Epigraphia Indica Vol 15

Author(s): Sten Konow, F W Thomas
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 39

26
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XV.
A.-OF VIKRAMADITYA VI: A.D. 1110.
This inscription is incised on a slab of stone, quadrangular in shape, surmounted by a top with curving sides. It stands, or stood, in the village; but I am unable to find any record of its location. On the top are some sculptures, viz. a cow with sucking calf on the proper right, and in the middle a linga on an abhisheka-stand, with the sun and moon above. The inscribed area is about 3 ft. 5 in. high and 2 ft. 8 in. wide. Lines 1-2 are engraved on the cornice. The character is good Kanarese of the period. The special cursive form of y appears in upanayanadol, 1. 8. The height of the letters is generally between in. and in.; line 3 seems to have been accidentally omitted and then filled in, as all the letters in it are very minute. The language is Old Kanarese; the introductory verse and the two concluding metrical formulæ are Sanskrit. In respect of orthography we may note the use of the archaic in negaldam (1. 2), negald (1. 3), negalda (11. 4, 13, 16), ilda (1. 37), ald (1. 36), as against aldam (1.3), pogalut (1. 20), pogale (1. 33), pogalva (1. 42), alida (1. 46), vēlkum (1. 47), iligu (1. 47), nela-val (1. 45); the appearance of e where ordinarily we should expect i, viz. in age (11. 11, 30), irppenegam (1. 20), nilise (1. 21, bis), tamge (1. 32), and adegum (1. 47); the retention of initial p, except in hattu (1. 33, verse); and the use of the upadhmaniya, written exactly like r, in bhavinah-p° (1. 52). As regards lexicography, attention may be called to the following words: rajavati and rajanvati (11. 2-3), where the poet indulges in a play upon the difference of meanings, based upon Panini VIII. ii. 14 (cf. Siddhanta-kaumudi, 1902); mahati (1. 35), apparently meaning something like "the authorities "; Vaddavara (1. 40), on which see above, Vol. XII, p. 147, and Vol. XIII, p. 18.
From the point of view of metre the record is somewhat unusual: for, with the exception of the opening verse (an Anushtubh), the two metrical formule at the end (respectively Anushtubh and Salint), and the short prose passages in the body of the document, the whole of it is in the Kanda metre. The artistic effect of this experiment does not seem to be particularly happy.
The subject of the record is a grant for a Saiva sanctuary. The poet opens (vv. 2-4) with praises of Nurmaḍi-Taila (Taila II, the establisher of the Western Chalukya dynasty of Kalyani), to whom he gives his titles of Trailōkyamalla and Ahavamalla. He then mentions Taila's son Satyasraya (v. 5), the latter's younger brother Daśavarman, and Dasavarman's son Vikramaditya [V] (v. 6). Vikramaditya had a chief preceptor, parama-guru, named Vishnu-bhaṭṭa, who received in fief the town of Murttage (vv. 7-11, 11. 6-13). In vv. 9 and 10 the donor is said to have been Vikramamka-Satyasraya: here we must take vikramiika as an ordinary adjective, rather than a personal name or official title, as there is no evidence that Satyasraya bore the biruda Vikramaditya. Vishnu-bhaṭṭa's son was the General Govinda, who received the title ripu-sarpa-Garuda, "a Garuda to the snakes his enemies" (11. 13-16); he begot the General Vishnu (v. 14), who begot the General Govindaraja, also entitled ripu-sarpa-Garuda (vv. 15-16). Govindaraja built a temple to the god Ramēšvara at Murttage, and granted property for its endowment, the trustee being Yogesvara-pandita-dēva, in the 4th year of the reign of Tribhuvanamalla, i.e. Vikramaditya VI; his younger sister Ponnakabbe contributed a field (11. 19-33). Govindaraja's son Vitta or Vishnudēva, having received from the authorities of Murttage a field in the midst of the town, petitioned Vikramaditya-dēva, lord of Vardhamanapura, the Mahamandalesvara ruling over the Murttage Thirty, and the latter's wife, a daughter of the Yuvaraja Mallikarjuna-deva, "son of the Chalukya emperor," and these two
See on the history of this family Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts, p. 428 ff.
On the face of it this would seem to mean that Mallikarjuna was the son of the reigning sovereign, ie. Vikramaditya VI.