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rent state of preservation. ii) An image of a Tīrthakara lying in a neglect ed condition near the temple of the god Kallinātha (Siva). ii) A mutilated stone-pedestal of a Tirthakara bearing finely carved figures of lions. Lion being the emblem of the last Tirthakara, viz., Mahāvīra, the pedestal must have been originally associated with the lost image of the deity. Damaged syllables of an epigraph were traced on this pedestal (Inscription No. 52).
ΚοΡΒΑΣ This highly interesting town has been the scene of my explorative activities more than once; and I have ransacked the antiquities of this place some time in collaboration with local friends interested in research and some time single-handed. The place has also been visited by other scholars and members of the Archaeological Department, Hyderabad. Some articles and monographs containing the results of their findings have been published so far. As is often the case in such circumstances, it becomes difficult to apportion or assign the credit of such discoveries among the different individuals, since their efforts severally and jointly contribute to the sum total of the results. For instance, some of the discoveries which could be claimed as belonging exclusively to the present writer, have been incorporated in his article entitled Kopana-Koppala by the late Shri. N. B. Shastri of Kopbal. For the simple reason that most of the inscriptions discovered at Kopbal were copied and studied also by myself, simultaneously with other explorers, I have included them in my present collection, in addition to such epigraphs as are to be credited solely to my personal account. In this way, the total number of inscriptions hailing from this place, edited in Part III of this volume exceeds all the inscriptions hitherto published or noticed by other scholars.
In regard to the epigraphical material from Kopbal set forth in detail in this volume the following special features deserve to be emphasised. i) This is the first systematic endeavour of its kind to bring together all the Jaina epigraphs of the holy place. ii) Some of the inscriptions were never noticed before and they are being published here for the first time. iii) The readings and interpretations of certain epigraphs given here differ materially in certain respects form those of other scholars who have published them. These have been discussed at length in their proper places.
Now I shall take a bird's-eye-view of the principal antiquities of the place with a view to assess its importance. In the prehistoric age of the early millenniums before the advent of the Christian Era, the bills and valleys adjoining this town appear to have been inhabited by a human race of pigmies as testified by the presence, to the present day, of their funeral relics such
1 Kannada Sahitya Parishat Patrike, Vol. XXII, No. 3 ( 1938).
