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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. VI.
No. 11.-NILGUND INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF AMOGHAVARSHA I.;
A.D. 866. BY J. F. FLEET, I.C.S. (RETD.), PH.D., C.I.E. This inscription is now brought to notice for the first time. And I edit it from an inkimpression obtained by me in 1887. I edit it, partly because it is interesting in itself, and partly because it is closely connected with the Sirûr inscription, of the same date, of which a version has been given by me in the Ind. Ant. Vol. XII. p. 215 ff. A revised version of the latter record will be given shortly, in the course of some papers which will illustrate the development of the alphabet of the Kanarese country during the ninth century A.D. And it is convenient to publish the Nilgund record first, because, as far as the words Annigereyol=vre in line 22, it was based on the same draft on which was based the same part of the Sirûr record. and, though on the one hand parts of it could hardly have been deciphered without the help of the Sirûr record, on the other hand it supplies a few aksharas which are illegible in the Sirûr record and could not be supplied from any other source.
Nilgund is a village about twelve miles S. W. W. from Gadag, the head-quarters of the Gadag täluka of the Dharwâr district. It is shewn in the Indian Atlas sheet No. 41 (1852) as Neelgoond.' The modern form of the name is carried back to A.D. 1879 by the Dambal grant of that year, which mentions the place, in Nagari characters and in a Sanskrit verse, as Nilagunda. The present record gives its name in the older form of Nirgunda ;' the purport of it places Nirgunda in a circle of villages known as the Mulgunda twelve, which, again, it places in the Boļvola three-hundred district; and Mulgunda, from which the circle took its name, is, of course, the modern Mulgund, about two miles on the south-east of Nilgund. The inscription is on a stone tablet which was found standing in front of the house of AngadiRåchappa, in the village of Nilgund.
At the top of the stone there are sculptures, of which the principal ones are the goddess Lakshmi, squatting and facing full-front, with an elephant, on each side, standing towards her : the tips of the trunks of the elephants, which are aplifted, moet above her head, and each of them holds something which may be either a flower or a water-pot or some sacred symbol ; and above them, and perhaps supported by them, there is a smaller image, representing probably Vishņu, squatting and facing full-front. Below the figure of Lakshmi, there is a svastika. On the proper right of the latter, there are & cow and a calf; and on the proper left, two objects which, in the sketch submitted to me, look like a thick-set bush and a flowering plant, each in a tub or stand. - The writing covers an area about 3' 41' broad by 5' 11" high. Lines 1 to 15 are in a state of fairly good preservation. Lines 16 to 25 have suffered a great deal of damage ; and there are many syllables here, in addition to those which I have placed in square brackets, which could hardly have been deciphered with any certainty, if at all, without the help of the Sirûr inscription. Lines 26 to 35, also, are considerably damaged, but not to the same extent.-- The characters are Kanarese, boldly formed and well executed. They are of a good antique square and upright style, presenting an appearance much older than that of the characters of the Sirur inscription, of the same date, of which & collotype will be published hereafter. And the size of them ranges from about f' in the ya of traya, line 12, to about 13
1 See a remark made on page 74 above.
Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. Vol. XII. p. 357, text line 129.
• The dental nd can be recognised clearly in the impression, both in Nirggundada, line 26, and in Igunda, line 2; and it is, of course, exactly what we should expect. The Nilgand inseription of A. D. 982, however, for some reason or other gives the name as Nirgunds, with the lingual d above, Vol. IV. p. 206, text line 30).
