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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[Vol. XXXIII
26 v=ākarot=sati ! [11] Karndammati-kul-a27 dhfía-Göpinātha-pad-ārivu(bu)jo tastho)-1 28 syāḥ pūrvam=abhūt=k[r]i[dja. idūnini 29 Manikarnike || [12*) sri- Maîtrakū30 ţa-Gõpijana[va]llabhāya 31 namah ||
2. Inscription of the time of Hoysala Nerasimha III This inscription is engraved on the left door jamb of the doorway leading into a Mahādēva shrine under a peepal tree in the compound of the Visbņupāda temple. The writing occupies & space of about 262 inches in height and 4 inches in width, there being altogether 25 lines and each line containing about four aksharas. Immediately below the above record, there is a second inscription which contains 21 lines covering a space equal in area as the first epigraph. It seems that the available space was divided into two halves for the two inscriptions which were very probably engraved at the same time.
The record is written in Nandi-Nāyari characters of about the 12th or 13th century A.D. with the exception of the last line which is in the Kannada script. The characters resemble those of the Gayà inscription of Prataparudra's time, edited above. The form of vra ir rrajana in lines 11-12 is interesting to note. The language is Kannada and the inscription is written in prose. As regards orthographical peculiarities, the word simha has been spelt as singa (lines 3-4), while niya has been spelt as riņa thrice in lines 14-16.
The record bears no date, although it refers in lines 2-5, to a ruler named Hosaņa ViraNarasimhadēva. Hosana is the same as Hoysaņa, a well-known variant of the dynastic name Hoysala, and there is no doubt that Vira-Narasimha of our record belonged to the Hoysala ruling family of Dorasamudra (modern Haļebid in Mysore State). In this connection, it is interesting to note that the second inscription on the same stone referred to above, which is written in the Kannada language and script, reads in lines 1-16 : fri-Vira-Narusi[m]hadēvaracara karmalada Jakari nana magarn[*] [Chajridirana Ka(Kha)ra-sanhvatsarada Ba(Bha)drapalda*)-bu 30 So [Gayā) pravésar(san) müdi.... This record, the concluding part of which is damaged, speaks of a person named Chandiranna who was a son of Jakanna, an employee in the mint of ViraNarasimhadēva, and of his visit to Gayă on pilgrimage. It will be seen that both the inscriptions apparently refer to the same Hoysaļa king named Narasirha or Vira-Narasiriha. But, while the first record which is the subject of our study in these lines does not bear any date, the second epigraph was dated in the cyclic year Khara, Bhādrapada-ba. 30, Monday, i.e. the day of the Mahalayā Amārasyā and, as indicated above, the most suitable time for the performance of the sraddha of relatives at Gaya. Unfortunately there were no less than three kings named Narasimha in the Hoysala dynasty of Dorasamudra, all of whom flourished in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The reign of Narasinha I, son of Vishnuvardhana, is now assigned to c. 1141-73 A.D., while his grandson Narasimha II and the latter's grandson Narasimha III are supposed to have ruled respectively in c. 1220-35 A.D. and c. 1254-91 A.D. There is, however, a clue in the second of the two
1 The akshara looking like tho is redundant. * Sandhi has been avoided here for the sake of the metre. Better rond chu-edanim. • There is a syn bol here at the end of the writing. *This is registered as No. 126 of A. R. Ep., 1967-68, Appondix 13. C4. Bomb. Gaz., Vol. I, Partii, p. 490. See Coelho, The Hoysala Vams, pp. 115, 169, 198,
