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No. 101
MORE INSCRIPTIONS AT ABLUR
139
the name of this king occurs in a slightly different form as Ehuvala Siri Chaṁtamūla.' The expressions a-vidhava and jivaputa used in describing the queen are noteworthy. The latter occurs in an inscription on brick from Mathura, assigned to the 3rd or 2nd century B. C. and also on some inscriptions of the Sunga period on the railings from Bodh Gaya. In literature these words are commonly employed either as an auspicious mode of addressing a lady leading a married life or when such ladies are referred to.
TEXT
Sidha[m*] | Mahādēvlya a-vidhavaya j[I]vaputāya Mahar[ā] ja-siri[Ehavala Chamtamu]'la-pati[ya]' Khamḍuvulāya kāritāti® [|]
TRANSLATION
Success. (This image is) caused to be made by Mahadevi Kham ḍuvulā, (who is) an a-vidhava (i. e., one with her husband alive) and (who is) a jivaputa (Sanskrit, jivaputra, i. e., one who has her child or children alive) (and who is) the wife (?) of Maharaja Siri Ehavala Cha[m]tamula.
No. 19-MORE INSCRIPTIONS AT ABLUR
(1 Plate)
P. B. DESAI, OOTACAMUND
Ablur is a village about 6 miles north of Hirekerur, the present day headquarters of Kōd taluk, Dharwar District. Traditions are current in these parts asserting that formerly it was a very big city10 and included within its extent the present day neighbouring villages of Bhōgāvi Sutkōți, Nülgēri, Dūpadhalli and Yattinhalli. According to another tradition Ablur is the birth place of Sarvajña,11 a popular Kannada poet (circa 1700 A. C), and a house near the Somě vara temple is shown as the place where he was born. In one of his tripadi verses Sarvajña states that he was born at Ambaluru' which is identified with Ablür.
1 An. Rep. 8. I. E., 1936-37, p. 62, para. 11, Ins. No. 349. An. Rep. Archl. Survey of India, 1911-12, p. 128.
Ibid., 1908-09, p. 149, f. n. 3; cf. Jiva-suta in the Nasik inscription of Gautamiputra Satakarni and Jiva-putra-pautra in the inscription of Prabhavatigupta in the Select Inscriptions. (These references wore kindly pointed out to me by Dr. D. C. Sircar.)
Bhartur-mitram priyam-avidhave-Meghasandela, v. 99. Jirpulras-latha striyah-Ramayana, Yuddha kundu Jiraputri sulas-le-yam Dharmaputro Yudhishthirab-Mahabharata, Adiparvan, ch. 144. (I am indebted to Dr. B. Ch. Chhabra and Dr. V. Raghavan for these references).
The punctuation is indicated by a hook-like mark.
This portion of the inscription bears numerous scratches on the stone somewhat obliterating the letters enclosed in the brackets.
The stone has slightly peeled off here and with it the lower half of the letter ya has gone. There is a distinct mark of an anusvära over ti. Probably the expression is patimya, a corrupt form used in the sense of patnya.
This expression obviously stands for kărită iti.
The slanting stroke at the end seems to stand for the punctuation.
10 The Abalara-charitre, to which a reference will be made in the later part of this article, also says that it was an extensive city.
1 R. Narasimhachar: Karnataka Kavicharite, Vol. II, p. 532.
19 Channappa Uttangi Sarvajña Vachanagalu (3rd edn., 1936), verse 8.
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