________________
108
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. VII.
No. 14.- INSCRIPTIONS ON THE THREE JAINA COLOSSI
OF SOUTHERN INDIA.
BY E. HULTZSCE, PH.D. In the course of my two last cold-weather tours I had occasion to visit the sites of the three famous monolithic images at Sravana-Belgola in the Hassan district of the Mysore State and at Karkala and Vênur in the South Capara district of the Madras Presidency. For descriptive notices of these monuments the reader is referred to Mr. Rice's Inscriptions at Sravana-Belgola, Introduction, p. 29ff., and Mr. Sewell's Lists of Antiquities, Vol. I. pp. 231 and 236 f. The largest and most ancient of them is the one at Belgola, which, according to Mr. Rice, is 57 feet high and was set up by the minister Chamundaraja between A.D. 977 and 984. The second, at Kårkala, is 41' 5" high and was erected by the chief Vira-Pandya in A.D. 1432. Along with the two inscriptions on the image at Karkala, I publish an inscription (E. below) on a neighbour ng pillar which was raised by the same Vira-Pandya in A.D. 1436. The smallest and most recent of the three monoliths is the one at Vênûr, which is 35 feet high and was established by the chief Timmarája in A.D. 1604.
The saint or god whom the three images represent is called in Sanskrit Bahubalin or Bhujabalin' and was believed to bave been the son of Ådijina (G. below), s.e. the first Jina Rishabhanåtha. His vernacular name was Gummata (D.), Gummatesa (G.), Gommata or Gommațêsvara.
The inked estampages from which I am publishing the Karkala inscriptions (Nos. C., D. and E. below) were prepared by my peons. Those of the Belgola and Vênur inscriptions (Nos. A., B., F. and G.) bad to be done by Jainas under my supervision, because none but Jainas are permitted to touch the images at Belgola and Vênür.
A.- On the proper right side of the colossus at Belgola. This inscription (No. 52a of 1902) was first published by Mr. Rice, who, however, did not succeed in reading the second word in 1. 2.
The alphabet and language of the first and third lines are Kanarese. The second line is a Tamil translation of 1.1 and consists of two words, of which the first is written in the Grantha and the second in the Yatteluttu alphabet. The first two lines record that Chamundaraja caused to be made the image at the foot of which the inscription is engraved, and the third line, that Gangaraja caused to be made the balldings which surround the image.
In Mr. Rice's opinion, these inscriptions "are undoubtedly of the period when that work was completed." A comparison of the alphabet of 1.1 with that of the epitaph of Marasimha 11.7 and of the alphabet of 1.3 with that of an inscription of Gangaraja has convinced me that Mr. Rice is correct, 1.6. that 1.1 belongs to the time of Chamundaraja, the minister of the two Ganga kings Marasimha II. and Rachamalla II.,' and that 1.3 belongs to the time of Gangaraja, the minister of the Hoysala king Vishņuvardhana.10 The second line is probably contemporaneous
See the inscriptions C. and P. below.
Compare Ind. Ant. Vol. II. p. 184. Inscriptions at Sracana-Belgola, Index, ... • Mr. Walhouse had the same experience ; bre Ind. Ant. Vol. V. p. 37.
Inscriptions at Sravana-Belgola, No. 76. • Op. cit. Introduction, p 22.
Above, Vol. V. No 18, Plate. • No 78 of 1893 (Inscriptions ar Áravana. Belgola, No. 69). Above, Vol. V. Pp. 171 and 173.
10 Dr. Fleet's Dyn. Kan. Distr. p. 499 t.
