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No. 10]
KARKALA INSCRIPTION OF BHAIRAVA II.
preserved Jaina pillar (mânastambha). A lithograph of a similar pillar at Vênûr is given in Ind. Ant. Vol. V. Plate facing p. 39. Prof. Hultzsch, who has published three of the inscriptions at Karkala, asked me to edit the subjoined record. The black granite slab on which it is engraved is set up on the proper right of the western entrance into the sanctum sanctorum of the Chaturmukhabasti. At the top of the slab are, in relief, the following sculptures. In the centre, within a mandapa surmounted by a triple umbrella, is a Jaina figure squatting on a raised seat; the mandapa is flanked on both sides by a lampstand, and beyond the lampstand is the disk of the sun on one side and the crescent of the moon on the other; below the moon is the figure of a cow suckling its calf. The inscribed surface of the slab, including the erased lines at the end measures roughly 4' 4" by 3' 2".
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The record is written in Kanarese characters of the period to which the inscription belongs, between two margins which are marked out on both sides of the slab by two double lines with a space of " between them. These double lines are entered on either margin up to 1. 42 where the main portion of the inscription ends. It contains eight Sanskrit verses (11. 1 to 8, 1. 15 f. and 1. 49 f.) and four short sentences (11. 1, 3 and 8) in the same language. The remainder of the inscription is in Kanarese prose. At the end is a diagram, consisting of a square bounded by a double line. Within this is another square, similarly bounded by a double line and sub-divided into 25 minor squares with single letters written in each. The diagram is inserted between 11. 42 and 49 just in the centre of the slab, thereby dividing 11. 43 to 48 into two equal halves. About a dozen syllables in 1. 42, the second halves of 11. 43 to 46, the diagram itself and the remainder of the inscription are faintly engraved. A few lines at the end of the inscription are completely erased. Although comparatively modern, the Kanarese characters in which the inscription is written differ in many points from those of the present day. Aspirates are not generally distinguished by a vertical stroke added at the bottom of the letter, except in pha of phala (1. 38); da is distinguished from dha, as in old Kanarese. by a small opening at the right side of the letter; in bha the aspiration is marked by the talekattu and a small projecting stroke at the bottom of the left side, which seems to be the origin of the vertical stroke of the modern bha; kha, gha, and tha are distinguished, by their very form, from the corresponding unaspirates. Chha, dha and tha do not occur in their primary form as independent letters, but only in their subscript secondary forms. Cha is differentiated from ba sometimes by the talekattu alone (e.g. cha of aicharu in 1. 40), and in other cases by the talekattu and a slight indenture at the middle of the left side (e.g. cha of chandra, 1. 13); in modern Kanarese this indenture is projected out into a horizontal stroke. In cases, however, where the i-curl is added to cha, this horizontal stroke is necessarily introduced. The same remarks hold good as regards the indenture in the middle of ka. The loop on the left side of da is not fully developed. Ta and fa still preserve their older forms. Sha is, as in old Kanarese, written like pa, with a small slanting stroke cutting its left side in the middle. Ra, which is now altogether replaced by the common ra, occurs in 11. 12 (twice), 17, 25, 27, 28,
1 South Canara Manual, Vol. I. p. 19.
See above, Vol. V. p. 171, note 5. The manastambhas, which are generally graceful, high and imposing, have to be distinguished from other Jaina pillars neither so tall as the former nor bearing any mandapas ou their tops. These latter are called Brahmadêva pillars and appear to be usually set up in front of colossal statues. The Tyagada-Brahmadêva Pillar (figured on Plate facing p. 33 of the Introduction to Mr. Rice's Sravana-Belgola Inscriptions) is set up opposite to the colossal statue on the Doddabetta hill at Sravana-Belgola; the Kuge Brahmadêva pillar at the entrance into the bastis on the Chikkabetta bill of the same village, indicates perhaps the existence of the unfinished colossus on that hill (ibid. p. 29, note 1); and the colossi at Karkala and Vênur have similar pillars in front of them, bearing an image of Brahmadèva on their tops (Government Epigraphist's Annual Report for 1900-01, paragraphs 6 and 7).
Above, Vol. VII. p. 109 ff.
A tentative transcript and translation of it was published by Mr. Walhouse in Ind. Ant. Vol. V. pp. 40
R 2
