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142
EPIGRAPHÍA INDICA
[VOL. XXIX
tures explain their subject matter. The second line of the inscription commences just below the third label indicating that it constitutes its part. The inscription reads as follows:
TEXT1
1 (i) Jēḍara Dāsimayyamgaļu dēvarige vastrava kuḍuva ṭāü ||
(ii) Siriyala-seṭṭi Chamgalavve dövarige maganan-ikkuva ṭāvu ||
(iii) Kumbara Gu[m*]dana murde
2 bamdha(md=a)dida namma Sivanu [*]
TRANSLATION
(i) Here is (depicted the scene of) Jedara (weaver) Dasimayya offering cloth to the god (Siva). (ii) Here is depicted the scene of Siriyala-setti and (his wife) Chamgalavve offering their son to the god (Śiva).
(iii) Our (god) Siva came down and danced before Kumbara (potter) Gunda.
Jēḍara Dasimayya, as the story goes, was a weaver and a devotee of Siva. By offering a cloth to his deity he received from him the boon of inexhaustible treasure (tavanidhi). This episode is frequently referred to in the Virasaiva literature of Karnataka, the earliest allusions being those found in the Vachanas or Sayings of Basavesvara. Siriyala-sețți is said to have offered the cooked flesh of his son to god Siva who came to him in disguise as a Saiva mendicant to test his faith. It is interesting to trace the ramifications of this story the roots of which are found in the Tamil country. According to the Periyapuranam, Parañjōti, the general of Pallava Narasimhavarman I (circa 7th century), who in his later life became famous as the Saiva saint Siruttoṇḍa Nayanar, had a son named Sirāla. This Sirala was sacrificed by his father to propitiate Siva. This legend had several adaptations in Saiva literature of the Telugu and Kannada countries and also of Maharashtra. In these versions the son's name appears to have passed on to the father who became popular as Siriyala-seṭṭi. In Maharashtra a festival is observed in the name of Siriyala-setti on Sravana su. 6 in a queer fashion by the ladies of the household. Kumbara or Potter Gunda, again, mentioned in the above epigraph, was a devotee of highly spiritual status. While beating his earthenware into shape he went into a trance and was absorbed in the meditation of Siva. Pleased with his devotion Siva descended from Kailasa and danced before him."
The accounts of Ekāntada Ramayya, Jēḍara Dāsimayya, etc., noticed above, along with a host of other Saiva devotees, are often met with in the Virasaiva literature of the Kannada country. Epigraphical references to them, however, are not so numerous and they belong rather to a late period. The earliest epigraphical notices of some of these devotees, associated with their sculptures, are found for the first time in the inscriptions of Ablür, as indicated above. Herein lies the main interest and importance of these brief records.
1 In situ and from impressions.
2 Basavannanavara Shatsthafada Vachanagalu (edited by S. S. Basavanal), Nos. 147-48, etc. Jodara Dasimayya appears to have been referred to as Dasa in the following inscriptions also; Ep. Carn., Vol. V, Cn. 210 and Vol. XII, Ck. 18.
Ibid., Nos. 146-49, 152, etc; Basavapurana, sandhi 24.
Above, Vol. V, p. 254, n. 6; V. Rangacharya's article The Legend of Siruttonda Nayanar', The Hindu, Jan. 3, 1943.
Siriyala Charitra', Bharati (Telugu Journal), 1951 August.
B. A. Gupto: Hindu Holidays and Ceremonials (Calcutta, 1916), pp. 207-08.
This story is narrated by the Kannada poet Harihara (circa 13th century) in one of his compositions in the Ragafe metre. A later epigraphical reference to this devotee is found in the Ep. Carn., Vol. III, Md. 83.
