________________
No. 7-SACRIFICIAL INSCRIPTION FROM SONDA
(1 Plate)
P. B. DESAI, DHARWAR This inscription was copied by me at Honnehalli, near Sönda, in January 1940, in the course of an epigraphical survey of the Sirsi Taluk, North Kanara District, formerly in the Bombay State, but now in Mysore. The slab bearing the epigraph was set up near the Narasimha shrine inside the Svarnavalli matha. The record is edited here for the first time with the help of impressions taken under my supervision. .
The slab measures 31 inches long and 28 inches broad. Its upper part is shaped into a broad curve. In the space at the top above the inscription proper are cut in relief the figures of the sun and the crescent. Above, below and to che right of these syinbols are engraved the two invocations in Kannada characters, Visvēsvarā jayati and Sri-Nrisimho jayati, and another in the Nāgari script referring to a third deity. About the middle of the slab are carved in relief four figures which are eminently conspicuous. The main figure at the centre is elongated and made up of four curves. The one to its north is almost & square ; another towards the east is a semi-circle and the third one to the south is a circle. The significance of these figures will be pointed out below.
The inscription is engraved in the Kannada alphabet and language. The characters are late being normal for the date of the record. Noteworthy is the form of initial ā (line 12), its length being denoted by a sign attached to it and looking like the medial a mark. In some cases a superfluous curve is appended to the lower limb of t giving the impression that it is doubled ; cf. sarasvati in line 3 and pratipäļisi in line 6. The doubling of the letter ? in halli in line 3 and belli in line 9 is denoted by a curve affixed to its lower part In line 8 the word frauti is misspelt as sraüli.
The epigraph commences with the date which is given as Salivāhana-Saka 1595, Pramadi, Māgha-gu. 4, Saturday. This date regularly corresponds to the 31st January 1674 A.D. It is stated that at this time Savāyi Ramachandra-nāyaka, the chief of Söde, was ruling the principality. The object of the epigraph is to commemorate the completion of a sacrifice which was caused to be performed by Sarvajña-sarasvati, a pontiff of Hornehalli, for the prosperity of the above chief. The ritual was conducted by Agnihotrin Kesava-bhatta of Kadatoke under the guidance of Srauti Viśvapati-bhatta who was specially invited for the occasion from the holy city of Kābr. The performance lasted for five days and was completed on Wednesday, the 8th of the bright half of the above month. The passage at the end of the inscription indicates that the stone bearing the record was set up to mark the sacred site where the sacrificial ceremony actually took place. From the duration of the sacrifice it appears to have been a Soma-yaga.'
An interesting part of the epigraph is the representation, on the commemorative tablet itself, of the sacrificial spot, which, as described above, consists of four figures. The central elongated figure stands for the Vedi or the raised seat intended for the performer. The adjoining three figures to the south, east and north respectively depict the three pits wherein the three sacred fires, known as Gārhapatya, Daskhiņa and Ahavaniya, are kept burning throughout the performance." The tablet thus presents a unique instance of sacrificial memorial.
This matha belongs to the pontiffs of the Havyaka or Havik community of Brāhmaṇas largely residing in the area.
B. K. Coll., No. 18 of 1939-40. . (See below. p. 81, note 2.-Ed.)
. . Cf. A. Chinnaswami Santri's Yastatattvaprakasa, ed. A. M. Ramanaths Dikshite, for illustrations of the merificial fire-pitu.
( 79 )
