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No. 37.)
INSCRIPTIONS FROM YEWUR: F, OF A.D. 1173.
335
(Line 12) For those who maintain this pious foundation the merit is as if they ndorned with gold the horns and hoofs of a thousand kine and gave them in Benares to Brāhmans learned in the Four Vödas. For those who break down this pious foundation the same guilt Accrues as if they should destroy at Benarea Brāhmaṇs learned in the Four Volas and kine.
(Line 21) The imposition of taxes upon a tax-free [estato) is declared to be [as sinful as] the slaughter of a thousand kine; by suppressing the operation of taxes a man enjoys the merit of [giving) a crore of kine.
F.-OF THE TIME OF RAYAMURARI-SOVIDEVA: A.D. 1173.
This inscription is on a pillar in the east part of the same temple of Bhānvi-Basavanna.In this case, again, there are no sculptures. The writing covers a space about 121' in width by 9" in height, and is well-presorved.
The characters are Kanarese, of a type usual in the latter half of the twelfth century, and measure on an average about f' in height. They are upright and well rounded, and are moreover characterised by the occasional use of two special letters, namely those for m and y, which were favoured during this period in Kanarese epigraphy. The letter m when thus written strongly resembles the ordinary ro, except that the hook on the top of it is usually shorter than & superscript o; the y is very like the form which is depicted in Bühler's Palæographie, plate 8, col. 10, no. 35, oxcept that in our inscription the letter is surmounted on its right side by a small carl resembling that used for the vowel e. We have these peculiar forms in mu at the end of 1. 1, ma at the end of l. 4, main in l. 10, and ya in 1. 2.-The language is throughout Kanarese prose. The euphonics, usual in the later language between r and g, is found in dēvarasariye (1.4), as against, e.g., brāhmanargge (1. 13); # is written instead of the virāma in srimatu (1.2), badagulu (.8), müdalu (ib.), and mattaru (l. 9). Once we find for! (1. 10); aud | takes the place of the older 1.
The object of the inscription is to record a grant of land made in the reign of the Kalachurya king Rāyamurări-Sovidēvs for the maintonance of the temple of the god Mallikarjuna at Ehür. The donor is a certain Tripurantaka-dēvarasa, described as mahaprablus (apparently a governor) of Ehūr, who made the grant at the instance of his son Talavara Chandeya-nāyaka. The genealogy of this Tripurantaka is fully given in the next inecription, (G). The conveyance of the land was performed with "laving of the feet of Tatpurusha-deva", who must have been a priest or Acharya of the temple.
The details of the date of this inscription are: the cyclic year Vijaya, being the seventh year of the reign of the Kalachurya king Rāyamurāri-Sovideva; the full-moon day of Kārttika; Adivāra (Sunday). Dr. Fleet gives me the following remarks :-" The Vijaya samvatsara in question began on 16 March, A.D. 1173. The given tithi, the full-moon of Kārttika, Answers for that year to 22 October, on which day it ended at about 16 hrs. 35 min. after
1 The eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries were the time when these forms were most often in use : but the mis traced back to A.D. 804 by the Kadarese copper-plate record of Govinda III; see Ind. Ant., Vol. XI, p. 127, and plate, line 14, para-dattam=ba. There was a corresponding form of o: it does not occur in the present inscription F, but is found in the next one, G, as well as in B above (varahan, 1.2, p. 274, and orri, l. 142, P, 279). For use of all the three forms together see the Ablür inscription E of about A.D. 1200, Vol. V above, p. 262, plate: note therein them in marigi, line 44, the y in anoayad olu, line 62, and the u in nilipeou, line 89. -J. F. F.]
It may be noted that Tatpurusha is one of the phases of sivs, and is mentioned in a record of A.D. 1980, Vol. III above, p. 64, verse 10.
