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JAINA KPIGRAPHS : PART 1
249
beyond all doubt that it is this game Alande, which, acoording to an inscription from Ablūr, was the native place of Ekāntada Rāmayya who championed the Saivite movement with great zeal in the latter part of the 12th century A. D.'
A. small area within the A.lande province was known as Gonka's One Hundred and Twenty. This tract included 120 villages and apparently derived its name from Gonka, an early ancestor of the chiefs who claimed their descent in the lineage of Nābhirāja as shown above. The region of Goñka is met with in lines 19 and 47. A subdivision of this region comprising nearly half of it and containing 60 villages was being governed separately by Mahāmaņdalēśvara Bibbarasa who, as seen above, was a descendent of Gonka. This territorial unit situated as it was in the province of Alande is referred to as its kampana, i. e., subdivision in l. 47.
The following seven villages situated in the subdivision of Sixty seem to have been under the direct control of Chaudhare Rakkasayya. They are Hadangile, two Melakundes, Maņali, Kolanūru, Belaguppa aud Mülavalli (1. 48). Of these Hadangile is identical with modern Huñasi-Hadagali, the provenance of the present epigraph. The two Melakundes are represented by the present-day Hire (i. e., big) Melakundi and Chikka (i. e., small) Melakundi, Maņali by Malli, Kolanūru by Kollūru, Belaguppa by Belaguppi and Mūlavalli by Munalli. The villages Piriya Melakunde, Alūru, Nilanūru and Hattikunde which are mentioned while defining the boundaries of the gift land (11. 52–53) may easily be identified with modern Hire Melakundi, Alūru, Nilūru and Hattakundi respectively. All these villages are situated within a radius of about twelve miles from Huñasi-Hadagali, some of them being quite closeby. The measurement of the gift land is stated to have been made according to the local standard specified as that of Kalumbarage (1. 51). This place is to be identified with modern Gulbarga, the headquarters of the district. This is mentioned as Kalabarage in later records. It may be noted in this connection that the earlier and inore familiar name of the town still used persistently in common parlance by the people is Kalbargi. This name has evidently been Persianised into Gulbarga during the Mohammadan regime.
Reverting to the names outside Karnāțaka, Dhārā (1. 44) is identical with the present-day Dhár in Mālwā. Jajjugi (1. 44) which seems to denote Jõja-bhukti or Jõjaka-bhukti, is Bundelkhand. Kõțitirtha (1. 45), according to the Matsyapurāņa (Chapter 101), was a sacred place situated on the bank of the river Narmadā. How it derived this name is explained by the following story. Near this place, we are told, took place a great battle between the Dēvas and the Dānavas (gods and demons ), in which a crore of the latter were killed. Subsequently, the gods installed the god Siva under the name
1 Ep. Ind., Vol. V, p. 246. 32
