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170
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
first is the Bel vola Three-hundred. This district is equally well-known; and its name, being derived from the Kanarese bele, 'growing corn, a crop,' and pola, hola, 'a field,' means the country of luxuriant crops,' with reference to the fertility of the rich blacksoil which constitutes one of its chief features. It included Gadag in the Dharwad District (Ind. Ant., Vol. II, p. 297), Annigere in Dharwad (Ind. Ant., Vol. XII, p. 220; apparently Aņņigere was then, A. D. 866, the capital of the district), Kurtakoți in Dhårwad (Ind. Ant., Vol. VII, p. 218), Nargund in Dhårwad and Holi in Belgaum (Ind. Ant., Vol. XII, p. 47; here the name is written Beļvala, and the district is said to be a part of the Kuntala vishaya), and Kukkanar in the Nizam's Dominions (Ind. Ant., Vol. IV, p. 275; here the name is written Beluvala, in Nagari characters). From the wording of the passage in line 22 of the present inscription it seems not to have included Âtakur. The second is the Purigere Three-hundred. This, again, is a very well-known district, taking its appellation from the ancient Kanarese name of Lakshmêshwar in the Miraj State, within the limits of the Dharwad District. The third is the Kisukad Seventy. This was in later times one of the divisions of the hereditary territory of the Sindas of Erambarage; and the chief town of it (Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc., Vol. XII, p. 272) was Kisuvoļal or Pattada-Kisuvolal, which is the modern Pattadakal in the Bijapur District, near Bådâmi. To the south it included (id., p. 257) Kiru-Narayangal, which is to be identified with Kodikop, a hamlet of Naregal in the Ron Taluka, Dharwad. And the fourth is the Bågenad Seventy. This is plainly identical with the Bågadage Seventy, or Bågadige nåd, which was another of the divisions of the Sinda territory. I have only recently obtained the means of localising precisely the position of this district, and of determining the town from which it took its name. That town is Bagalkot in the Bijapur District. It has long been known to me that the rustics call this place Bangaļikote;' the popular explanation of which is that some Nawab assigned it to his wife for pin-money (lit. for bangles, bángadt). And I had a suspicion, but no more, that it might be the ancient Bågadage or Bågadige. All doubt has now been removed by my examination of an inscription on a stone which stands in the courtyard of the Taluka Kachêri at Bagalkot, and was brought, I under. stand, from the neighbouring village of Hêrkal, and which mentions "the famous capital, Bagadageya-kote," (srima[d-r]ájadhani Bagadag[e]ya-koteya Sri-mula]-[sthand]dhi pati] Nilakantha-panditadêvaru; lines 9-10). Taken with the rustic appellation, this is quite sufficient to establish the identity of the two names, Bågadage and Bagalkot. And finally, in line 22, the addition mentions the village of Koteyar of the Beļvola country. This place I cannot identify with any certainty ; but it may possibly be either Kurtakoti in Dharwad, or the small village of Kotoor,' 3 miles west of Koppal in the Nizam's Dominions (Lat. 16° 20' N., Long. 76° 10' E.).
There can be, I think, no doubt that the Ereyapa of this inscription is the Ganga king Ereyapa or Ereyapparasa, ruler of the Gangavadi Ninety-six-thousand, of the Bêgür inscription (edited by me, ante, Vol. I, p. 346 ff). This record, therefore, fixes the period of the events recorded in the Begur stone, and adds another interesting link in the history of the Western Gangas. It shows internal dissensions among them; for Permånadi-Batuga, himself a Ganga (see lines 5, 6), acquired the province by killing Rachamalla, the son of Ereyapa; and Ereyapa, though he has been stamped by Mr. Rice as an “usurper" (e.g. Mysore Inscriptions, pp. xliv, xlv), was most distinctly of the
