Indian Antiquary Vol 61

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 49

FEBRUARY, 1932)
MISCELLANEA
39
MISCELLANEA. RECENT DISCOVERIES OF EDICTS OF ASOKA. spending eight days in a thorough examination of the
Through the courtesy of the Director of Archeo. area. One of the other inscriptions referred to by logy, H. E. H. the Nigam's Dominions, we are able Mr. Sastri turned out to be a Kanarese record, but to refer to the discovery of two new Rock Edicte in the second, incised on the bare rock on the higheet the Brahmi script at Kopbal (the Koppal of the point of the PAlki Gund hill (2,339 ft. above s.l.) India Survey shoots) in the extreme south-west proved to be an Asokan minor rock ediet, of which corner of the Nizam's territory.
only five linea remained traceable, the remainder The town of kopbal, or Koppal, the ancient name having been wom away by weathering of the rock. of which appears from a Kanarese inscription on Excellent photographic records were made of thia the Candra Bandi rock within the outer fort walls inscription and of the longer one on the Gavi Math to have been Kopananagara, lies about 21 miles hill : and these have been submitted to an expert west of the ruins of Vijayanagars and rather more for decipherment and publication in due course. than a mile from the east bank of the Hire Halla The local evidence indicates that both these sites river, one of the northern tributarios of the Tunge- were originally Buddhist, but later on passed into bhadra. The town nestles beneath a towering mass the possonsion of the Jaing, Kanarese records of granitio rock of irregular quadrilateral shape, showing that Jaina anchorites had settled there which rises abruptly to a height of some 400 feet for contemplation. above it (or 2,219 ft. above sea level). This mass of In this connexion it should be noted that some rock with precipitous cliffs all round formed &
two years earlier a very important discovery had natural fortress, which was further strengthened by been made of complete recension of the Rock massive walls and battlements guarding every pos- Edicts of Aboka near Yerragudi (the Erragudi of the sible line of assault and rendering it well nigh impreg. Survey sheet) about & miles north by west from nable before the use of heavy artillery. In fact, in Gooty in the Karnal district, and about 95 miles 1790 it withatood for six months a siege by the
in & direct line to the east of Kopbal. These adicta British and their allies operating against Tipů have not yet been published, but it is understood Sultan, when Sir John Maloolm, then a subaltern in that a fairly detailed and illustrated account of them the besioging army, described it as the strongest will appear later in the Annual Report, 4. 8. 1. place he had till then noon. Adjoining this fortress Besides these more recent discoveries, it will be rehill on the wont and south-west is a range of hills, membered, a rock inscription was discovered by Mr. the highest point of which, just a milo due west of Beadon in 1916 at Maski in the Raichar district of the town, is known as Paiki Gund (the palanquin the Nigam's Dominions, which lies about 45 miles boulder from its shapo. About half a mile to the
north-east of Kopbal, and three rock inscriptions east of the Kopbal fort is a small rocky hill rising
were found by Mr. B. L. Rice in 1892 at Siddapura, some 150 foet above the surrounding level, known
Brahmagiri and Jaţioga-Rámokvara in the Molkalas the Gavi Math hill, containing four caves; while
muru taluq of the Chitaldrug district in the Mysore about it miles south-east of the fort is another
State, about the same distance to the south ast isolated rocky hill, which had also been strongly of kopbal. Thus there have been found up to date fortified, called Bahadur Bands (the Bahadarabanda
Abokan inscriptions at no less than seven sites of the Survey sheet). Good views of the Kopbal
within a circle of less than fifty miles in radius, six and Bahadur Banda forts will be found in the
of which lie in the central basin of the Tungabhadro, Journal of the Hyderabad Archeological Society,
and one (Erragudi) just outside that basin. This Jan. 1916, p. 94 (Plates XXVIII and XXIX).
cluster, if it may be so doncribed, of Atoka's edicts is On the rock beneath a large boulder over a natural remarkable, inasmuch as the only other records of cavern that had been adapted as a cave on the Gavi the great Mauryan emperor hitherto found to the Mathi hill a Rock Ediet of 8 lines of Brahmi charac- south of the Vindhyas are thome at Gunar, Sopara ters has now been found. The existence of this (fragmentary), Rūpn&th, Dhauli and Jaugade, hun. inscription had been known to the local Lingayata, dreds of miles away. I have drawn rough sketch by whom the site is held sacred, for some time, but map showing all those sites, as well as a sketch of it was not till January 1931 that the Guru of the Kopbal and its vicinity showing the PAlkf Gund nath drew to it the attention of Mr. N. R. Sastri, and Gevi Math hills, where the latest finds have & resident of Kopbal who is interested in the ancient been made. history of the loonlity, suggesting that it was a Though it be quite possible, if not probable, that Tamil rocord. Mr. Sastri sent a communication to other records in intermediate looalitice still await the Archmological Department, adding that two discovery, the occurrence of woven rock inscriptions other Brahms inscriptions had also been found in this comparatively wall area nema to indicate Mr. Yazdani, Director of Archaeology, at once took that special attention had been given to it, whether steps to have all the local inscriptions examined, as a stronghold of Buddhism at the time or, which and he himself proceeded to Kopbal in Juno last, seems more probable, as a frontior eros of particular
1 As a Memoir, Arch. Dept., H. E. H. the Nizam's Dominions, shortly to appear.