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280
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XVI.
(Lines 4-15.) Hail! while the Mahasamantadhipati possessing the five great musical) sounds, Kannars-Vallaha, was reigning over the earth while Lokade was governing the Banavasi Twelve-thousand while Dindēsvarade Omkāra-Siva-bhatára, adorned with a series of many virtues and practising truthfulness and pure conduct, was governing Palasür:-- while Alādiya Gove (?) and likewise Kalpāta were holding the county-shrievalty over Anniga's Hundred of Pinungal :-while Maşugulara Āyicha Gāvunda was holding the town-shrievalty :-his son Asagaņņa obtained the remission from taxation ?) of Dautavura; Omkāra-Siva-bhatara granted the remission. (Lines 15-18 : a Kanarese prose formula of the usual type.)
2. KYASANUR INSCRIPTIONS OF SAKA 888, eto. The village of Kyāsanur ("Kyásnur" on the Bombay Survey sheet 310, "Kasnoor" on the Indian Atlas sheet 42) lies in the Hängal taluka of Dharwar District, in 14° 39 lat. and 75° 78' long. Its ancient name, as is shown in the inscription C. below, 1. 6, was Kēsalür, whence is derived the modern name, by change of 3 to ya (a very common modification in vulgar Kanarese) and of l to n. The epigraphs here published were found in different parts of the village ; but with the exception of A., which is known to have been found in a row of stones in a road to the north of it, their exact location is not on record, as far as I am aware. An incorrect and imperfect transcript of A. is given in the Elliot Collection, Vol. II, fol. 335a of the Royal Asiatic Society's copy.
This epigraph is on a rectangular stone surmounted by soulptures which are described by Elliot's copyist as representing respectively the Sun, Isvara (Śiva), HalAyudha (sic!), and the Moon. The inscribed area is about 1 ft. 101 in. high and 1 ft. 9 in. broad.--The character is Kanarese, somewhat irregular and cramped in style, with letters varying in height from in. to 1 in. The vowels & and 8 are written in both the earlier and the later manner. The band j are of the later types ; but the l is somewhat archaic, except in Edevolal, 1. 6, and agal, l. 13, where it is almost modern. We find the guttural naal in 11. 3, 7, 10, and the palatal nasal in 1. 4 (twice). The cursive m appears in the last syllable of Angiravdramum, 1. 10, and Gamundiganol, l. 12; and there is an interesting form of y, in two lobes, in -enfaneya, 1. 8, and Poravayyan, 1. 11.-The language is Old Banarese, with the exception of the formal Sanskrit verse at the end ; as in the rest of this series, it belongs to the second period of the archaic dialect. We may note the form mattal for the commoner mattar (see above, Vol. XIII, p. 168) and bidisi (see above, Vol. XI, p. 6, 1. 17).
The record opens by referring itself in 11. 1-3 to the reign of king Kannara (the Rashtrakata Krishna III Akálavarsha, on whom see Dyngst. Kanar. Distr., pp. 418 ff.), and then states that while the Mahasamanta Kali-Vitta of the Chellakētana lineage was governing the Banavāsi province (11. 3-4) and Gamundiga was serving as nil-gimundu or sheriff of the Edevolal nīdu, on a given date, the revenue of field was transferred by Gåmundiga, at the request of Poravayya, to a special account for the upkeep of a local tank. The history or the Chellakētana or Sellakötana family, of which Kali-Vita is the latest representative on record, has been examined in Ind. Ant., Vol. XXXII, pp. 221 ff., by Dr. Fleet, who has noticed this inscription and the next on p. 226. We have found an earlier representative of the same fumily in the Kupimellibal}i inscription above.
The date of the donation is given in II. 7-10 as Saka 868 current, Visvīvasu, the bright fortnight, Thursday, the wakahatra Uttard; hut with peculiar negligence the draftsman or the
See my remarke on Uttare in the previous inscription,
