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92
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA,
[VOL. XV.
by the company of the seventy-two officers in the camp of the Chalukya emperor, as being unconquerable by hosts of foemen, as being like Brihaspati in management of affairs, and as being the lion of Ahavamalla, was administering the Toragare sixty and Bälguli and Kariṭṭage and many other provision-villages, with full internal rights, so as to suppress the wicked and protect the cultured, in enjoyment of pleasing conversations:
(Verse 6.) Nagadēva, the Emperor's agreeable High Minister, foremost among councillors, radiant with brilliant glory, raised in the excellent town of Sündi for Nagesvara a surpassing dwelling pre-eminent in the whole world, so that the (people of the) earth praised it, saying that it is loftier than Himalaya3 or Kütkila, likewise more spacious than the great Silver Mountain [Kailasa].
(Verse 7.) He, a home for sages, in a manner that was not that of a common man constructed on each side of the temple white-plastered buildings such as might be called a nest of gods, and a quarter for public women.
(Verse 8.) In fair Sündi, while the world praised him (and) his fame shone brightly, that crest-jewel of royal ministers gladly caused to be dug a pond which may be said to exceed in greatness the Milk-Ocean.
(Verse 9.) The General Nagadeva, a treasure of bounty, rich in public spirit, constructed with craft of stone-work a Naga-gonda [Nagas' tank] which in its turn surpasses the Manasa lake.
(Lines 26-30.) Having made these structures :-On Monday, the full-moon of Magh a in the Saka year 981, the cyclic year Vikarin, when king Trailökyamalla, having made a victorious expedition through the southern region and conquered the Chōla, was on return (back) holding a triumphal progress, in the halting-camp of Puli, a town within the Sindavāḍi province, on the occasion of an eclipse of the moon, the emperor having issued with pouring of water a copper-plate title-deed to the effect that the village of Sivunur in the Kisukaḍ seventy should be held on universally respected tenure, (Nagadeva) received (and assigned it) to Somesvara-paṇḍita-dēva, (a votary) of Nagesvara, attached to the Nagaréévara [City God] of the capital Sūṇḍi:
(Verse 10.) On the earth there are many godlike great ascetics; if these have some single (quality), they have not got another; but he has such unique rich distinction that men say (of him) "What eminence in asceticism! What eminence in stainless conduct! What eminence in erudite skill! What eminence in the series of all the virtues!" Thus who now is able to praise (fitly) the great ascetic Sōmēsvara ?
(Verse 11.) "O thou whose lotus-feet are scarred by the rubbing of the crest-jewels of all monarchs, crest-jewel of Vaiseshikas, sun to the lilies of Naiyayikas, excellent in mastery of Samkhya, a Brahman in grammatical science, who is peer to thee?" On this account the great ascetic Sōmesvara, a worthy Gotra-träsi to Mimamsakas, has become renowned on earth.
(Verse 12.) For the reconstruction with fresh plaster-work of worn-out and broken (masonry) in a multitude of temples of Siva, for the practice of the worship of Śiva, in order that this honour of Siva should attain to a position of great felicity, for the benefit of the company of great Yogins of (the cult of) Siva, for the benefit of students bowing before Siva's feet, he granted Sivunur: what a mine of godliness in the domain of the world is Nagadeva!
1 Villages specially allotted for his maintenance. Cf. above, Vol. III, p. 313, where Professor Kielhorn wrongly altered bhatta to bhafta.
2 Saro-abhyantara-siddhi: cf. I. A., Vol. XIX (1890), p. 271.
[I would render loftier than the mountain Himalaya,' taking kütkila, i.e. ku-utkila, as a variant of kukila.-Ed.]
A variant on the title of Indra, Götra-bhid, "shatterer of mountain-fastnesses." Gotra-träsi, "scaring mountains," also means "scaring families," here of Mimām sakas.
