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No. 30.]
Xa mi
GADAG INSCRIPTION OF BHILLAMA.
GADA INSCRIPTION OF THILAKA
217
No. 30. GADAG INSCRIPTION OF THE YADAVA BHILLAMA;
SAKA-SAMVAT 1113.
BY F. KIELHORN, PE.D., C.I.E.; GÖTTINGEN. This inscription is on a stone at the temple of Trikatte vara (Śiva) at Gadag, the chief town of the Gadag tAluks in the Dharwår district of the Bombay Presidency. Its existence was indicated, twenty years ago by Dr. Fleet in the Indian Antiquary, Vol. II. p. 298, and I now edit it from an excellent impression, supplied to me by the same scholar.
The inscription contains 21 lines of writing which covers & space of about 1' 7" broad by 1' 11" high. Excepting that in line 12 three aksharas have been intentionally effaced, lines 1-19 are in fair state of preservation and may be read with confidence through. out; but the greater part of lines 20 and 21 is broken away, and so is the end of the inscription,- probably one or two more lines, of no particular importance. At the top of the stone are, in the centre, a linga and a priest; to the right, & cow and calf with the sun or moon above them; and to the left, a ball with the moon or sun above it. The size of the letters is between
" and ".-The characters are Nagari.-The language is Sanskrit. Speaking generally, lines 1-9 are in verse, and lines 10-20 in prose; and the inscription apparently ended with other (benedictive and imprecatory) verses. The orthography calls for no remarks.
The inscription records a grant of land by the Yadava king Bhillamadeva (of Dévagiri). Opening with a verse which invokes the protection of 'Kamsa's foe' (Vishnu), it gives in seven verses the following genealogy of the donor :- In Yadu's family there was a king named Sevanadêve. His won was the prince Mallugidêve. His son, again, was the prince Amaraganga. After him his younger brother Karnadáva became king. And his son was the king Bhillamadove, an incarnation as it were of Krishna, who, conquering many countries and acquiring much wealth, rendered the rule of the family of king Sévans (or of the Sevana kings) highly prosperous.- After this, the inscription in another verse (in line 9) states that Bhillamadêva had a minister, named Jaitasimhs, who was endowed with the three constituent elements of regal power, whose prowess' was surpassing thought, and who was a very scorpion to rulers of districts. .
Lines 10-19 then record that, at the representation of this Jaitasimha, His Majesty Bhillamadeva, adorned with such titles. as 'the refuge of the whole world, the illustrious favourite of the earth, Maharajadhiraja, Paramétvara, Paramabhaffäraka, the ornament of Yadn's family, born in the holy Vishnu's lineage,' while his camp of victory was located at Hérüra, - at & Solar eclipse on Sunday, the new-moon tithi of Jyaishtha of the Virôdhaksit year, when 1113 years had elapsed of the era of the Saks king, after having washed the foet of the holy chief of neoetics Siddhåntichandrabhishanapanditadova, also oalled Satyavákya, the disciple of Vidy Abharaṇadeva who in turn was a disciple of Somdevaradeva, and superintendent (or chief priest) of the shrine of the god Svayambhû-Trikațagvars at Kratuka, granted the village of Hiriya-Handigola in the Beluvols Three-hundred, free from tolle, taxes and molestation, with every kind of income, with its boundaries as they were known before, not to be pointed at with the finger by the king's officials, and together with the tribhôga, making it & sarva-namasya grant and dividing it into two parts, one of which, according to line 19, was destined for the god Trikatesvara.-- From here the text becomes mutilated or is entirely broken away; and what remains of lines 20 and 21, only shows that the
vis. prabhatua, mentra, and sladha.
See Ind. Ant. Vol. XIX. p. 971; I do not foel sure that the explanation, there given of tribkóga, is correct, bat am unable to explain the term myself.
