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258
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. VI.
At the top of the stone there are sculptures, of which the principal one, in the centre, is a lisiga on its abhisheka-stand. On the proper right, there is an image of some god, squatting and facing full-front; beyond this there is & worshipper, kneeling towards the god; and above these there are the sun and moon. On the proper left, there is a cow, standing towards the linga, and with & calf sucking at her udder; and above these there is the bull Nandi, recumbent and similarly facing towards the lisiga. These sculptures are all inside a panel, above the centre of which there is some ornamental device, of a circular shape, the exact nature of which is not recognisable. The writing covers an area about 1' 101" broad by 81" high. It is in a state of fairly good preservation, and can be read without any doubt, except in the first eight or nine letters of line 7, the lower parts of which are broken away. It is, however, only a fragment, the body of the record having been broken away and apparently lost. The characters are Kanarese, well formed and well executed, of the regular type of the period to which the record refers itself. The size of them ranges from about to 3". They present nothing calling for comment, except the use of the somewhat rare medieval forms of m, in the upper m of varmma and dharmma, line 1, and of u in the upper 0 of púrovapara, line 4, which have been noticed in Vol. V. above, p. 237.-The language is Kanarese, of the archaic type, in prose. In line 3, we have singha as a tadbhava-corruption of the Sanskrit simha, 'a lion,' and komaraka as a fuller form of komara,
= kuvara, a tadbhava-corruption of kumára, a prince,' and bima, the tadbhava-corruption of bhima, terrible.' In peldore, line 4, we have the somewhat unusual form pol for per, great.' In line 5, we have bidiye, as a variant of bidige which is the more usual tadbhava-corruption of the Sanskrit dvittyd, the second tithi.' In line 6, we have baļa as a variant of the better known bapa, which is in use to the present day, in the Kanarese country, to denote sometimes the different branches of the families of hereditary Patils and Kulkarnis (especially of Patils), and sometimes the different families that have shares in the watans, as, for instance, when there are both a Jain bana and a Lingayat bana of Patils; and, in respect of the whole word balanw, we may note that, though it is & neuter nominative, it is formed with n instead of the more usual m, and that, for the final of the copulative ending urn, there has been used in sandhi , instead of them which was more usual in the archaic language. And, in the same line, we have a word eleya-bhoja[ga] (apparently equivalent to elegára, tambuliga, 'a seller of betel-leaves '), the second component of which does not seem to be explained in dictionaries.
-In respect of orthography, there is nothing to be noticed except the use of for & in Saka, line 5.
Under bidige in bia Kannada-English Dictionary, Dr. Kittel hw quoted vidiye m the Telugu form, and vidiyai us the Tamil form.
* Bala occurs, in the same sense, in line 48 of one of the inscriptions at Noregal in the Ran taloks, where mention is made of the two balas of Narayangal" (Jour. B. Br. R. 4. Soo. Vol. XI. p. 288). And lines 49, 51, and 62 of the same record present it in another sense, Damely to denote tbe rent-free service-lands of certain G douadas or Patils. In the latter sense, it occurs also in line 81 of the Saundatti inscription of A.D. 1228 (id. Vol. X. p. 270, and Archaol. Sure. West. Ind. Vol. III. p. 114); and this record uses, in line 70, also the exactly equivalent word ganduodnya. The case used in the Saundatti record is formed with #, as in the present instance, balanwolage. The case used in the Naregal record are formed with the more customary d, -balad-olage, baladin.- The word bars is also used, I think, in the general meaning of 's faction." Dr. Kittel's Dictionary gives bons as the Southeru Maratba form of pana,'any tribe; & sectarian division.'
In this record, the second component of oloya-bhoj aga is distinctly written with the aspirated bh. I am not sure wbether the vowel should be taken the sbort o or as the long 6. With the adsspirated 1, we have the same word, leya-bojaga in lines 21-22 and 28-29 of the Kodikop Inscription of A.D. 1144, which mentions the five-bundred-and-foar Eleyabojaga." (Jour. Bo. Br. R. 4. Soc. Vol. XI. pp. 264, 267). In this torin, bojaga, the word is given in Dr. Kittel's Dictionary: but only as tadbhard-corruption of the Sanskrit blwjaga, bhujanga, ' opske. Ho also gives bojagatana in the sense of lechery.' The Ablar record of A.D. 1104 presenta word which appears as bojangutana or bojangutans in line 82 of one version, and w bhojagatana in line 88 of the other version (see Vol. V. above, p. 281, note 9). There can be hardly may reference there to lecbery; and the word seems to stand there for elegaboj agafane or eleyabhojapatana, the occupation of a seller of betel-leaves,' or else to denote some import on that trade.
