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No. 15)
DAVANGERE PLATES OF RAVIVARMAN, YEAR 34
89
verse 12, the meaning of which is rather obscure, seems to refer to a historical fact. It states that a hillock or hill-fortress called Kunda resisted (adhārayat) the missile (ili) let down upon it by Raghu but that it submissively obeyed Ravi's command. This appears to mean that the Early Kadamba king Raghu failed but his descendant Ravi succeeded in capturing a lill-fort called Kunda-giri. This incident is not mentioned in any other record of the family. The identification of Kundagiri is also uncertain unless it is Kūdgere in the Shimoga District.
Verse 13, with which the grant portion of the record begins, states that a certain Haricatta made a request to the king (in respect of the grant to be recorded in the charter) with a view to obtaining religious merit and that the king was pleased to reply to it (i.c. complied with it). This fact suggests that the real donor of the grant was Haridatta.
Verses 14-18 record the grant proper. The first of these stanzas gives the date of the grant which has already been discussed above. The other four stanzas state that the following plots of land were granted by the king at Asandi for the maintenance of worship at the Siddhiyana and the extension or prosperity of the Sangha : (1) a piece of land (mahi) covered by the stone of an embankment (i.e. by an embankment made of stone) at Kõravēgā together with an additional area measuring one nivartana ; (2) a plot of land measuring one nivartana according to the royal measure in the area under water (kēdāra) near the said embankment, which lay in the southern part of Asandi ; (3) one nivartana of land at the extremity of the said embankment; and (4) a plot of three nivartanas according to the royal measure, which was situated at Vēdirkõda. The first three plots of the gift land are mentioned in connection with the embankment apparently in the southern part of Āsandi. It is not quite certain that Vēdirköda was also situated within Asandr ; but it is not improbable that it was a locality within Asandr like Koravogā where the enbankment was situated. The expression Siddh-ayatana seems to indicate a Buddhist temple associated with the name of a Siddha like Nägarjuna. It reminds us of the mention of the Pirun-Siddh-üyalam associated with the worship of the lord Pitāmaha Samyaksambuddha (i.e. Buddha) in an early inscription from Kosam. The exact area of a nivartana of land is unknown since it was not the same in all parts of the country and all ages of history.
Verse 19 states that the plots of land were granted by the king in the presence of all the simantas together with the samādhi or samādhis and that they should have to be exempted from unchha and other dues. It is difficult to say whether the word sümanta here means a feudntory of the king or an inhabitant of the neighbourhood of the gift land. The mention of chha in this context reminds us of the passage unchha-kara-bhar-ādi-vivarjita used as an epithet of the gift land in the Halsi plates of Ravivarman. It possibly meant a sort of tolls. The word samādhi means 'storing of grains' and may indicate in the present context 'a granary'. The lands thus appear to have bean granted together with the royal granaries in it.
Of the last four stanzas of the record, three are the ordinary imprecatory and benedictory Vorses often found in copper-plate grants. The first of these is, however, a new stanza.
of the geograpbical names mentioned in the inscription, the river Narmadi and the city of Vaijayanti are well-known. Asandt has been identified with a village in the Kadur District of Mysore. The hillock called Kunda-giri, as indicated above, cannot be identified.
1 Cf. above, pp. 50 ff. . Above, Vol. XXIV, pp. 146 ff. Ibid., Vol. XXVIII, p. 245, note. Ind. Ant., Vol. VI, p. 28.
