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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[Vol. IX.
The language of the inscription is Sanskrit prose, exoept the two imprecatory verses in lines 33 to 35, and the characters as stated before are Nagari. They are boldly written but the size is not uniform throughout. While in the top line Sri-maha, they are as big as 21", the average size in the first four lines is 14" The engraver apparently finding them too big reduced them to l' in line 5, bat'in subsequent lines he again began to increase the size maintaining an average of 11" throughout the rest, which forms the major portion of the inscription. In the later additions also, marked (a), (b), (c) and (d), the size varies. In (a) it is less than an inch and in (a) it is l' and in (b) and (c) midway between these two
As regards orthography, 6 is not distinguished from v and there is a confusion in the use of sand $; for instance, we have on the one hand Kasyapa (11.3, 13), saranágata (1l. 6, 10, 16), sásana (11: 7, 37 (b) and 46 (a), Saka- (1. 19), -satana (1. 84), asvamédha-(1. 34), sudhyati (1.35); on the other hand we have svarggate (1.17) and sahabra (11.1 and 34). The anusvára is usually preferred to the class nasals, though the latter are sufficiently represented throughout. Letters with & superscribed répha have been invariably doubled. The letters ksha, dha, ra, and, in most places, bha appear in their antiquated form, and the top mátra for é, i and au is sometimes placed vertically before the letter to which it is attached, as in-dhauta- (1.8), pavitrakritôttamíngi . . párthivêndra- (11. 8-9), -saujanya- (1. 10), -sauvinty-- (1. 11), etc. In Sômésvaradêva (1. 17) me has the top stroke, wbile de has the vertical stroke preceding da. In line 23 in -sthityudadhi- the måtrå of wis peculiarly attached in the middle of the letter as we at present attach it to the letter ra alone.
The insoription records the grant of the village Narayanapura to the god Narayana and some land near the Kharjuri tank to the god Lokêsvara, and it is dated in the Saks year 1093 on Wednesday, the full moon day of the Kärttika month in the Khara samvatsara, corresponding to the 18th Ootober 1111 A.D. The donor was Gunda Mahadevi, the chief queen of the Mahår&ja Dhardvarsha, the mother of 8ômesvaradeva and the grandmother of Kanharadêve, who was then ruling after the death of his father, as stated in line 17. The dynasty claims to be Nagavamsi of the Kasyapa gôtra and to have a tiger with a call as their crest and to be the lords of Bhôgêvati, the best of cities. There can be little doubt that it was connected with the Sinda family of Yolburga. The býrudas of the two are strikingly similar. The Sindas also claim to be Nagavamsódbhava, born of the race of the Någa (cobra), and the lords of Bhögkvatî, which city is a mythical place in the nether world. The discoveries hitherto made show the existence of the rule of the family at the diagonally, opposite corners of this state, viz. south-west and northeast. I feel confident that if we could " explore the serpent city well," we should find at least * replica of it somewhere in the Nizâm's dominions in a position intermediate between these two points. The Ramayana seems to confirm this, for Råma's route to Lanká lay between the two and passed through Bhỏgåvati..
As Dr. Fleet' says, there appear to have been more branches than one of the Sinda family, and it appears to me that they were distinguished from each other by some variations in their crests (lažchhanas) and banners (dh vajas, patakas or kétanas). The vyaghra-láfichha. na (tiger-crest) seems to have been common to all, probably because the original ancestor of the dynasty which received its name after him, was believed to have been brought up by the king of serpents on tiger's milk. The Bagalkot branch had simply the tiger crest and the phanikétana, or bánner of hooded serpents. The Bastar branch, or more properly the branch represented by our inscription, had a savatsa-vyághra-lápichhana, or a tiger with a calf or child, thus depicting probably the story of their origin in a clearer way. The banner is not mentioned. In Bastar there were apparently two branches, the other one being that of Bhramarakótya-man
Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. I., Part II., p. 572. · Mysore Inscriptions, p. 60, and above, Vol. III, p. 231.
