Epigraphia Indica Vol 03

SR No.: 032557
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1894
Total Pages: 472
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 234

No. 26.]
SRAVANA-BELGOLA EPITAPH OF MALLISHENA.
185
Among Professor Kielhorn's contributions are various readings from a manuscript copy of the present inscription. This copy was made from a palm-leaf MS. at Madras for Professor Bühler, by whom it was presented to the India Office Library. After the publication of Mr. Rice's Inscriptions at Sravana-Belgola, Professor Kielhorn recognised at once that the Madras M8. contains a copy of the Mallishếņa epitaph, and proposed a number of improvements in Mr. Rice's text on the basis of Professor Bůhler's copy. It appears from Professor Kielhorn's various readings' either that the Madras MS. was copied from the pillar while the latter was still in a state of more perfect preservation than at present, or that the MS. was based on an independent duplicate of the Mallishêna epitaph.
The alphabet of the inscription is Kanarese. The upper and lower portions of some letters of the first and last lines, respectively, on each face of the pillar are drawn out into ornamental flourishes. The language is Sanskrit, verse and prose ; only the two last lines are in the Kanarese language. The only orthographical peculiarities which deserve to be noted, are that dh and bh, when doubled, are sometimes written as dhdh and bhbh, and that rnna is written as rnna. The object for which the inscription was composed, and the pillar containing it set up, is to perpetuate the memory of the Jaina preceptor Mallishêņa-Maladharidova (verse 64), who committed religious suicide by sallékhand (line 211) or samadhi (1. 212), i.e. by prolonged fasting, which, in his case, lasted three days,- at Svētasarovara (v.72) or Dhavalasarasatirtha (v. 70), i.e. at Sravana-Belgola. The date of his death was the day of Svati, Sunday, the third day of the dark fortnight of Phålguna of the expired) Saka year 1050, which corresponded to the cyclic year Kilaka (v. 72). According to Professor Kielhorn's calculation, the European equivalent of this date is Sunday, the 10th March, A.D. 1199. The date of the inscription itself is not stated; but the record cannot have been composed more than a generation after Mallisheņa's death, because the composer, Mallinátha, was a lay-disciple of the deceased preceptor (1. 222).
The account of Mallishêna's suicide is preceded by a sort of historical sketch of the Sravana-Belgola branch of the Digambara sect of the Jainas. It is not a connected and complete account, and cannot even be proved to be in strictly chronological order. The names of some selected Digambara preceptors are mentioned with much stale and extravagant praise, but not without valuable allusions to contemporary persons and incidente.
1. The list naturally opens with Vardhamana of the Nátha race, the founder of the Jajna religion (v.1).
2. Of the three Kêvaling the inscription mentions only Gautamasvamin, surnamed Indrabhùti (v. 2).
3. The frutakêvalins (v. 3).
4. Bhadrabhu, whose disciple was 5. Chandragupta (v.4); and 6. Kauņdakunda? (v. 5). In two other Sravana-Belgola inscriptions (Nos. 40 and 108 of Mr. Rice's volume), these three names are mentioned in the same order, and Bhadrabåhu whose pupil was Chandragupta, is called the last of the Brutakêvalins.
i Zeitschrift D. M. G. Vol. XLII. p. 562, No. 808. • Vienna Or. J. Vol. VII. p. 248 ff.
• In order to avoid a useless repetition of identical footnotes, I bave replaced run by rura throughout the transcript
• Sváta-Saras and Dhavala-sarasa are Sanskrit translations of the Kanarose Bol-Kola, "the White Taak."
Ind. Ant. Vol. XXIII. p. 124. • See Dr. Hoernle's Table, Ind. Ant. VoL XXI. p. 57.
7 See Ind. Ant. Vol. XIV. p. 15; South-Indian Inscription, Vol. I. p. 158, note 8; Dr. Hoernle's Table, Ind. Aut. Vol. XXI. p. 74, No. 6. A detailed sketch of Kundakunda's Pravachamaedra is given in Dr. Bhandarkar's Report on Skt. MSS. 1883-84, p. 91 #. . Compare Ind. Ant. Vol. XXI. p. 156.
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