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No. 28.]
SOME RASHTRAKUTA RECORDS.
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vansa, "the race that has the appellation Ratta," and in the formal prasasti, given in this case in Sanskrit prose, style Kartavirya IV., as usual, Raffa-kula-bhishana, "an ornament of the family of the Rattas." The Nésargi inscription of A.D. 1218 uses, throughout, the variant. of the name which presents the Dravidian r ; in Kanarese verses, it speaks of the Malkhed kings as Ratt-antayar, " those who were of the lineage of the Rattas," and of their family as Raffavarsa," the race of the Rattas," and Ratta-kula," the family of the Rattas," and of the family of the princes of Sæundatti as Raffa-vamsa," the race of the Rattas." The Saundatti inscription of A.D. 1228, which has been quoted above as presenting the name Rashtrakůta in connection with the prince Lakshmidêva II., further speaks of him, in a preceding Kanarese verse, as Raftavams.odbhava," born in the race of the Rattas," and uses, also in Kanarese verses, and in connection with the prinos, the expressions Raffa-rajya," the rule of the Rattas," and Raffa-rija and Raff-ôrvipa," the Ratta kings;" and in the formal prasasti, in Kanarese prose, it styles Lakshmidêva II., as usual, Raffa-kula-bhashana, "an ornament of the family of the Rattas." And ap inscription at Handikere or Handikêri, put together in A.D. 1257,4 uses, throughout, the variant of the name with the Dravidian r, and presents the name of the family of the kings of Malkhed as Ratta-vamsa," the race of the Rattas," in a Kanarese verse, and as Raff-dnvaya, " the lineage of the Rattas," in Kanarese prose, and describes the prince Kartavirya III., in Kanarese prose, as Raffa-kula-bhúshana, "an ornament of the family of the Rattas," and his son Lakshmidêva II., in a Kanarese verse, as Raffa-kul-ágrani, "a leader of the family of the Rattas."
The form Ratta, with the Dravidian ?, has not as yet been found in any records of the Rashtrakūta kings of Malkhed. It is met with, first, in the Saundatti record of A.D. 980. But, from the other instances given above, it does not seem to have boon used at all freely until about the beginning of the thirteenth century A.D. It was not always used even then, It became, however, so well established and well known a form of the name, that we find it used also in extraneous records, and in the Nagari characters, though a special device had to be adopted to represent it in that alphabet. That device was the doubling of the ordinary Nagari r, with the result of presenting the name as. Rratta, without, however, producing a double consonant strong enough to lengthen a preceding short vowel. And we have the name in this form in a Sanskrit verse in the Haralaballi plates of A.D. 1238, which contain a Dêvagiri-Yadava record, and again
1 Ind. Ant. Vol. XIX. p. 245, text line 6-7, and p. 247, line 87-88. * Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. Vol. X. p. 240, text line 4, 10, and p. 211, lines 11-12, 14.
Archeol. Suro. West. Ind. Vol. III. p. 110, text lines 5, 6, 7, 10, and p. 112, line 52, and p. 113, line 62. • See the article referred to in note 6 on p. 217 above.
To the same expedient, the doubling of the ordinary , recourse was had even in Reeve and Sanderson's Canarese Dictionary (1858), in the comparatively few instances in which an attempt was made to indicate the Dravidian r in that work.
Jour. Bo. Br. R. 46. Soc. Vol. XV. p. 387, text line 27.-The doubling of the r was effected here by placing superscript over the ordinary. The same means was also used in the Kanarese part of this record, written in Nagari characters, in Kurabarragerray-olage, for Kumodragerey=ofage, line 93, and ia Kumodrragolana kolage fur Kuddragolana kelage, line 97. And the same means was used in the word Bratta, quoted above from the Bebatti plates of A.D. 1263, and again in mdrra-kd indu, for mera-kundu, in the Kanarese passage, given in Nagari characters, at the end of the Behatti Kalachurys plates of A.D. 1183 (Ind. Ant. Vol. IV. p. 376, text line 87). The same means was used in also Kirrw. Valasig-dkhgan, for Kiru-Valasig.dkhyadh, in the Halat Kadamba plates of A.D. 1199-(Jour. Bo. Br. R. A. Soc. Vol. IX. p. 244, line 13). - Another means of representing the Dravidian r in Nararl characters, was, to double the Nagarl by making from the bottom of it an u petroke to the right similar to the upstroke to the left in the ordinary. This device was used in the spurious plates in the Bangalore Museum which purport to have been issued in A.D. 445 (No. 49 in my list of Spurious Indian Records in Ind. Ant. Vol. XXX. P. 221), here we have Hearra for Henvera (Ind. Ant. Vol. VIII. p. 94, text line 12), aud Legarra . . irridu for Henjora. . . .irids (ibid. p. 95, text line 17). We have the double rr in Nagari. for the Dravidian , again in arrama, - arwoana, in the Bhôj Ratta plates of A.D. 1208 (Ind. 41. Vol. XIX. 21. text line 103). But I have not kept a note to how there is formed there.
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