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No. 26.]
SRAVANA.BELGOLA EPITAPH OF MALLISHENA.
199
the jasmine, (and) who, & bee on the beautiful lotus-hands of magicians, firmly established sacred knowledge in India (Bharata) ?
(V. 6.) Worthy of worship is he who was skilled in reducing to ashes morbid appetite; on whom an exalted position was conferred by the goddess Padmavati ; who summoned (the Arhat) Chandraprabha by the words of his spells; the head of a school, the teacher Samantabhadra, by whom in this Kali age the Jaina path was suddenly made samantabhadra, (i.e.) prosperous on all sides.
(Line 18.) NOTE (chúrni).- The following fine words (sukti) manifest his display of eagerness to commence disputations :
METRE (vritta).- (V. 7.) "At first the drum was beaten by me within the city of Pataliputra, afterwards in the country of Mâlava, Sindhu, and Thakka, at Kanchipura, (and) at Vaidiga. I have now reached Karahâţaka, which is full of soldiers, rich in learning, (and) crowded (with people). Desirous of disputation, Oking! I exhibit the sporting of a tiger.
(V. 8.) "While Samantabhadra stands disputing in thy court, 0 king! even the tongue of Dharjati (Śiva), who talks distinctly and skilfully, quickly wanders (back) into (its) hole. What hope (of success is there) for other opponents) ?"
(V. 9.) The sharp sword of the meditation on the blessed Arhat, which breaks, as & line of stone pillars, the hostile army of destructive sins," was conferred as a boon on him, though he was a (mere) disciple. Otherwise, how could he, together with the sage Simhanandin, have broken by (his) sword 6 the solid stone pillar, which barred the road to the acquisition of the fortune of the kingdom ?
(V. 10.) Could the king of serpents, though he possesses ten hundred throats, adequately praise the power of speech, which overcame the crowd of orators, of the great sage Vakragriva, who, respected by the Sasanadêvata, while the necks of the devils, (viz. all) the disputants in this world), were bent with shame, briefly discussed the meaning of the word atha 7 during six months.
(v. 11.) O lords of poets ! your praises will not reach him in spite of all trouble ; make a profound obeisance to the sage Nandin whose (name) begins with Vajra (i.e. Vajranandin), who composed the Navastótra, which is pleasant as an excellent composition, containing the variety of the doctrines of all the Arbats 1
[Charana probably means here's Jaina monk endowed with magical powers. In this sense the word occurs occasionally as an abbreviation of vidyd-charana. I cannot vouch for the correctness of this translation as I do not know if the tradition of the Digambaras connects Kundakunds with a professor of legerdemrin like KbapuţAcharya.-E. L.)
The learned Brahmasûri Santri informs me that the meaning of the word bhasmaka' is thus explained in Vadibhasimha's Kshatrachidámani :- unteit HET H U IT. Compare Mr. Rice's Introduction,
p. 61.
I V appears to stand for C . • Brah masûri Sastri gave me the following explanation of the expression ghati-mala :-
0 ifa erfaqe 4194. The four gháttni karmani are specified in Dr. Bhandarkar's Report on Skt. M88. 1883-84, p. 93, note 1.
* At first sight this prononn would appear to refer to Samantabhadra, whose name was mentioned in the preceding verse. But, as noticed by Mr. Rice, it is more probable that the pronoun points to the mythical Ganga king Kongani; see p. 186 above.
6 The only possible way in which I can explain the second half of this difficult yerse, is to assume that sfgque is meant for whefeq.
i is generally the first word of Sanskrit books..
