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No. 6.]
29 rada süle Chittiyabbegel mattarum 12 eḍada deseya
30 keriya chamarada sule Gubbiya Ketabbege mattarum 12
81 balada de [se] ya patram sale vakabbege mattarum 12 eḍada desebbege mattarum 13 balada māḍada pātraṁ sã
32 ya patram süle 33 le Gärggabbege mattarum 12 eḍa-vakkada keriya süle 34 Mailabbege mattarum 1[2] bala-vakkada keriya süle Jakka35 bbege mattarum 12[*]Int-i maryyadeyam tappade pratipāļi3
INSCRIPTIONS OF SUDI.
83
E (2).-OF THE REIGN OF SOMESVARA I: SAKA 980.
This is a record engraved on the side of the same stone that contains the preceding inscription. It is complete, but underneath it are the first three lines of a second document, which commences in the same words as this; the stone then breaks off. Its height is 3 ft. 10 in., its width 10 in. The character is Kanarese; the letters are somewhat irregular in shape and size, and vary in height from " to ".-The language is Old Kanarese, usually changing final -m before vowels to -v, and changing to in ali (11. 37, 41), while retaining it in ildu (1. 20).
The object of the document is to record a confirmation of the previous grant E (1). It was issued by a council of administrative officials (karana) headed by a minister whose name has been obliterated, doubtless as a result of a loss of royal favour. The latter is described, among other epithets, as being "equal in nobility of character to Bali, Karna, Sivi, Dadhichi, Charudatta, and Jimutavahana" (11. 6-7). Bali is the Daitya king who granted the boon of three paces of earth to Vishnu in the Dwarf-incarnation (Mahabharata III. 28, XII. 223 f., XIII. 98; Bhagavata-purana VIII. x.-xxiii., etc.). Karna is the well-known hero of the Mahabharata. Sivi (Sibi) is the king who gave his own flesh to save a dove from a hawk (Mahabh. III. 139, 197, 199, VII. 58: cf. the Sivi-jätaka, Jat. No. 499, and the article by Messrs. M. L. Dames and T. A. Joyce in Man, Feb. 1913). Dadhichi or Dadhyach gave his bones in order to make the thunderbolt to destroy the Asuras, Vritra and Trisiras (Rig-vēda I. lxxxiv. 13, X. xlviii. 10; Mahabh. III. 100, IX. 51, XII. 342).3 Charudatta and Jimitavahana are the heroes respectively of the Mrichchhakatika and the Nagananda. The date of the former drama, which is ascribed to a king Sadraka, is uncertain, Macdonell (Sanskrit Liter. p. 361) inclining to the view that would assign it to the sixth century A.D.; the latter bears the name of Harshadeva of Kanauj. In this connection it may be noted that in the collection of dramas published as "Bhasa's Works" in Nos. xv-xvii, xx-xxii, xxvi, xxxix, and xlii of the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series there is a Charudatta-naṭaka (No. xxxix), with the same plot as the Mrichchhakaṭika; and, without prejudice to the debatable question as to whether this collection of plays is the work of Bhasa, it may perhaps be permitted to suggest the possibility that this particular Charudatta-nataka, and not the Mrichchhakatika, is the source from which the author of our inscription derived-directly or indirectly-his knowledge of the virtues of Charudatta. Now the editor of the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, Pandit Ganapati Sâstri, in the preface to No. xlii, p. xl, tells us that "there is a peculiar class of actors... in this country known among the people as Châkyar.' These people are found acting the Nágánanda and the third Act of Pratijñáyaugandharayana which they call Mantránka Náṭaka, on occasions of some temple festivals, in a method peculiar to them." The Pratijña-yaugandha rayana is one of the collection of "Bhasa's Works"; and, since it is acted together with such an old play as the Nagananda, there seems some likelihood that it also is ancient. If this be so, the Charudatta-nataka, being apparently by the same author, is of the same antiquity; and,
1 The fți is rather doubtful; it may be nți.
* Fragments of two more lines remain ; only a few letters are decipherable on them.
Jimütavahana and Dadhichi are mentioned in the Samkshepa-Sankara-vijaya ascribed to Madhava, X. 21 (cf. X. 18), as typical instances of glorious self-sacrifice.
L. 2
