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130 EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(VOL. XXVIII bearing sculptures in relief and an inscription, was unearthed in a field near the village. As the sculptures depict the funeral scene of a woman, it was readily believed that it constituted a sati memorial. Later on, the slab appears to have been removed to the spot where it now stands, about two miles east from Gagan Bävda and 35 miles west from Kolhapur, and a crude temple constructed over it. A tradition grew around in course of time attributing it to the memory of a woman who committed sati long ago.
At the instance of Mr. N. G. Pandit Rao, the then Public Relations Officer of the Kolhapur State, Dr. H. D. Sankalia and Dr. M. G. Dikshit, both of the Deccan College Research Institute, Poona, visited the site in 1946 and copied the inscription. These two scholars, who will hereafter be referred to as SD for the sake of brevity, have published a note on the preliminary findings of their discovery in the Modern Review, Calcutta, March 1947 (pp. 213-15), and a fuller study of the inscription, as also of the sculptures, in the Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute, Decenber 1948.1 Subsequently Mr. N. Lakshminarayan Rao, Officiating Government Epigraphist for India, visited Sāngsi in December 1949, and took a photograph of the tablet and estampages of the inscription."
On account of the erroneous notion created by the local tradition apparently supported by the sculptural representation and owing to imperfections in the decipherment of the epigraph, SD were led to believe that the stele commemorated the performance of the rite of sati by a lady after the demise of her husband, and consequently their observations are vitiated by this prepossession. But the facts, as we shall presently see, are different. In view of these considerations and the importance of the inscription for securing glimpses of the political and social conditions of the locality in ancient times, it was thought necessary to edit it in the pages of this journal. So I am editing it here with the kind permission of Dr. B. Ch. Chhabra, Government Epigraphist for India, who generously furnished me with the necessary facilities.
The slab measures approximately 6 feet in height and 4 feet in breadth. It is broader and angular at the base and somewhat curved towards the top. As a result of the serious damage, the sculptures and the inscription have been obliterated in several parts. In the lower portion and about the middle of the stone is the portrait of a lady, in relief, lying down at full length on a funeral pyre surrounded by flames and some attendants. Immediately above this group and across the slab runs the inscription. Higher up in the top portion are a few more carvings.
The inscription consists of two lines. The characters belong to the southern class of alphabet and evince box-head ' features, the boxes' being solid. Close resemblance may be traced between them and those of the Tālagunda pillar inscription of Käkusthavarman of the early Kadamba family. Two letters, however, have certain peculiarities deserving notice here. The t of the Tālagunda inscription is made up by a curve joined to the vertical stroke and the two arms of the curve can be distinguished, the left one being more pronounced. But in the present record the upright stroke stretches right up to the bottom and the angular curve stands affixed all towards the left. Similar is the case with n. Whereas the n of the former epigraph is constituted of a looped curve emerging from the bottom of a straight line, that of the latter has its curve with more developed loop attached exclusively to the lower left side of the vertical stroke. The final t occur
*Pages 161.166, with a good photograph of the entire stele and separate facsimile of the inscription. "The inscription is numbered 269 of the A.R.E. for the year 1949-50.
The record expressly states that the memorial was erected by a king in honour of his deceased wife. This correct position was noticed for the first time by Dr. B. Ch. Chbabra and Mr. N. Lakshminarayan Rao: Archaeology in India (1980), p. 101. Mr. S. K. Dikshit has also pointed it uut independently: Ann. Bh. Or. Res. Inst., Vol. XXIX, pp. 291-92. After this article was prepared it was found that the late Dr. Fleet had noticed this inscription before ; Bom. Gaz., Vol. I, part ii, p. 286, n. 1.
J am also indebted to Mr. N. Lakshminarayan Rao for his kind suggestions in the study. * Abovo, Vol. VIII, pp. 24 ff, and Plate.
