Epigraphia Indica Vol 14

SR No.: 032568
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sten Konow, F W Thomas
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1917
Total Pages: 480
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 24 MB

Page 316

No. 19.3
TWO INSCRIPTIONS FROM KURGOD.
285
No. 19. TWO INSCRIPTIONS FROM KURGOD. BY LIONEL D. BARNETT.
Kurgoḍ is a village in the Bellary taluka of the Bellary District, Madras: it is shown in the Indian Atlas sheet 58 (1827) as "Koorgode," in lat. 15° 21', long. 76° 54', about fourteen miles north-north-west from Bellary. The records now published give the name in the full form of Kurugöḍu; and the first of them puts the place in the Ballakunda vishaya (1. 17) or Ballakunde nad (11. 19, 47),-known from other sources as a three-hundred district, which, again, it puts in the Kuntala country (11. 14, 17). The name Kurugōḍu seems to mean " (the hill) having a small or low top," from kuru and kodu, with reference to one or another of the hills which lie on the north and west of the place. The inscriptions place here a hill-fort (see A, vv. 12, 13, and B, 1. 9). They speak of it in bombastic terms; but it seems to have been in ancient times really a fortress of strength and repute, as it is mentioned in the list of strongholds which were reduced by the Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana I (see Ep. Carn. XI. Dg. 25, p. 55) and Ballala II (see Vol. XIII above, p. 176).
In 1801 Major Colin Mackenzie found at Kargod a stone tablet, nearly five feet high and three feet wide and about eleven inches thick. He removed it with the consent of the principal inhabitants, and it is now in the Imperial Museum at Calcutta. This stone bears two inscrip. tions, one on its front and the other on the back, the first of which, A below, was brought to notice by a translation which was furnished to Major Mackensie and was published in 1807 by Colebrooke in Asiatic Researches, Vol. IX, p. 433; see also Colebrooke's Essays, Vol. II, p. 240. That translation was not a very satisfactory one: to say nothing of its numerous errors of omission and commission, it introduced, quite gratuitously, the name of Salivahana into both the dates, regarding which point and its connections see Dr. Fleet's paper on "Salivahana and the Saka Era" in Journ. R. As. Soc., 1916, p. 809. I now edit the two records from inkimpressions placed at my disposal by the late Dr. Fleet, which are now in the British Museum.
A. OF SOMESVARA IV AND THE SINDA PRINCE RACHAMALLA II: SAKA 1095 AND 1103.
This record is on the front of the stone. Over it there are sculptures as usual: in the centre a linga; at the sides, the bull Nandi and probably a cow and calf; and above them, the sun and moon. The writing covers an area of about 3 ft. 8 in. in height by 2 ft. 9 in. in width, and is in an excellent state of preservation.
The characters are Kanarese, about in. in height on the average. They are well formed, of the upright type characteristic of the period. They include in line 1 three interesting letters which have been illustrated by Dr. Fleet in Ind. Ant., Vol. XV, p. 364: the opening syllable fri, about 2 in. high, is elaborated so as to present on the right side the front part of an elephant; and the dra of chamdra and the bha of Sambhave, of the same height, are treated, so as to form the front parts of two birds. With this may be compared the inscription Ep. Carn. XI (Chitaldroog), Cd. No. 47, which boasts of its engraver's skill in feats of this kind. In the same line the of Svayambha and the upper part of the ai in trailokya are drawn out and expanded into ornamental designs, and the iin chumbi is enlarged. On the last line also a number of subscript vowels and consonants are prolonged downwards in sweeping flourishes. The inscription is also remarkable for the frequent use that it makes of the special characters for m, y, and v noted above, Vol. XII, p. 335. Thus in lines 1-3 the proportion of the special to
1 This record is entered as No. 253 in Professor Kielhorn's List of the Inscriptions of Southern India, Vol. VII above, appendix. 2 N