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JUNE, 1890.]
MANTUR INSCRIPTION OF JAYASIMHA III.
161
SANSKRIT AND OLD-KANARESE INSCRIPTIONS.
BY J. F. FLEET, Bo.C.S., M.R.A.S., C.I.E. No. 188. - MANTUR INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF JAYASIMHA III. - SAKA-SAMVAT 962. T HIS inscription is now brought to notice for the first time. I edit it from an ink-impres1 sion made for me, in 1882, by Mr. Gevind Gangadhar Deshpande, of the Bombay Educational Department.
Mantar is a village about seven miles to the north-east of Mudhol, the chief town of the Native State of Midhol in the so-called Southern Marâthâ Country, Bombay Presidency; in the map, Indian Atlas, Sheet No. 41, it is entered as Mantoor,' in Lat. 16° 24', Long. 75o 26'. It is mentioned in line 16 under the name of Deyvada-Mantur. The inscription is on & stone-tablet at a temple of Lakshmi in this village.
of the emblems at the top of the stone, the only ones reported to me are a linga and a cow and calf. - The extant writing covers a space of about 1'8'' broad by 3' 1?" high. With the exception of the last six lines, it is in a state of very good preservation, and is legible very clearly and without any doubt. But after the thirty-fifth line, the remainder of the stone has been broken away and lost. Also from line 21 on the proper right side, and line 9 on the proper left, down to the bottom, parts of the stone have been broken away; 60 that in line 30 only thirteen letters remain out of about twenty-six; and it is not worth while to offer any transcription of the remaining five lines. The characters are the so-called Old-Kanarese characters, of the regular type of the period and locality to which the inscription refers itself. They include, in lines 5 and 6, the decimal figures 2, 5, 6, and 9. The virama is represented only by its own proper sign. The average size of the letters in the first six lines is about 1", but after that it diminishes to about " at the end of the record. The engrav. ing is bold and excellent. -The language is Old-Kanarese. As far as line 21, the inscription is in prose; from there, certainly as far as line 30, and perhaps to the end of the extant portion, it is in verse. — The orthography presents nothing calling for special notice.
The inscription refers itself to the reign of the Western Chalukya king Jayasimha III., who is here mentioned by his biruda of Jagadekamalladeva. And it then mentious, evidently as one of his feudatories, the Ratta Mahasamanta Eroyammarasa or Erega, who also had the name or biruda of Senang-Garuda or the Garuda of Sina.'It is non-sectarian; the object of it being only to record a grant for the purposes of a well.
In addition to mentioning the village of Mantar under the name of Deyvada-Mantur, which stands for Daivada- or Devvada-Mantur, and means Mantûr of the demon or evil Spirit, or haunted Mantûr,' this inscription mentions a town named Pottaļakere, as a nelevídu or capital of Jayasimha III. This name occars in other records also. In an inscription at Balagârve in Maisûr (Páli, Sansksit, and old-Kanarese Inscriptions, No. 155, line 10, and Elliot MS. Collection, Vol. I. p. 59), it is mentioned as & nelevidu of Jayasimha III. himself. In a
1 For some similar names, see Gupta Inscriptions, p. 188, end of noto 1 commepeing on p. 186.
1 Possibly Mantar was formerly some such place as now is the well-known NaraokwAlt in the Kolapur Stato, at the junction of the Krisbps and the Pañebaganga (it is shewn in the map, Indian Atla..aheet No. 10, MurobA. waree'). Here there is a small but celebrated shrine of Dattatreya, with impressions of his feet. Possessed people are placed in front of the impressions, exoroisms are performed, and the spirits with which they are possessed immediately quit them. And though the place is thus fall of these spirita (Marathi, bhat; Kanaroso, devva), ita influence is so holy that they do not afflict any of the residents.
See ante, Vol. XII. p. 110 f.
In the Elliot M8. Collection, the transcription gives vottalakere, with the vowel e in the third syllable. In the photograph this syllable in a little indistinot; but I conclude that the vowel must be e, as is very distinctly the case in the Mantor and Almel inscriptions; and I notice that Mr. Rice in his translation of this inscription has taken the vowel as a (Myaore Inscriptions, p. 146). The first component of the name, pogtala, is also written potla, poffana, and pota, and seems to be used here in the meaning of a kind of syringe used in discharging the Olux.' The latter word, Okul meana (1) a mixture of chunam, turmeric, and water, forming a red liquid which is squirted upon people at a festival; and (2) a ceremony, in which an idol is placed by a vat filled with the above mixture, with which a BrAhman sprinkles the idol, and dancing-girls &c. sprinkle each other and the spectators.
