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No. 14.]
LAKSHMESHWAR PILLAR INSCRIPTION.
the letters becoming ruder and clumsier, with a height varying from iu. to 1 in. As will be seen below, a new section begins on or about 1. 46, and probably it was inscribed by a different hand. The record contains all the test-letters kh, i, j, b, and 1, and all of them, with the exception of l, are of archaic forms. Examples of kh appear in 1. 12, of ri in 11. 10, 18, of j in 11. 2, 3, etc., of b in 1. 8. The 7 is usually of the ancient type, with the tail prolonged in a curve round it towards the left; but in illi, 1. 21, telliga, 1. 29, and possibly in the last word of 1. 32, we find a cursive form almost identical with the modern Burmese letter. On the whole, then, we may safely ascribe the character to about A.D. 725; and hence we may conclude that the Yuvaraja or Heir-Apparent Vikramaditya mentioned in it as granting the constitution embodied in it to the burgesses of Porigere was no other than Vikramaditya, son of Vijayaditya, of the dynasty of the Western Chalukyas of Badami, who about this time, A.D. 725, was ruling the province as Heir-Apparent, and subsequently, about A.D. 733, succeeded his father as Vikramaditya II.
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The language is Kanarese prose, of the oldest dialect known. Typical of it are the following flections: the accusative in -an, as in juvitangalan, 1. 10, polalan, 1. 24, viṭṭiyan, 1. 35; the genitive in -a, as in Porigereya, 11. 2-3, sovageya, 1. 33, irppatta, 1. 34, keyya, 11. 84-35; the locative in -u, as in masadul, 11. 12, 22; the curious accusative Varanasivamam, 11. 50-51, with which we may compare the locatives Bäranäsivado!, above, Vol. VII, p. 204, and Varanasivadul in Ind. Ant., Vol. XIX, p. 145, 1. 13; the verbal forms kavodu, 1. 10, envodu, 1. 21, apporgge, 1. 13, koṭṭor, 1. 50, kolvom, 1. 50, ulvar or ulvor, 1. 31, adadu (imperative ?), 11. 6 ff., and alidona, 1. 52. In alke, 1. 12, there seems to be a use of instead of. The name Kupparma, 1. 46, is of a type similar to that of Udayarmma in the Narendra inscription B, Vol. XII above, p. 321, 1. 28. A considerable number of words are of lexical interest, as ara, 1. 46 (cf. piriy-aramge in the Bankapar inscription above, Vol. XIII, p. 174); are-vada, 1. 31; gutta, 1. 22; kül, 1. 30; paka-danda, 1. 19 (cf. kiru-kula); rūva, 1. 22; sovage, 1. 33; utsäha in the sense of "generous gift," "bounty" (cf. the inscription of Vêma Reddi above, Vol. VIII, p. 14, verse 6, 1. 13, and the Kalas record of Govinda IV, 1. 5, Vol. XIII above, p. 329), besides some of which the reading is not quite certain.
The purport of the inscription is to record the mutual obligations and rights of the Royal authorities, represented by the Heir-Apparent Vikramaditya, and of the Mahajanas (Brahman householders) and burgesses of Lakshmeshwar. The preamble (11. 1-5) is as follows: "Hail! the social constitution which the Heir-Apparent Vikramaditya has granted to the Mahajanas and the burgesses and the eighteen prakritis1 of Porigere (is as follows)." The charter then proceeds to specify the position of the royal officers and their relation to the municipality in the following terms (11. 5-10): "The king's officers are to protect those of the houses that are untenanted, the king's gift, the king's proclamation, authoritative testimony of good men (?), constitutional usage, copper-plate edicts, continued enjoyment of (estate) enjoyed... the lives of the five dharmas." Than comes the section defining the duties of the townspeople (11. 10 ff.).
1 The "eighteen prakritis" would naturally seem to denote the eighteen royal ministers, on whom see the Kantiliya, translation, p. 25 and (list) p. 23, Panchatantra (Bombay S. s.), iii, p. 50, 11. 17 ff., Mahabharata, Sabha-parvan, v. 38, Rajatarangi, i. 120 and iv. 141, Ind. Ant., Vol. XXV, p. 183, and note 82, Kittel's Dicfionary, s. v. ashṭādasa-pradhana. But this will not suit the present context, which states that the constitution was granted by Vikramaditya to the prakritis and others. Hence we must understand prakriti here to denote the classes of the population. The division of the population into 18 classes is well known: see Kittel, B. V. ashfädasa-jati, and the Eighteen Samayas mentioned in Progress Report of Asst. Archaeol. Supt. for Bpigraphy, Southern Circle, 1914-15, p. 106 (which speaks of padinen-bhumi-samayattar), and Ep. Carn. X, 1. KL. No. 70.
For this suggested translation, and for several others in this paper, I am indebted to Mr. R. Narasimhachar. Mr. Narasimhachar suggests that this refers to the life (pañcha-prapa) of dharma (can it be the life of children and men in the four aframas ?).
