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No. 35.]
TWO STONE INSCRIPTIONS OF KRISHNA II; SAKA 805.
207
of two curves with two dots below still persists (see Indapayya 1.4 of A); medial e is expredsed in two different ways (i) by the addition of a downward stroke at the left of the talekattu as in earlier records (cf. me of paramēśvara in l. 2 of A) and (ii) by a superscript mark as in ge of Purigere (1.5 of A) and ile of Pulide (1. 4 of B). As in older records no distinction is made between medial e and é and o and 0. While in A, the later cursive form of is used throughout, only the earlier form is found in B (cf. ja in raja I. l of A with rāja l. 1 of B). The letter 1 is of the later cursive type with the miniature of the earlier type in the centre. Both the special Dravidian consonants I and I are much more developed than in records of the eighth century (e.g., Purigere and ifdu in 1. 5 of A and nirisido and Pulide in 1. 4 of B). The lingual d cannot be distinguished from the dental d in both the records.
The language of the inscriptions is Kanarese prose. Attention may be drawn to the nominal verb nādayisu (assemble) from the noun nādu which is a rare formation. Another interesting and still unexplained word is gosāsa occurring in l. 7 of A. Dr. Fleet has suggested that it might be a corruption of the Sanskrit word goshtha. That the word is connected with Sanskrit go (eow) has already been pointed out by him. In the Soratūr record (A) the occurrence of the expression stan-ābhirriddhi (prosperity of the udders) immediately after the mention of the gift of gosāsa confirms this view. But Fleet's suggestion that the word may mean a cow-shed is not correct for, it is not possible to derive gāsāsa from goshtha ; it is more probable that the word is an abbreviation or Kanarese rendering of go-sahasra. This is strengthened by the fact that a certain Kösigara Köteyamma who is described as a gösäsi in one of the inscriptions of Belägi in the Mysore State is described in another record of the same place as gosahasram-aldam (i.e., who was the manager or the keeper of gosahasra). The mention first of a gift of go-sahasra and then of a go-sāsa is not found in the Chinchli inscription as supposed by Fleet. In other epigraphs from the Bombay-Karnatak we have similar references to the gifts of gosahasra.
As regards orthography, B is free from any errors except the use of s for 6 in saka (1.2), but A is full of mistakes. Unnecessary lengthening of letters such as Paramèśvara for Paramèsvara (1.2) and Indāpāyyā for Indapayya (1. 4) is very common in the record. R is used for the vowel Ti, in prithuvi, (1. 1) and vriddhi (1.2).
The inscription A records the gift of a gāsāsa by a certain Chidanna made in the presence of the Fitty (mahā-janas) of Saraţavura who had assembled together when Indapayya was governing the nādu district). As we are told that Saraţavura was situated in the Purigerenāņu the district which Indapayya was administering was evidently Purigere. From other inscriptions we know that this was a three-hundred district or a district comprising 300 villages. Indapayya who was in charge of this district is introduced to us here for the first time. B is a hero-stone recording the death of a certain Ereyamma in a cattle-raid at Nivudi and the setting up of the stone by Gurevamma, the younger brother of Pulide-gāvunda.
Both the epigraphs refer themselves to the reign of Akālavarsha and are dated in the Saka year 805 and A gives, in addition, Sobhaksit as the corresponding cyclic year. Thus tho English equivalent of the date is A.D. 883-84. Akalavarsha of the records whose proper name Kanpara-bhatára is also given in A is no other than the Rashtrakūta king Krishna II tho Buocessor of Amõghevarsha I for whom the latest date known so far is A.D 877-78. The eartiest
1 Above, Vol. VI, p. 255.
Mye. Arch. Rep. 1920, p. 159, No. 79. • Ibid. p. 151, No. 78. . Abovo, Vol. VI, p. 285, f. 2. 2.
Hoe, for instanoo, No. 148 of the Bombay Karnatak collection for 1926-27 and Na JI of the main olleoklon for 1928-29,
