________________
No. 24) SANG8I MEMORIAL INSCRIPTION
131 ring once in line 1 is represented by the lower part of the letter without the top knot, engraved in miniature size in the lower space.
In regard to orthography the following peculiarities, though not unusual in the present record, may be noted. The consonant following r is doubled, e:9., in otër=yya and bhāryyā, line 1. In -arttham, line 2, the reduplicated aspirate has been changed to its corresponding surd, as required by the grammatical rules. The anusvāra, even at the end of a word, has occasionally been involved into sandhi and changed to the class nasal of the following letter of the next word : e.g., in punyanām = pari-, ajarantasy- and svayan=nri-, line 2. The entity of anusvāra bas been retained in the following instances; divam pritya and -sthā pitam chaitya-, line 2
The language is Sanskrit and the whole record comprises one single verse in the Sārdūla vikridita metre. The first two pādas of the verge are accommodated in the first line and the next two in the second. Some space indicating the end of a pāda is left after the first and the third pādas which end in the middle of the line. The poetry is of the ornate classical order with a melodious ring about it.
The inscription commences with an auspicious spiral-like symbol which seems to stand for Or. Next comes, what I am inclined to assume it to be, the name proper of the king; because the latter part of the expression is clearly lāñchhana which means ' a name' also. This name is constituted of four aksharas beginning with Pu. As suggested in a foot-note later, the name can be restored as Pushpåyudha. But since it is not advisable to venture a surmise, I would prefer to refer to the king hereafter by the initial letter Pu...only. Next we are introduced to the king's wife by name Hälidēvi. The second pada whose latter part is lost, seems to state that the lady had captured the heart of her husband by her virtuous conduct. The third pada refers to her death when she was still young. Here the poet, indulging in a fancy, describes that she went to heaven to guard, as it were, the treasure of her accumulated rerits. The last pāda informe that the memorial tablet of stone was set up with due ceremony by the king himself out of affection for her.
The epigraph is not dated and so in order to ascertain its probable date we have to fall baok on the evidence of palaeography which is our only guide in the present instance. As observed above, the characters of this record show a remarkable similarity with those of the Tālagunda pillar inscription. From the reference to Santivarman, son of Kakusthavarman in the latter record, it has to be assumed that it was drafted and engraved during the former's reign. Now Santivarman's reign has been assigned to the middle of the 5th century A. D. Hence we might place our epigraph about A.D. 500.
Thus it becomes clear that the inscription under study constitutes an epitaph perpetuating the name of a distinguished lady who pre-deceased her royal husband and the installation of the memorial in her honour by the latter, and no grounds whatsoever exist for the assumption that the stele comprises & sati memorial. This fact, though true, is rather unique. We are familiar in the areas of the Deccan and Karnatak with such sculptured memorials as speak of heroes who laid their lives for a sacred cause and of men and women who courted death after the demise of
1 This name is peculiar and rarely met with. It reminds us of another similar name Håla, of & Sātavābapa king. I am not sure if this can be connected with Sanskrit hala meaning a plough'.
In order to guard the treasure it is necessary that one should be strong and young in spirits. It is therefore in the fitness of things that the lady repaired to heaven in her youth.
The expression sait-stha pitam in the text literally means 'was installed in the proper manner'. This phrase is significant and I am inclined to believe that the memorial tablet must have been originally installed and preserved in & well-constructed shrine by the king himself. The shrine might have fallen to ruin in rourse of time, thas exposing the stele which came to be buried under the earth wherefrom it was rescued.
• George M. Morace, Kadamba Kula, p. 72; N. Lakshminarayan Rao and R. S. Panchamukhi, Karnatakada Arasumanetanagalu, p. 13; A New History of Indian People, p. 238, etc.
