Epigraphia Indica Vol 11

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

Page 12

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
VOLUME XI.
No. 1.-AN INSCRIPTION AT DEVAGERI.
BY J. F. FLEET, I.C.S. (RETD.), PH.D., C.I.E. This inscription has been mentioned by me in vol. 5 above, p. 172: and I have given a brief statement of the purport of it under No. 29 in my List of Spurious Records in the Ind. Ant., vol. 30 (1901), p. 217. I publish it now for the first time, and give a facsimile of it fron au ink-impression made for me by Mr. Kalyan Sitaram Chitre in 1890, when (if my memory is correct) be was Mamlatdär of the Sampgaum täluka of the Belgaum District.
The inscription is on a stone which was found in a field, Survey No. 85, at Dēvagēri, a village about six miles west-by-south from Karajgi, the head-quarters of the Karajgi täluka, Dharwar District. The Indian Atlas sheet No. 42 (1827) shews the place as Dewgeeree'. The Map of the Dhảrwar Collectorate (1874) shews it as 'Deogeree'. The Postal Directory of the Bombay Circle (1879) presents its name as 'Deogiri'. And the Dharwār volume (1884) of the Bombay Gazetteer treats it as 'Devgiri' (p. 665). In connexion with some early Kadarba copperplate records which were obtained at this village, I originally gave its namo as Dėvagiri', in accordance with those spellings. Subsequently I was given to anderstand that the cultivators call it Dēvagere', and that this should be taken as its real name : and I have sometimes used this form. Since then, however, I have ascertained that a record of A.D. 1075 in the temple of Basavanna at the village itself distinctly gives its name as Dēvamgēri, as also does a record of the period A.D. 1210-47 at the temple of Mårtandadēva at a neighbouring village, Koļūr: also, that the impression of a record of A.D. 1121 in the temple of Basavanpa, while leaving it donbtful whether the original does or does not present the antstāra, again distinctly gives the second component of the name as gēri, and thut yields either Dēvam gēri or Dāvagēri. Furthes, Mr. K. S. Chitre, while writing the name on the impressions sent by him to me as Dėvagiri' in English characters, according to the official spelling, wrote it as Dēvagēri', in the aime place, in the Modi or current Marathi characters. I therefore entertain no doubt that what the cultivators really call the village is, not 'Davagere' (as reported to me), but Dēvagēri, and that this
Ind. Ant., vol. 7, p. 33: and I have used the form Dēogiri' in vol. 5 above, p. 172.
For instance, in my Dynastia of the Kasaran. Districts, in the Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency vol. 1, part 2. p. 285 f.