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168
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XIII.
Bombay Places and Common Official Words (1878) as “ Betgēri", and it appears in gazetteers, etc., as " Betigeri, Bettigeri, Betgeree, and Batgeri". The official corruption of the name dates partly, in fact, from at least the fourteenth century, as the place is mentioned as Battagēri in the record of A.D. 1379 on the Damba! plates, Journ. Bomb. Br. R. As. Soc., vol. 12, p. 357, 1. 126.
The present inscription, which I edit and illustrate from an ink-impression supplied by Mr Cousens, is one of several at Batgere: for the illustration of it see the plate facing p. 182 above, below the inscription G. It is on & virgal or monumental hero-stone in a walled enclosure on the premises of Hațagāra-Mallarāya, inside the town. There are two compartments of sculptures, one above and one below the record: but I have no information as to the details of them. The writing on lines 1 to 7 occupies an area about 2' 9' broad by 1l' high. The compartment of sculptures below it is about 1' 7' high. Below this, the stone is wider, measuring abcut 4' 2'; and we have here the beginning of some well-known Sanskrit verses, which are an accompaniment to the principal record. First, after Om Svasti Sri, we have the half verse. yasya yasya yadā, etc., of which the preceding line-usually Bahubhir=vasudha dattā (or bhukta) rājabhih Sagar-ādibhih (or bahubhit=ch=ānupalita)—was not given. This is followed, partly in the same line and partly in a short line below it, by the verse, given in not at all a correct form :--Svaṁ dātuṁ su-mahach-chhakyaṁ duh kham=anyasya palanan dānai tā palanām trēti dānāch=chhrēyo=nupālanan . Then, in short lines of from two to four syllables down the left side of the lower compartment of sculptures, there is the verse :-Sva-dattan para-dattar va yo harēta vasu mdharān shashtim varsha-sahasrani vishthayam jāyatē krmih || : this, again, is given very inaccurately. And finally, down the right side of the compartment of sculptures there was another verse of the same class : but here only a few of the final syllables are extant, and the verse cannot be identified. It has not been convenient to illustrate these supplements to the principal record beyond the beginning of them : but they are all in characters of just the same stage with those of the principal record, and were plainly put on the stone at the same time with it. They indicate that a grant of some kind was made to the hero whose prowess is commemorated by the inscription.
The characters are Kanarese, well formed and executed. The size of the letters ranges from about in the rof kereyar near the beginning of 1. 4, to about 1}" in the l of akala, 1. 1: the stya near the beginning of 1. 1 is nearly 2" high. Of the test-letters kh, n, j, b, and 1, the ri does not occar: the others show here, again, a mixture of the earlier and later types. The kh ocours once, in l. 3, and is of the later, cursive type. The j occurs five times, in 11. 1, 2, 3, 6, and is in each case of the earlier, square type. The b is found three times, in 11 3, 4, 5, and is of the earlier, sqnare type, made rather loosely on the left side, and with a continuation of the right-hand part of the letter above the top line of the writing : its form may be seen very clearly in balangal, 1. 5. The l occurs eight times, and once subscript, in 11. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6: it is of the later, cursive type all through. In the Sanskrit verses at the bottom and sides of the stone the ti does not occur ; nor does the kh, because where it ought to be we have duhkam by mistake for duhkham. The j is found in jāyatē on the left side, and is of the earlier, square type. The b does not occur. In the half-verse shown in the Plate, ? is used for l : but the verse which follows it preserves the I, three times, and presents in each case the later, cursive type. In alidan, 1.4, we have an initial short a, of a transitional type far advanced towards the later type. The only final form is that of m, iu kadidam, 1. 7.
The language is Kanarese, of the archaic dialect, with one verse beginning in 1. 4. Some noticeable words are as follows. In l. 3 jonna, a tadbhava-corruption of jyotsnā, 'moonlight', is used to denote “the bright fortnight". As in so many other records, here, again, in 1. 4, we have ali, 'to be ruined, to be destroyed ', etc., used in the active sense : compare p. 184 above. In
