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112
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
3 चनृपति वरमं । मनमोदधीय [तु] मेल [सि]द निमगभि[मत ] मं ॥
4 जिनभक्त ब्रह्मनीगे
[VOL. VII.
TRANSLATION.
On the 12th (titki) of the bright (fortnight) of Phalguns in the Rakshasa year (which corresponded to the year) 1358 of the Saka king. Let it grant you (every) wish,-(the image of) Brahman, the devotee of Jina, who took up his abodes (here) in order to grant with pleasure (every) desire to the 'glorious prince Vira-Pandya, the son of Bhairava of the family of Jinadatta !
F. On the proper right side of the colossus at Vênûr; Saka-Samvat 1525.
A fairly correct transcript of this inscription (No. 72 of 1901) was published by Mr. Rice in the Introduction to his Inscriptions at Sravana-Belgola.
The inscription is disfigured by a crack, which has injured one or more letters in almost every line. The alphabet is Kanarese, and the language is Sanskrit verse. In several instances the letter d is closed and consequently identical in shape with dh. This remark applies also to the next inscription (G.).
The inscription records that Timmaraja of the family of Chamunda set up the image of the Jina named Bhujabalin at Enûra (the modern Vênur). This chief was the younger brother of Pandya, the son of queen Pandyaka, and the nephew and son-in-law of Rayakuvara. From the fact that the inscription mentions his uncle and mother, but not his father, it may be concluded that he and his family practised the aliya-santana, i.e. the inheritance through nephews. Even now the Jaina laymen (érávaka) of South Canara follow this rule, while the Jaina priests (indra) practise the makkala-santana, i.e. the inheritance through sons.
Timmarâja is stated to have set up the image at the instance of the Jaina priest Charukirti, who belonged to the Désigana and was the pontiff of Belgula (the modern Sravana-Belgola). Hence the latter must have been the spiritual preceptor of his family. This suggests that the Chamunda to whose family Timmarâja belonged (1. 14 f.) may be identical with the minister Chamundarâja who had set up the colossal statue at Belgola.7
The day on which the image was consecrated fell into the expired Saka year 1525 (in numerical words, 1. 4 f.), the cyclic year Sobhakrit. Professor Kielhorn kindly contributes the following calculation :
=
"The date regularly corresponds, for Saka-Samvat 1525 expired Sobhakrit, to Thursday, the 1st March A.D. 1804, when the 10th tithi of the bright half ended 3 h. 33 m., and the nakshatra was Pushya from 1 h. 58 m. (or 2 h. 38 m.), after mean sunrise. The sign Mithuna was lagna from about 5 h. 20 m, to about 7 h. 20 m. after true sunrise, i.e. the time indicated by the date is about midday."
1 Read °दौयलु.
I. e. who was set up by the king.
Loc. cit. p. 82. The transcript supplied to Mr. Rice contains three misreadings:-Indu-Pushyake for GuruPushyaké (1.7); Endra- for Enúra- (L 10 f.); and anni-Endra-su-rdj-dkhyas- for anujas-Timmardj-dkhyas (1. 14).
This is a synonym of Bahubalin in the Karkala inscription, C. above.
In the next following inscription (G.) he is called Rayakumara. Kweara is a tadbhava of kumdra. • Compare above, p. 110, note 3. 1 See p. 108 above.
