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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XV.
The cerebral r is much in evidence, in this as in all other old Teluga inscriptions. Roughly speaking, the letter cha is distinguished from va by a depression in the upper horizontal line. The form of sa has no resemblance to the modern form. The secondary form of r (rēpha), when it occurs otherwise than as the initial sound in a compound syllable, is generally represented by the modern form known as krāra (tri, tra, and fri in l. 2). It is occasionally also indicated by a sakața-rēpha (gondru in 11. 13-4 and Chēbrolan in l. 22).
. . The following peculiarities of orthography are remarkable. The use of n for nin Triņētra (1.2) and trinayanu (11. 23-4) and of forn in Baranāsi (11. 12-3) are noticeable, though not unusual even in latter-day compositions. Anusvāra occurring before and d is represented by the final anundsika letter of the vargas to which those letters belong, 1.8. n and (Mallundu, 1. 3, afrayundu, 1. 4; orul-indu, 11. 10-1). This is done even in places where the anusvāra is not pronounced, as in the words Mallund=anavadyao (1.3), obhaktund=ai (1.8), nsipa=dhamundettichche (1. 9), Osutund=ondu (1. 24), Malland-ettinche (ul. 27 and 28) and ganun-dama (11. 38 and 39), where the metre requires that the syllables llu, ktu, mu, tu, lla and nu respectively should be laghu, or prosodically short ; that is, the anusvāra in these cases is either not stressed or not pronounced at all : in modern writing it is represented by an arasunna or semi-circle.. A similar remark has to be made in regard to the use of the anusvāra sign, as in aliyah bay-varala (1. 18), bedarngunu (1. 38) and dānun (1. 40), where the syllables ya, da and m. must be laghu and the anusvāra ought not to be pronounced. A more remarkable instance of the non-phonetic use of the anusvára is in the case of the words mathambu (11.10 and 28), phalańb= and linga mb= (1. 20). Metre requires these words to be pronounced with the central syllables as laghu, and then the final syllable becomes mu in each case. Both these forms are in use now, as also an intermediate form in wbich the central syllable remains guru or long.. but the b in the final syllable becomes m. Thus the word litigambu has also the forms lingammu and lingamu. The first is the full form of the word. The second form is obtained by the assimilation of the sound in the final syllable to the preceding m sound, and the third form eliminates it altogether. This process of phonetic decay was complete before the time of the inscription, but orthography did not keep pace with the phonetic changes. In many later inscriptions, as well as in palm-leaf books, we meet with the use of the full for the half anusvāra ; but this is the first instance I have come across of bu standing for mu. This I consider to be a sign of the antiquity of the inscription. The only other noticeable feature of orthography is the doubling of a consonant after ras in kirtti (1.3), arttin (1. 7) and dirchche (1. 10).
The grammar of the insoription exhibits no remarkable variations from the modern grammar, apart from the orthographical peculiarities already noticed.
The inscription is in Telugu verse of the Madhyakkara metre, except the last four letters of line 29 and linos 30 to 36, which I have not been able to decipher completely. The metre Madhya- or Middle-Akkara is a non-Sanskritic one and corresponds to the Kanarese Dore-Akkara, as described in Någavarman's Prosody. The Akkaras are composed of three kinds of matra-ganas or mora feet, which are called the Sürya, Indra and Chandra ganas in Telugu and Aja, Vishnu and Rudra ganas in Kanarese. The ganas are derived by prastāra from two, three and four gurus respectively. By this process we get four ganas from two gurus, eight from three gurus, and sixteen from four gurus. A laghu should be prefixed to each gana beginning with a laghu. Thus far the method is common to Telugu and Kanarese. But, while Kanarese poetry uses all the ganas thus obtained, Telugu prosody eliminates the first two ganas of each series, so that the longest Kanarese gana of each class is longer by one matra than the longest Telugu gana of that class.
There are five classes of Akkura which are common to Kanarese and Telugu. The first, or the great, Alkara (Mahakkara) has seven feet per line, and every succeeding Akkara has one foot
