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No. 29.]
KALAS INSCRIPTION OF GOVINDA IV: SAKA 851.
The language-with the exception of the opening stanza and the two admonitory verses at the end, on 11. 74-76, which are in Sanskrit-is Old Kanarese, verse and prose, and presents some features of interest. Firstly, we are able, to trace in it a rule of orthography which hitherto, owing to the caprice or ignorance of the scribes of other records, has eluded observation: the letter before a consonant, when preceded by a vowel either long by nature or lengthened by position, is written as r; but when followed by a consonant and preceded by a short vowel not lengthened by position, is unchanged. Thus we have pogartteg= (-) in 11. 2 and 31; berpparan in 1. 5; arkarimdam in 1. 8 (where arkk° would be more usual); norppara in 1. 28; norppuvargge in 1. 53; negartte (-) in 11. 57 and 66; nnorpod-, 1. 61; and on the other hand we find negaldam in 1. 3, negalda in 1. 26, negald in 1. 33, and negaldar in 1. 63, all of which have the second syllable short, sithila. The is changed to in elgeyan (1. 7), pogalal (11. 8, 11, 66), maldam (? 1. 17), podalda (1. 27), maleya (1. 31), pogal (1. 37). Usually intervocalic 7 becomes; we even find kalpa (1. 23). Initial v instead of the usual b appears in vvayasi (1. 28), vvannisutt (1. 58). Usually, but not always, consonants are doubled after r; and a final sonne at the end of a verse is several times omitted (e.g. in vv. 3 and 4), though the dilapidated state of the stone precludes certainty in every instance. The following words are of some lexical interest: uddani (1. 7: Kittel gives uddane), bappu (1. 8; cf. above, vol. XII, p. 270); ghalige (11. 13, 40, 71; meaning apparently " hall of assembly "), marttina (1. 15 for the usual mattina, connected with maru); -vindu (1. 29), atibhumbhukam (1. 38), bagathisi (1.38).
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The inscription refers itself to the reign of Gojjigadeva or Gojjiga-vallabha, i.e. the Rashtrakuta king Govinda IV, who was a younger son of Indraraja III, and was on the throne between 918 and 933 A.D. Verses 2-8 extol him in the usual style of inflated panegyric, but tell us nothing material, except that he bore the titles of Nripatunga (v. 3), ViraNārāyaṇa (v. 4) and Raṭṭa-Kandarpa (v. 5), and the record makes in 11. 19-20 an allusion to his title Suvarnavarsha. Then follows a eulogy of Revadasa-dikshita and Visōttara. dikshita, two distinguished and bountiful Brahman dandanayakas or generals (vv. 9-13), the latter of whom apparently constructed a tank (v. 13). The record then states in prose (11. 18-24) that Gojjigadeva bestowed on them the town of Ereyana-Kaḍiyar in sarva-namasya tenure (see above, vol. XIII, p. 35, note 1). Breaking out again into verse, it proceeds to extol the province of Puligere or Purikara, its capital of the same name, and the adjoining town of Ereyana-Käḍiyür, with a Saiva sanctuary in the latter (vv. 14-25), and then dwells on the beauty and delights of Kaḍiyür in an elaborate passage of artificial prose (11. 41-47). Next comes a metrical eulogy of the two-hundred Brahman householders of Käḍiyar (vv. 26-37), who are then recorded to have met in assembly and made certain grants for the maintenance of the local cult (11. 66-72). After two verses of exhortation, the poet announces his name to be Kavirajaraja (1.74).
The details of the date (1. 22) are: Saka 851; the cyclic year Vikrita; the full-moon of Magha; Adityavara (Sunday); the Asleshä nakshatra; an eclipse of the moon. Dr. Fleet gives me the following remarks:-"By the astronomical system of the cycle the Vikrita samvatsara was current at the Mesha-samkranti in March, A.D. 929; and so according to the luni-solar system (not yet everywhere separated into the northern and southern varieties) it gave its name to the Saka year 851 expired, A.D. 929-30. For this year the given tithi,
1 This word (not in Kittel's Dictionary) is derived from ghatige, which appears in the phrase ghafigera mahājumaman," Brahman members of an assembly," above, vol. III, p. 360 and note. Cf. above, vol. VIII, p. 26 and note; Ep. Carn. VII. 1, introd. p. 8, and Sk. no. 176, v. 10 (p. 176) and no. 197 (p. 214).
On the history of this king see Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts (Bombay Gazetteer, vol. 1, pt. 1), pp. 338n., 387, 416 f., and Ep. Ind. above, vol. VII, p. 26 ff.
By the southern luni-solar variety of the cycle Vikrita was Saka 852 expired. The astronomical mean-sign Vikrita ended nearly a month before the given date.-J. F. F.
