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No. 28.)
NILGUND INSCRIPTION OF TAILA II.
205
and a standing human figure on either side of it. And above these again, at the top of the stone, is another human figure, squatting down and facing to the front. The inscription consists of 32 lines of writing which covers a space of sboat l'11" broad by 3' 11' high and which, with the exception of the two last lines, is in a fair state of preservation. The writing in lines 31 and 32, which probably are a later addition, is so faint and indistinct that it cannot be read with any approach to certainty. The execution of lines 1-20 is good; after that the writer or engraver got careless and failed to maintain the same type of characters, especially in lines 21-26. The size of the letters is about ". The characters are Old-Kanarese; they include the sign of the upadhmaniya in bhävinah=pártthiv-, l. 28. Excepting the Kanarese biruda neramodeganda in line 16, the name Erevishnu in line 23, and the Kanarese Genitive Kannojana in line 30, the language is Sanskrit. The grammar is faulty, especially in the verse in lines 29-30, in the sentence in linea 15-22 where we have téna ... dattavan instead of téna ... daltam, and probably also in lines 22-24 where the author appears to be guilty of a similar mistake. In respect of orthography, it may suffice to draw attention to the use of ri instead of the vowel si in dvishkritan, 1. 1, svikrita, 1. 9, -kritan, 1, 29, and grihan, l. 24, and to the doubling of the first part of the conjunct vy in karttavryam, 1. 7, and iti vvydkulds-, l. 8. Rather more than one half of the text is in verse.
The inscription refers itself to the reign of the Western Chalukya Tailapa Åhavamalla, whom we know to have restored the Chalukya sovereignty in the year Srimukha = BakaSauvat 895 expired. After eulogizing that king, it mentions a general or feudatory of his, named Kannapa (or Kendapa), who ruled the two Three-hundreds and the Kogali and other districts of the Banavåsi province; and tells us that, on his death, Kannapa was gucceeded by his younger brother Sobhana. Since this Sobhana apparently is the Sobhanarasa, who is mentioned in a Gadag inscription of Saka-Samvat 924 as a fendatory of Tailapa's successor Satyasraya II., it is clear that 'the two Three-hundreds of the present inscription are the Beļvols Three-hundred and the Puligere Three-hundred which, with some other districts, are assigned to Sobhanarass in that other inscription. Kogali, the name of another district governed by Kannaps and after him by Sobhana, Dr. Fleet suspects to be mistake for Kerigali which, according to him, was the name of a Five-hundred district.
After the above preliminary statements, the inscription, in lines 15-21, records that, on the occasion of a solar eclipse in the month of Bhadrapada of Saka-Sarnvat 904 expired, corresponding to the year Chitrabhånu, śôbbana gave to a certain Vishnubhatta of the Vigvamitra gotras field, measuring 30 nivartanas and situated in the village of Nirgunda, for the purpose of establishing an alms-house. And in lines 22-26 it is further stated that this gift was renewed (P) by a lady named Vådajabbé (?), who also gave a house near the northern boundary of the village of Chinchila (or Chiñchali), for the purpose of providing food for twelve Brahmanas. Lines 29-30 express the wish that the alms-house founded by Erevishņu, i.e. Vishnubhatta, at the sacred place Chincha (apparently Chiñchila or Chinchali) may last for ever; and the inscription ends with the writer's name and a word of auspicious import.
The date of Sobhana's donation corresponds to the 20th September A.D. 982. when there was & solar eclipse which was visible at Nilgund. Of the localities mentioned, Nirgunda is the village of Nilgund where the inscription still is, and Chinchila or Chiñchali is the village Chinchoolee of the maps, about a mile and a half south-west of Nilgund.
* See Ind. Ant. Vol. XXI. p. 187.
1 See Dr. Fleet's Dynasties, p. 42; Ind. Ant. Vol. II. p. 297, and Vol. XII. p. 210, No. 31; the date of the Gadag inscription regularly corresponds to Sunday, the 22nd Mareh A.D. 1002.
i Compare leo Ind. Ant. Vol. XII. p. 271, where Perm&nadi-Marasinghaddva is stated to have governed the two (Three hundreda, vit. the Puligere Three-hundred and the Besvols Throe-hundred, which, together, make) B-hundred.' I owe this reference to Dr. Fleet.
