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102
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1881.
Saptatiku, with commentary by Mal&- ya iri; 205 11.
66. Sarasvatikanthábharana by Sribhoja deva, incomplete; 353 ll.
67. Siddhahemachandra-sabdánusúsana-rahasyavritti (i, e. laghuvritti), Adhy. III, 3-IV, 4. 62 11.
68. Süryasataka with Commentary; 47 11. 69. Sthanangasútra ; 210 11. 70. A work in Magadhî the proper title of
which I have not discovered ; 214 ll. Last leaf missing.
71. A MS. of 186 11. containing 10 Jain works.
72. A MS. of 203 11. containing 7 Jain works. 73. A MS. of 18 11. containing 3 Jain works.
74. A MS. of 190 11. containing about 20 Jain works.
75. A MS. of 189 11. containing about 25 Jain works.
· SANSKRIT AND OLD-CANARESE INSCRIPTIONS.
BY J. F. FLEET, Bo. O. S., M.R.A.S.
(Continued from p. 67.) No. XCIV.
| Hindu conception of those beings, one on each About three miles away over the hills to the jamb of the portal ; they are still known by the east of Badami there is a temple, or rather a names of Vâtapi and Ilvala, and are intended as collection of temples, known by the name of statues of those persons. Mahákůta. The presiding god of the locality About ten yards to the east of this gateway is Mahâkûtêkvara, or Siva of the mountain which there lies a large close-grained red-sandstone has a high summit, or perhaps of the temple monolith pillar. It is about 1' 9 in diameter. which has a high pinnacle. The style of the and has sixteen sides or faces. It measures buildings, though they are of no architectural about 14 6' in height, exclusive of the kalasa or beauty, as well as the inscriptions, stamp it capital. The latter lies close by; it is about as a place of considerable antiquity. And the 1'7" high, and is of a circular shape, about local tradition, as recorded in the Muhákúta- 28}" in diameter, with thirty-six deep flutes all Mahátmya, is that this was the scene of the de- round it, and with a square top. For about struction of the demon brothers Vâtapi and 32' up from the bottom the pillar is covered Ilvala by the saint Agastya, which myth is with an inscription in Old-Canarese characters ailotted in the Puranas to some unspecified of the sixth or seventh century A. D. There place in the Vindhya mountains. This much are seventeen lines of writing, evidently runis certain, that the name of Vatâpi is in some ning all round the pillar; the letters are about way or other most anciently connected with the an inch high, and average four on each face of locality for it was the name of Bidami itself the pillar. The inscription is too much abraded when it was first acquired by the Western to be read on the stone; an ink-impression of Chalukyas, and when it was held by the Pallavas it would probably give good results; but neither before them. And it is possible that in this could I raise the pillar, nor had I the means of legend of Vâtapi and Ilvala, neither of which taking an ink-impression at my visit. words has an Aryan appearance or sound, and Inside the courtyard, towards the east end of for neither of which & satisfactory Sanskrit it, there is a large sacred masonry tank called derivation can be found, there are preserved Vishnu-pushkarini, or 'the lotus-pool of the god the names of two aboriginal kings who held Vishņu'; it measures about seventy-three feet this part of the country when Aryan civilisa- long by forty-six feet broad, and has a stream tion first made its way into it from the north. of running water always passing through it.
The temples are in a courtyard, the chief Not far from the steps on the west side of the entrance to which is at the north-east corner of pool, there stands in the water a linga-shrine, it. On each side of the gateway there is a with & panchamukhalinga, or five-faced linga, large, almost life-size, figure of a Rakshasa or inside it; there are four rather well executed demon, sculptured in accordance with the usual human faces round the top of the linga, and the
The place of which I am writing is on the boundaries of Badmi and Nandikwar. I was told that this is the smaller or later Mahakata, and that, Dearer to Nandikeswar,
there is another temple of the same name, which is supposed to be the older and original Mahakata. I was unable. however, to explore any further in that direction.
