Epigraphia Indica Vol 08

Author(s): E Hultzsch
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 35

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. VIII.
(V. 22.) Srutamuni, the main-road for the descent of compassion, the lasting dawn of calmness, the fruit of the austerities of learning, the mourtain from which benevolence and prosperity and happiness rise, a lion to the mighty elephant of passion, a mine of the nectar of poetry, the sun in the sky of the Jaina sect, is watchful, removing the distress of the humble.
(V. 23.) The pure-minded Srutamuni, an emperor among the ascetics (yati), the Mandara mountain for the stirring of the ocean of the science of reasoning, the rising sun to the lotusgrove of grammar, is daily increasing (in prosperity) through the most excellent (Jaina) doctrine.
(V. 24.) In his presence, at Beļugula, the most sacred place of the world, that glorions brave general, called Irugapa, gave away the most excellent village called Beļugula for the eternal enjoyment of the holy Gummateśvara.
(V. 25.) While the year subhaksit was flourishing, in the month of Kårttika, on the tithi of (Vishnu) the slayer of Mura, when the moon had attained increase, the chief of the family of ministers gladly presented the excellent sacred place, possessing a beautiful grove (and) supplied with a new tank built by himself.
(V. 26.) May this matchless holy place Belugula, a field for growing the rice of the general Irugapa's white fame, shine as long as the moon and stars!
[Verses 27 and 28 contain the usual imprecations.]
No. 5.- TALAGUNDA PILLAR INSCRIPTION OF KAKUSTHAVARMAN.
BY PROFESSOR F. KIEL HORN, C.I.E.; GÖTTINGEN. This inscription was discovered in 1894 by Mr. B. Lewis Rice, Director of Archæological Researches in Mysore. From a photograph and a transcript furnished by him, a preliminary notice of it was published by the late Prof. Bühler in September 1895, in the Academy ;' and about the same time a summary of its contente was given by Dr. Fleet, in his Dynasties, p. 286 f., from an ink-impression lent by Mr. Rice. The inscription has now been edited by its discoverer, with a photo-lithograph and translation, in Ep. Oarn. Vol. VII. p. 200 ff. I re-edit it from ink-impressions supplied by Prof. Hultzech.3
According to Mr. Rice, the inscription is engraved on a pillar of very hard grey granite, which stands in front of the ruined Praņavēsvarat temple at Talagunda, in the Shikarpar tâluka of the Shimoga district of the Mysore State. The pedestal of the pillar "is 5 feet 4 inches high and 1 foot 4 inches square at the top, a little more at the base. The shaft is octagonal, 6 feet 4 inches high, each face being 7 inches wide, but tapering slightly towards the top." Seven faces of the shaft contain each two vertical lines of writing which commences at the bottom, while on the 8th face there is only one short line (line 15 of the text), written in the same way. "The invocation at the beginning of the inscription (i.e. the words Siddham [ll] Namas-Sivaya II of line 1) "is on the pedestal, and runs ap connecting with the first line." In the impressions the length of lines 1-14, disregarding the words Siddham [ll] Namas-Sivaya !!
I See Ep. Carn. Vol. IV. Introduction, p. 1 f. • Prof. Bühler's article is reprinted in Ind. Ant. Vol. XXV. p. 27 f.
In October 1898 Dr. Fleet kindly gave me his own transcript of the text and the photograph which had been sent to Prof. Bühler by Mr. Rice, and my translation was prepared in the summer of 1899, at the time when I published a note on the principal metre of the inscription.
So the name is given in Ep. Carn. Vol. VII. p. 200. On pp. 4 and 47 of the Introduction of the same volume we find, instead of it, Praņamosvara. Praqavalinga is the name furnished to me with the ink-impressions.
Judging by the length of the lines, the shaft must roully be slightly higher.