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No. 29.]
HALDIPUR PLATES OF THE PALLAVA CHIEF GOPALADEVA.
Mantrawadi1 and Sirur inscriptions of Amöghavarsha I while they are almost exactly similar to those in the Annigeri inscriptions and the Kendür Plates of Kirttivarman II and the Hattimattür inscription of Krishna I. Thus paleographical considerations point to the middle of the 8th century A.D. as the probable period of the present record.
The language of the inscription is Sanskrit and Kanarese. Lines 1 to 6 are written in Sanskrit prose and the rest in Kanarese prose which may be considered among the oldest specimens of the language. Particular attention may be drawn to the following linguistic and grammatical features. The accusative termination an as in bhagaman (1. 9), -idän (1. 17) and Varanasiyuman (1. 18) is found only in early records like the Paṭṭadakal inscription of Vikramaditya II in which we find dégulaman (1.2), idan (1.8) and the Badami inscription" of Mangalēsa which has ittodan (1. 3). In later records this case suffix is an or am. In masculine nouns ending in a the dative termination ge is preceded by n as in gotrajange and Panyarange (1. 8). With this we may compare the datives namorange and odeyonge found in the Udiyavara inscription of Ranasagara and Svētavahana, and madhuryyange (1. 5) in the inscription of Kappe-Arabhaṭṭa of about the 8th century at Badami. In other inscriptions of this period the nasal i takes the place of the dental n10 (cf. Dharegisange in the Udiyavara inscription of Prithvisägara). The genitive suffix is long a and not short a as found in later records (e.g., Kasampalliya in line 9 and Neydalgereya in line 13). Instances of this form of the genitive are found in the Lakshmeévar pillar inscription of the Yuvaraja Vikramaditya (II) (cf. Porigereya, sovageyä, etc.), but obviously it is seldom used in records of the Later Chalukyas of Kalyani.13 The peculiar forms vaḍaganna (1. 11), paduvannā, tenkanna (1. 12) and mudanṇā (1. 13) (which denote the four points of the compass) involving a double na are, so far as I am aware, found nowhere else either in epigraphical or literary Kanarese. Characteristic of the archaic nature of the language are the verbal nouns apponge (1. 8) and alidora (1. 18), with which may be compared the words apporgge and envodu in the Lakshmesvar inscription referred to above and ulidorge and parajisidora of the Paṭṭadakal Inscriptions of Vikramaditya II. The adverb ullappinam meaning as long as (they) exist' is another archaic formation 15. The word kalani which denotes a wet land or a rice field is not generally found in epigraphical records later than the 10th Century. With the rather rare expression bhukt-anubhuktam used in the sense of to be in continued enjoyment we may compare bhukt-änubhōgam of the Lakshmēśvar pillar inscription. The imprecation found in the present grant, viz., those who destroy this will go to the world of those who destroy Varanasi, etc., occurs
1 Above, Vol. VII, plate facing p. 201.
Below, plate facing p. 206.
Above, Vol. VI, plate facing p. 162.
175
2 Ibid., plate facing p. 204.
Above, Vol. IX, plate facing p. 203. Ind. Ant., Vol. X, p. 161.
Above, Vol. IX, pp. 18 and 19.
Ibid., p. 60.
Ind. Ant., Vol. X, p. 61.
10 According to the sutra atab-chaturthyās tritiyö-nusvara-pürvaḥ-pumsi of Nagavarma's Bhashabhushana R. Narasimhachar's edition p. 28, sutra No. 62), the earliest extant Kanarese grammar of the 12th century A.D. the dative termination ge is preceded by an anusvära. It is thus evident that the forms used in our grant had become obsolete by the time of this grammarian.
11 Above, Vol. IX, p. 20.
12 Above, Vol. XIV, p. 189.
18 It may be noted, however, that the genitive suffix long á and the accusative suffix as are allowed optionally by Nagavarma in the sutras dirgh-adebash-shasthya yatheshṭam (Bhāshābhūshana, No. 67) and dviliy-āntasya vā stare (ibid, No. 68) but the examples he cites to illustrate the latter appear to be from the works of two writers who lived before him, viz., Haripala and the poet Bhuvanaikavira.
14 Ind. Ant., Vol. X, p. 164.
15 On this word Rao Bahadur R. Narasimhachar has kindly written to me as follows:-"Usually we have the adverb uļļinam but here the form is ullappinam. May it be for ullar-appinam?".
