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No. 4.]
PORUMAMILLA TANK INSCRIPTION : SAKA 1291.
97
No. 4.-THE PORUMAMILLA TANK INSCRIPTION OF BHASKARA BHAVADURA:
SAKA 1291. BY DR. V. S. SUKTHANKAR, PA.D.; POONA.
The position of the inscribed stones on the tapk-bund.
Inked estampages of the subjoined inscription, which commemorates the construction of a tank, were prepared by the Madras Epigmpbical Department in 1903, and it forms No. 91 of the Epigraphist's collection for the year 1902-8. It was briefly reviewed in the Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1903, and it has also received a short notice in an article by the late Mr. Venkayya entitled Irrigation in Southern India in ancient times. The record is incised on two slabs, one smaller than the other, set up in front of the ruined Bhairava temple at Porumāmills in the Badvēl Talk of the Cuddapah District, situated in 15° 1' N. and 79o E. The latter district being very dry, cultivation is in general only possible with the help of artificial storing of water, The irrigation tank at Porumamilla is, according to the District Manual, one of the largest in the Taluk. The inscription, apart from its historical importance, presents various other points of interest, not the least important of which is the light it sheds on the tank-building activity in ancient India.
As regards orthography, the inscription follows the same system which is to be observed in other insoriptions from the Telugu and Kanarese Districta. A superfluous anusvira is inserted (1) before a pasal + consonant, as in puthnya 11. 13, 46; also in 11. 19, 36, 89 : (2) before he + consonant, as in Vijayanhvayan 11. 34, 35; also in 11. 57, 65: (3) before an as in vijayonnnatah 1. 36 : (4) before rm as in kanrmao 1. 82. We find also the doubling of a consonant after an Anusvåra in chanhchchao ). 18. As in other inscriptions, we notice the mixing up of the two forms of visarga-sandhi, as in "tahssaumya in l. 23 ; also in 11. 29, 83, etc.; and the writing of thth for tth in Orththanao 1. 100, and of jhjh for jjh in payðjhjhitam 1. 12. Other examples of
1 See the Director-General's Annual for 1908-4, Part II., PP. 202 f. - A resumé of the coutouts of the Inscriptions included in the new edition of the Cuddapah District Gaseller.
