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INTRODUCTION.
xxvii
quently greater difficulty involved in its execution, is by far the most interesting. The image is nude and stands erect facing the north...... The figure has no support above the thighs. Up to that point it is representcil as surrounded by ant-bills, from which emerge serpents: a climbing plant twines itself round both legs and both arms, terminating at the upper part of the arm in a clustre of fruit or berries. The pedestal on which the feet stand is carved to represent an open lotus." *
There are inscriptions on the slabs near the right and left foot The Inscriptions of the image of Gommateśvara at Sravaņa Belgola.
04 [See Plate V]. Gommatesvara at
The inscription on the right-hand Sravaņa Belgola. slab is as follows:
Sri-Châmundara jam mâdisidam ; Srî-l" ;. !!.", [śe] Yv [v] ittân;
Sri-Gamgarâja suttâlayavam mâdisida; that is to say
Sri Châmundarâja caused to be made. Sri Chimurdara a caused to be made. Srî Gamgarâja caused the Chaityalaya (enclosure) to be made.
"The alphabet and language of the first and third lines are Canarese. The second line is a Tamil translation of line 1, and consists of two words, of which the first is written in the Grantha and the second in the Vatteluttu alphabet. The first two lines record that Châmundarâja caused to be made the image, at the foot of which the inscription is engraved, and the third line that Gamgarâja caused to be made the buildings which surround the image."
The inscription on the slab on the left-hand is as follows:-- Sri-C" . ..: karaviyalem
Sri-Gamgaraje suttale karavirale; that is to say
Sri Châmundarâja caused to be made. Sri Gamgarâja caused the Chaityalaya (enclosure) to be made.
"The alphabet is Nagari, and the language is Marathi...... The Marathi language was perhaps adopted for the benefit of Jain pilgrims from the Marathả country.”+
In Plate VI we have given a facsimile reprint of the inscriptions mentioned above, beginning with that on the left. From the
* Epigraphia Carnatica, Vol. II, Introduction, page 29.
† E. Hultzsch-Inscriptions on the Three Jain Colossi of Southern India' (Epigraphia Indica, Vol. VII, pages 108-109.)
