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No. 5]
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ALAND INSCRIPTION OF YUVARAJA MALLIKARJUNA No. 5.-ALAND INSCRIPTION OF YUVARAJA MALLIKARJUNA
(1 Plate)
P. B. DESAI, OOTACAMUND
This inscription was copied by me in the summer vacation of 1933, when I was a student in the Karnatak College, Dharwar. The stone slab bearing the epigraph was built in a wall of the dargah of Lädle Mashäk Säheb at Aland, a fairly big village in the Payagah Jägirs of the Gulbarga District, Hyderabad State. The record was published in the Karnātak Historical Review, Vol. IV (1937), pp. 61-71. But in view of certain imperfections of the publication and the importance of the epigraph mainly for the study of the family history of the eminent Western Chalukya ruler Vikramaditya VI, I propse to re-edit it here.
In the process of trimming the slab to fit it into the construction, damage has been caused to the writing in some places. Consequently, a few letters at the commencement of almost all the lines are lost. The rest of the inscription is in a fair state of preservation. The characters are Kannada of the 11th century A. D. and generally conform to the style of the age. The length of the medial i is invariably clearly distinguished by a spiral to the left of the curve at the top. Regarding orthography there are no special features worth mentioning except for those common to the period. The upadhmāniya is used in ll. 38, 41 and 42. The language is Kannada and the composition is partly in prose and partly in verse. The imprecation towards the end is, as usual, made up of Sanskrit verses.
The record refers itself to the reign of Tribhuvanamalladöva or Vikramaditya VI and is dated the Chalukya-Vikrama year 7, Dundubhi, Pushya, bu. 5, Sunday, [Uttarā]yanagamkranti. The date is irregular. In the cyclic year Dundubhi, Uttarāyaṇa commenced on Pushya su. 3, Sunday. Its Christian equivalent would be A. D. 1082, December 25.
The object of the epigraph is to record the gift of income derived from tolls and levies such as perjurka, bilkode, etc., in the district of Alande Thousand for the daily worship and offerings to the god Sõmēsvara of Alande by the king at the request of the queen Chandaladēvi. The gift was entrusted to the hands of the teacher Surēśvara Pandita? who was in charge of the temple. Further donations to the god were also made by Yuvarāja Mallikarjuna and others.
Yuvarāja Mallikarjuna was a son of Vikramaditya VI. Kumāra Sömēsvara was another son who also figures as the donor in the inscription (11. 55-56). Mallikarjuna is addressed as Yuvarāja-Vallabha and described as the crest-jewel aniong the princes (Kumāra-cikhāmani). He was brave and valorous in war. Impressed by his ability, the king installed him as his heir apparent. He was the seniormost among the princes.3 Under instructions from the king he was governing the district of Alande Thousand.
1 It is clear from the context that the expression Ballavarasar occurring in lines 36 and 51 refers to the reigning king. The word Ballava which is a general term, is evidently derived from the specific title Vallabha borne by the Western Chalukyas of Bidimi and the Rāshtrakūtas of Malkhed. It is met with in its above-noted dorivative form in some records of the Chalukyas of Kalyāna also, who followed the ancient tradition. See for inatanoo, S. I. I., Vol. IX, pt. i, No. 104, 1. 26; No. 119, 1. 11; No. 121. 1. 12; Ind. Ant., Vol. X, p. 127, 1. 11. Also see the Ajitatirthakarapuranatilakam (asvásai, verse 45) of the Kannada poet Ranna, wherein Ballaha, the variant form of the same title, is used to denote the reigning king who was Taila II.
* This teacher is identical with his namesake who figures in an inscription from the Rellary District, as the administrator of a small tract, 17 years later : 8.1.1., Vol. IX, pt. i, No. 165.
•B. K. No. 1 of 1937-38.
