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No. 25.]
SPURIOUS SUDI PLATES.
265
Rajasimha, otherwise called Hastimalla, & vassal of the Chola king Parantaka I., - published by Mr. Foulkes, and allotted by him to about A.D. 920,- adds the information that his city was Kavalâlapurs, which is the modern Kolár, in the east of Mysore, and that his banner was the piñchhadhvaja or banner of a bunch of feathers; and it says that," while he was yet a little boy, playing at big boys' games, he cut in two a great stone pillar, at a single stroke, with the supple sword which he held in his hand." In connection with the banner thus mentioned, it may be noted that the family crest was an elephant, which appears on the seals of the grants, and is also mentioned in line 7 of the Harihar grant. The Udsyêndiram grant further states that the Ganga lineage originated from a saint named Kaņva, born in the race of Kasyapa, and owed its greatness to a certain Simhanandin. Here Mr. Foulkes read mahi[pa], 'king.' And Mr. Rice, on the strength of the mention, elsewhere, and in no connection with the Gangas, of a Jain teacher named Simhanandin, who, in a rather obscure passage, appears to be described as giving to Samantabhadra, while the latter was still a disciple, the sharp sword of meditation on the divine Arhat which breaks, like a line of stone pillars, the army of destructive sins, whereby Samantabhadra broke with his sword the solid stone pillar that barred the road to the acquisition of the goddess of sovereignty, 3 has altered mahipa into munipa,' saint, or leader of saints,' and has arrived at the conclusion that Konganivarman "was aided, in establishing his kingdom, by his " Guru Simhanandin." He has found some apparent corroboration in the Humcha inscription. And he has finally developed all this into the assertion that Simhanandin presented to Konganivarman a miraculous sword, with which, at one blow, he cut through the stone pillar which was the chief obstacle in the way of his securing the throne. But the purely conjectural alteration of mahipa into munipa is rather a violent step. And, whatever the Acharya Simhanandin of the Humcha inscription may have done, the Udayêndiram record distinctly implies an interval,- of unspecified but appreciable duration between the Simhanandin, who is mentioned in it, and Konganivarman.
His son was Madhava I., who in the Humeba inscription is called Kiriya Madhava, the younger or lesser Madhava.' His title appears as Maharajadhiraja in the Tanjore grant; as Adhiraja which, like the preceding, is a genuine title, in the Mallohaļļi grant No. 3; and as Mahadhiraja in all the others. No historical facts are stated in connection with him. But he is said to have been the author of a commentary on the Dattakasulra, - & work on the law of adoption.
His son was Harivarman, who in the Tanjore grant is called Arivarman. His title appears as Maharajadhiraja in the Tanjore grant; in the Mallohalli grant No. 3, as Márája, which is a corrupt form, and a very suspicious and instructive one, of the genuine title Maharaja ; and as Mahadhiraja in all the others. In connection with him, again, no historical facts are stated. But the Tanjore grant indicates that his capital was Talavanapura, which Mr. Rice has identified with Talakad on the Kåvêrî, about thirty miles east by south from the town of Mysore; 5 and Mr. Rice considers that this town continued to be the royal residence from that time onwards: before that time, he says, on the authority of the Korgudosa-Rdjákka!,- the
1 Manual of the Salem District, Vol. II. p. 369.- As regards the period of this record, Parantaka I. came three generations before Saka-Samvat 926 (expired), = A. D. 1004-1005 (nee South-Ind. Ineers. Vol. I. p. 112) and, therefore, closely about A. D. 920.
* This banner is allotted, in the KalbhAvi inscription, to the Ganga chieftain Saigotta-Ganga-Permånadi, and is there called the banner of the divine Arhat" (Ind. Ant. Vol. XVIII. p. 313). . Inscriptions at Sravana-Belgola, No. 54.
• Karnataka-sabdarmádsanam, Introd. p. 18.- Mr. Rice has suggested (ibid., note; and on previous occasions) that Silastambha may stand for filastambha, and that there may be an allusion to the overthrow of a column of Asoka edicts. But, as he himself remarks, how an Asoka pillar could stand in the way of the establishment of the Ganga kingdom, is not clear. And the probability is that the passage refers to a ranastambha or jaya. stambha, pillar of battle or victory,' set up by some other king, and destroyed in the samd manner with one of tbe Mandaðr columns (see Ind. Ant. Vol. XV. p. 254, and Gupta Inscriptions, p. 141).
Mysore Inscriptions, p. xli., and map, p. lxxxiv.
