Gulhalli and of Jayakêsi III. in the Kadamba inscription of Kittûr, and most of them are repeated in the short inscription, No. 2, of which a transcription is given below. His name does not occur in Sir W. Elliot's list of the Kadambas, and I cannot yet determine what his place in the genealogy should be.
Nos. 2 and 3.-Further on in the fort there is a fine old Jain temple called Arvattukam
Ninety-six-thousand is mentioned again in line 3 of No. 113 of Major Dixon's work.
§ Mayûravarma is given by Sir W. Elliot as the first in the Kadamba genealogy of Banavasi and the founder of the family. The Kadambas of Goa (Gove, Gopakapattana, or Gopakapuri) state in their inscriptions at Dêgâmve and Halsi (Palika, Palasige, or Palasi) in the Belgaum district that the founder of their family was Trilochanakadamba, the Trinêtrakadamba of Dr Buchanan's Journey through Maisûr, Canara, and Malabar. According to Jain traditions given in Dr. Buchanan's book it was Mayûravarma who, though himself a Jain king, first introduced Védic Brahmans into the Tuluva country; according to the Brahman traditions, the Brahmans had been previously in the Tuluva country, but they did not like it and were always running away to Ahichchhatra, from which place Mayuravarma brought them back, effected some reforms, and reinstated them.
See note to the translation of No. II of the present series, page 211 below.
Bankapurada pañchamata (tha) sthanamum nagaramahajanamuh padinaruvarum.'
See pp. 296 et seqq. of No. XXVII, Vol. X Jour. Bomb. Br. R. As. Soc.