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No. 19.)
BELATURU INSCRIPTION OF RAJENDRADEVA.
215
Kabbani, in the Nañjangüd tåluka of the Mysore district. Both Nugunadu and Navalenádu are mentioned in & Western Ganga record.
This is perhaps the first inscription that has been discovered, concerning the self-immolation of a Sudra's wife after her husband's death. This self-immolation is not identical with the 80-called suttee (satt) of Brahmaņical usage, according to which a wife, on being widowed, burned herself with the corpse of her deceased husband upon the funeral pile. In this instance there is no pyre (chita, chiti, chitya, the tadbhava-form of which is sidige in Kannada), but a konda (tadbhava of the Sanskrit kunda), a hole in the ground for any fire, especially one for the fire of a burnt oblation.
The Sūdras at the time of the present inscription, worshippers of Siva, probably in most instances disposed of their dead by cremation instead of which the Lingavantas introduced burying), and thus the body of Echa may have been burned at Talekádu. That sahagamana was customary among Sudras, does not follow from the inscription ; the contrary seems to be proved, as the parents and relations of Dekabbe strongly oppose her burning herself; she herself however (who may have been influenced at the time somehow by Brahmapical notions), seeks to justify her act by pointing out the dishonour that would be brought upon the families by her surviving as a widow.
The konda into which Dekabbe threw herself was obviously neither at Talekâdu nor at Pervayal, but at her native place Belatůru (where she had gone in the absence of her husband and heard the report of his death), near the house of her own people, and had been filled with kindled charcoal, etc., for presenting funeral oblations.
Malla, the poet who composed the inscription, uses two epithets of a peculiar kind regarding Raviga, the father of Dekabbe, who had the monument erected, víz, "a lion to the angry " and “powerful over the envious" (v. 22); and at the end (1. 36) the engraver quotes the very same two epithets. Malla also calls himself "a discus to those among Brahmaņas who fret" (v. 23). It is highly probable that these epithets are directed against Brahmanas who might find fault with the erection of a monument that praised a Sudra widow as, so to say, & suttee.
TEXT. 1 [m] [ll] Svasti sri-Chola-rajam sakala-vasudheyath koņda Rajendradeva[m]
ba[rist-Ari-vráta-ghatam negale barisam-ar-&ge mattan Sak-abdam vissta2 ra[m] tombhat-êl-ombhatum-ene barisan Hêmalambi prasiddhar svastar
masam gadam Kå[ro]ttikam-asi[ta]-dinam dvadasi Sômavaram 1]
Kandar Svasti srima3 tu sakala-jaga-[sta]tar-Avach-&graganyar=ûrjita-pupyar vistára-ch&ru-vira-rasa
stitar-igiv=iva [k&]va Nugunâd-adhipar! [2] Enipa kula[da]lli putti[da]. 4 n=anapaman-Ereyangan-avana nija-sutan=Êcham Manu-nibhan=avange puttida
tanůbhavam Javanicy8][*]mman=arivimg=armmam [3] Ant-à
Javanayyamgam 5 kântajana-tilakam=enipa Jakabbegam-olpan=taleye puțțidam ripu-santana-nagêndra
vilaya-pa[v]igam Ravigam [4] Ravigam puttidad=ođan-udbhava6 m-ayt-ariv-arivin=odane puttidud=&ya sa[va]-and-&yadodam Bara bhavam-Adudu
chagam-intag=a[nya]ro[=umtå [5] Vșittar Kudiyara vallabhath ka
1 See page 69 above.
From inked estampages supplied by Dr. Holtzsch. * Expressed by a symbol. • Metre: Sragd hare.
• Head dript. • The rof -punyar is written above the line.
7 Read -sthitara, • Metre: Champakamále.
