________________
82
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MARCH ), 1872.
By him. In the circle of his vassals [there is am assured by Prof. Keru Lakshman Chhatre that Kanna Sâmanta) whose titles are Prosperity, he the calculations by which he arrived at these results trho has obtained the five great words, the Mahasd- were carefully inade, and admit of no doubt as to manta, beloved of victory, death to the forces of his their accuracy. If, then, the date given in the grant enemy, disperser of hostile fellow-vassals as a gust be according to the old Vikrama e, it corresponds of wind is of the clouds, a lion among his elephant- to the 30th of September 51, B.C. (N.S.) Bat to set like inimical Samantas, the Bentekára, Magarakirti against this coincidence, there is, in the first place, navasára, the Bantarabhavaş devoteel of Revana, the appearance of the characters which is decidedly ............ pure in his family, the chief friend of the inodern. In fact with the exception of the letters good worshipper of Truth like the son of Yama, T T. . . , TT , T. , and 57. Turagarevata,tt brave as a lion, propitiator of the and as many compound letters, the whole of feet of Shrimat Tribhuvana Malladeva, - Kanna Saman- the inscription may be read with little difficulty ta'to wit]. This is a benediction for him :-Victory by any one acquainted only with the modern form to Shri Kanna Samanta, devoted to the worship of of the Devanagari alphabet used in the Dekhan. I the feet of Hara, who manipulates the breasts of the have seen, in the district of Kalâdgi, several inscripPrincess of the Latas, and who is ever death to his tions in Devanagari characters about ten or eleven enemies.
centuries old, and I invariably found the characters To him are sold it for the full consideration and present a much more ancient appearance than those delivered (literally given the twelve villages of in the present inscription. Of course it will not Váyvadı, the village called Takkalikų being ex- always be safe in assigning dates to ancient inscripcepted from them. His (Munja's) ministers [being] tions and documents, to be guided entirely by the Shri Khambhayya Nayaka, Madhukari Nayaka the appearance of the characters, when it is ofter minister entrusted with War and Peace, Bhammay- found that one and the same alphabet presents conya Nayaka, Nimbaya Ndyaka, in their presence, siderable variety in the shape of its letters as used having caused this copper-plate grant to be written in different parts of the country even at the saine by Nannapai, the assistant to the Minister of War time, and that individual peculiarities of a writer's and Peace, King Shri Munja by his own hand deli- or engraver's style of writing may account for a vered it to Kanna Samanta. [Now] that stanza : good deal of variety of form. But the forms of the
Whoever should resume land whether given by letters in the stone inscriptions of the seventh, eighth bimself or by others lives as an insect in filth for and ninth centuries after Christ, still extant in sixty thousand years.'
the Kaládgi district, which formed part of the
ChAlukya territories, are so much more ancient than Remarks.
those of the present Devanagari alphabet, and even At first sight the words Shri Vikramakála San- than those of this copper-plate, that if the latter vatsareshu shatou atiteshu saptme dundubhisainvat- really belonged to the first century before Christ, sare pravartamáne might be supposed to indicate its letters should be of far more ancient forms the Samvat era of Vikrams, and the inscription than those of the stone inscriptions. states that the 6th year of theers having passed, and In the second place, the King of the Chathe seventh having commenced on the first day of lukya dynasty, in whose reign the grant is stated the Shukla half of the month of Kartika, the grant to have been made is well known, and belongs was made on that day. Now the Sampat year to the branch of that dynasty, which reigned commences from the first of the Shukla half of the at Kaly&ns from about the end of the tenth month of Kartika : further inore this day falls ! to near the end of the twelfth century of on Sunday in the seventh year of the era, and
v in the seventh vear of the era, and the Christian era. Mr. Elliot's paper on Hindu Dundubhi is also the name of the seventh year of Inscriptions mentions a King Vikramaditya the cycle according to the method of naming the II. or Kali Vikrama, or Param&dirfya, who cycle of years followed north of the Narmada. I assumed the title of Tribhuvana Malla,
• The original distinctly reads Sabharasdmantayhasapa- for Revanadepatam, and if so, Revans must be the name of falavighalana prabhanjanam, of which the translation given some local deity. Revana is not infrequently proper name above is an approximate guess, but is open to cor- Among the lower classes in the Karnataka. rection. If the epithet is not corrupt, it seems difficult
Here there occurs a long expression which I read as how Sabhata should mean inimical." It is possible that
Kurapatihitachayánachaliladhairya, but which I cannot glasapa ala may be a mistake for ghanopaala.
translate intelligibly. + This is an ancient Cmarese word, the modern form of which is besigara or berikára. It means a sportsman, a
** The original Dharmadharmatmajasayarddheya appears hunter.
bea mistake for Dharmadharmdem jasatynrdd ac ya or Dhar
madharmdimajasatyarddheya. The son of Yama is Dharma 1 I do not know what this epithet means. Literally it
the eldest of the Pandavas. Yams is also called Dharmit signifies the new essence of Lae fame of an alligator.
# Rich in horses? Baytarabhdpa-Banta is a Canarese word, and means & hero. Banlara is its genitive plural, and with the Sanskrit 11 The original Krayaddnapúrtakammdemlyamanneyahonorific hiper, the epithet seems to mean the honourable (angeya ! for anyadiya) -sámyam is rather doubtful if not hero,' or rather the essence (ohdpa) of the heroes,' i. e. the corrupt. The letters, however, are perfectly clear in the greatest hero.
inscription. Revanadevana in the original, which may be a mistake Published in the Journal Royal Asiatic Society, vol. IV.
