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108
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(Vol. VI.
thousand years !-- (V. 8; 1. 31). They say that the property of a god is poison ;l and the property of a Brahman is said to be poison : but poison kills only one person ; whereas the property of a Brahman kills one's sons and grandsons !-(V.9; 1. 32). If a man enjoys the property of a Brahman through (breach of) trust, he burns his family to the seventh generation, and those who enjoy it by force (burn) ten ancestors and ten descendants !-(V. 10; 1. 33). Victorious is the god Hari (Vishạn); the cause of continuance and destruction and creation, who is a very winter to the water-lilies that are the faces of the wives of the demons ! -(V. 11; 1. 34). “This general bridge of religion of kings should at all times be preserved by yon;" thus does Råmabhadra make his earnest request to all future princes!
(L. 35)-Written by..... bhatta. Nagamadda () [set up] this stone.
No. 12.-TWO PILLAR INSCRIPTIONS OF THE TIME OF
KRISHNARAYA OF VIJAYANAGARA.
By H. LUDERS, PA. D.; GÖTTINGEN. Inked estampages of these two inscriptions were sent to me by Dr. Hultzsch through Prof. Kielhorn. The first is engraved on the four faces of a pillar lying on the ground near the steps leading to the temple on the hill at Mangalagiri, 12 miles north-east of Gantur in the Kistna district.
It contains 257 lines of writing.-The average size of the letters is ". At the top of the fourth face is a representation of the sun and the moon. The alphabet is Telugu. The chief points in which it differs from the modern script are the following. The talakattu is a flattened semi-circle. The dirghamu goes right down to the bottom of the line, except in td, na and há, where it is represented by the curve above the line which in the modern alphabet appears in há only. The gudi is like the upper half of a circle, and to denote i, the tip is sometimes slightly curved inwards ; see e.g. si in l. 241. Bat in most cases it is absolutely impossible to distinguish between the long and the short vowel, except in mi, which appears in the modern form (1.25). Medial & has the form of a sickle or & semi-circle open to the left. In mau (11. 54, 107), yau (1. 63), and ryau (1. 224) the diphthong is expressed by attaching the ordinary sign for au to the right of the letter and the sign for é to the middle bar or to the r. Initial a, e, ga, gha, chha, ta, pa, da, pa, pha, ma, ra, fa, sha and ha show still the ancient forms. In the case of sha this is all the more remarkable as already in the Vånapalli plates of Anna-Vêma, dated in Óska-Samvat 1300,5 occasionally a form of sha appears wbich on account of the division of the middle horizontal line comes nearer to the modern form (see e.g. 11. 2, 18, 30). Ka, on the other hand, shows, except in ka in 11. 22, 177 and kl in 1. 23, an advanced form which in its characteristic lines already resembles the modern form. La has a peculiar form, differing from the sign used o.g. in the Bițraguņķa grant of Samgama II. (Saka-Samvat 1278) and the Vanapalli plates as well as from the modern sign. The ottu, the small vertical stroke underneath the letter, which in the modern alphabet is the sign of aspiration, is nover found in kha, chha and tha, but, as a rule, it is used in gha, dha, dha, pha and bha, when no other sign stands below
1 With the first second, and fourth clauses, supply "if confiscated, or missppropriated." • This verse seems rather out of place in the middle of the benedictive and imprecatory versen.
• Compare the expression in the Tufàm inscription, which describes Visbņu as "s very frost to (eawo the withering on the beauty of the water-lilies which are the faces of the women of the demons" (Gupta Inscriptions, p. 270).
• No. 267 of the Government Epigrapbist's collection for the year 1892.
Above, Vol. III. p. 59 I., Plates. 6 Abore, Vol. III. p. 218., Plates.
