Indian Antiquary Vol 10

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 48

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36
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[FEBRUARY, 1881.
7. Vatsada man their son.
V ach chhik å had also another son whose name is lost. She built a temple to Vishna, which it seems to have been the object of this inscription to record.
We have no mention of this dynasty elsewhere; but, from the vicinity of the place both to Amber and Mathurà, it was probably only a petty feudatory family subordinate to one or other of these places.
THE MAHAVALI DYNASTY.
BY LEWIS RICE, M.R.A.S. Some time ago, when at Srinivaspara king named Ma ha vali Banarasa, of the in the east of Maisur, I was led to a wild tract Maha vali-kula, who were door-keepers ; called Galgan pode, near which is the re (pratihara) to Paramesvara adored by all three puted site of an ancient city, now known as worlds as the lord over gods (sura) and giants Haralu kôte. There are scarcely any traces (asura). It relates how an officer named Vi. left, except mounds and bits of broken potteryyala Vijya dhara was ordered to attack here and there, but small coins are said to be an enemy named Marigåra and slew him. washed up after heavy rain. The place is all But being compelled by the difficult ground to jangle and surrounded by the low flat hills dismount and pursue the enemy's force on foot, characteristic of the auriferous tract which runs he was himself killed, and a grant was made of along the right bank of the Pâlâr to beyond the village of Kula Nellor as a means of the limits of Maisur, and which indeed is said livelihood for his family. to commence with a cave at the north-eastern The second inscription is of the reign of angle of the site in question. In a ditch I found Mah & vali Banara s a, who seems on fragments of a pillar with a Pallava inscrip- account of his victories to have been called tion dated Saka 690.
Vikramaditya, and to whom other kings But at Gülgånpode, seeing what appeared to gave the celebrated name of B & na Vijyi. be the edge of a large slab of stone standing a dhara. It records how Pekkiri Vorafew inches out of the ground, I made an ex- doga R A ja was sent against a force besieging cavation, and was gratified with the discovery Mavindi-uru and compelled it to retreat. of the two massive stones, with inscriptions on But while pursuing the enemy, his eagerness them, of which the accompanying facsimiles was such that his troops could not keep up with were taken by photography. They prove to him; hence, though securing the victory, he be grants in Pârvada Hale Kannada, the oldest lost his life. A grant of land for the support form of the Karnataka language, made during of his family was in consequence made, apthe reign of kings of the Mah å vali dynasty. parently by his followers. They are engraved in bold and deep-cut charac- These inscriptions, it seems to me, are not less ters, as if the work of giant hands, and have important in securing from oblivion a line of been weli preserved by accidental burial in the kings that ruled over a part of India historically ground. They bear no religious emblems, but most interesting, than cariously suggestive in one has a sort of ornamental floral device at the resemblances of their proper names, and top. The marks of great antiquity presented in valuable for the study of ancient forms of the the absence of sectarian symbols, the simplicity language. and brevity of the inscriptions, and the ancient Mah å vali is the same as Mahabali, after forms of the letters, are borne out by the obsolete whom Mahabalipur, known as the Seven and obscure expressions used in them. One Pagodas,' situated about thirty miles south of contains a couplet which appears to be a quota- Madras on the Coromandel coast, is said to tion of some proverb or popular maxim, of have been named, as it is called on the spot which the meaning is far from clear, and which Må valivaram, or as some state MâvalaI am inclined to think is about the oldest speci- varam. In the inscriptions at the place it is men of Canarese that has yet come to light. | called Må mallaiparamor Mamallapuram,
The first inscription belongs to the reign of a and Jananathapuram.' Mahâbali or Bali, The first in 41 ft. square, the second 6 ft. by 4 ft., and See Carr's Sev. Pag. pp. 111, 66, 118, 132, 141.
· Oihana more in thialnace