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No. 34.) ANNIGERI INSCRIPTION OF KIRTTIVARMAN (II.); THE SIXTH YEAR. 205
is distinguished from d both when it occurs singly and when it forms a ligature with » (cf. di of
mädisidon, 1. 9 and adů of gamundu, 1. 8.) The Dravidian r is found thrice, in ra of araneya (1.5) and idara (1. 10) and in ri of nirisida (1. 12); and final n is found in onāman (1. 14). The language of the record is archaic Kanarese. Attention may be drawn to the accusative suffix an (e.g., chēdiyaman-, 1. 9) and the genitive suffix ā (āraneyā, 1. 5) and the form of the verb mädisidon (1. 9). The orthography is free from any faults except for the use of long ū for the short in gāmundu. There is no distinction between short and long e and o.
The object of the inscription is to record the construction of a chèdiya, i.e., (chaitya or Jaina temple) by Kaliyamma who was holding the office of the headman of Jēbulagēri and the erection in front of it of a sculpture by & certain Kondisulara-Kuppa whose other name was Kirtti. varmma-Gösāsi. The latter is clearly the name of his master (prabhunāman) as stated in the last line. The writer was one Diśāpāla.
The record is dated in the sixth year of king Kirttivarmma-Satyasraya. The title Satyasraya affords enough proof to show that the king belonged to the early Chalukya dynasty of Bādāmi and as the epigraph is on palæographic grounds assigned to the 8th century A.D. Kirttivarmma of our record must be the second king of that name. Since his initial year has been fixed by the late Dr. Fleet as 746-47 the date of our record would be 751-52 A.D. Only two stone inscriptions and two copper-plates of this king have so far been published. Of them the Pattadakal pillar inscription and the copper plates are throughout in Sanskrit and the damaged Adür inscription is partly in Sanskrit and partly in Kanarese. The present inscription is thus the first complete Kanarese record of this king.
Attention may be drawn to the rare Kanarese expression ond-uttaram (increasing by one) occurring in this inscription. So far as I know this word is found only in two other Rashtrakūta records, viz., the Nidagundi inscription of Amõghavarsha I and the Venkatāpur inscription of Krishna II. Fleet, while editing the former inscription has remarked that this expression denoted an elliptical system of reckoning the regnal year of a king in which there was an omission of some kind or the other whether intentional or accidental'. This supposed omission was in his opinion the word aruvattaneya (i.e., sixtieth); for "with a cycle of sixty years actually in use an elliptical method of designating years in excess of the number of sixty'in such a case as this one is perfectly intelligible and admissible," but it was difficult to recognise anything rational in an elliptical expression being used for the years eleven, twenty-first, thirty-first, etc. According to Fleet, the full expression as it ought to be was, therefore, ond-uttaran aruvattaneya varshan meaning the sixtieth year increased by one or the sixty-first year of the reign of the king to whom it belonged. The learned scholar's conclusion was apparently influenced by the fact that the only record containing the expression known to him was an undated record of a king who reigned for over 60 years. But the present inscription and the Venkatāpur record referred to above belong to kings whose reigns did not last so long and can be referred respectively to the 6th year of Kirttivarman (II) and to Saka 828 (which was the 29th regnal year of Krishna II). The explanation offered by Fleet is thus entirely out of place and ond-uttaram most there fore be interpreted in some other way. The context in which it occurs in the three records would show that it is an exact counterpart of the widely used expression uttar-ottaram, viz., in
1 Above, Vol. III, pp. 1 ff.
Ind. Ant. Vol. XI, p. 69. . Above, Vol. VII, p. 212.
No. 82 of the Bombay-Karnatak collection for 1926-27. The name of the bag Lowrongly giroa 14 Amoghavarsha for Akälavarsha (Krishna II).
