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JAINA EPIGRAPHS: PART II
251 six syllables, viz., pempina chaudhare are superfluous and they should be omitted to avoid the metrical anomaly. The 4th pada of the same verse is again faulty and it may be set right if we read gunań-golgun as gunań-golugur. In the next verse (17) there is a hitch about the termination proper. This oan be overcome if we read the last word as manujar (ending in consonant) instead of manujaru (ending in vowel').
The epigraph contains a large number of words and expressions which offer an interesting study in social history and language. A noteworthy feature of phonetic transformation wherein the consonant , is changed to I may be traced in the following few instances. They are mikk-z da in l. 37, Tulāpurusham ildu in l. 45 and paduvaluv-ilda in 1. 52. In these expressions the second component is ildau, being past participle of the root ir. Such instances however are not peculiar to this record alone. They are more or less common and found in inscriptions from the 7th to the 12th century A. D.
It is not easy to derive or explain the etyinological significance of the terin Chaudhare which denotes either a title or a designation of Rakkasayya, occurring in lines 36 and 47. This word is met with elsewhere in the Kannada inscriptions of this period. Its other variants are Chaudore, Saudore, etc. Subsequently, the expression is found more commonly used in North India, in the form of Chaudhari which means 'a headman of a trade or caste, a village chief, an officer of a royal guard', etc. The expression "Sahavāsi' occurring in this record and in other inscriptions of Karnāțaka, denotes a class or community. Bhivaņayya of the present epigraph was a Sahavāsi as gleaned from his epithet, Sahavāsiga!-adhishthāyaka. According to an inscription from Lakshmāśvar he also bore the epithet Kāśmiravishayamukhamaņdana. This is reminiscent of his connection with Kāśmira. From this and other epigraphical allusions to the effect, it becomes clear that the Sahavāsis hailed from Kāśmira." Two authors in Kannada, Ranganātha and Niranjanāvadhūta, who lived circa in the 17th century A. D., claim their descent in the Sahavāsi cominunity.
Tulāpurusha is a gift of gold or valuables to an amount equivalent to the weight of the donor and it is reckoned foremost among the sixteen Mahādānas of Brahmanical traditions. The expression tushțidāna' or propitiatory gift, used in this connection, is not familiarly known from other sources.
The word beļļavāsa in l. 31 appears to convey the sense of 'naked ness'. Bella usually means 'white' and in its extended application it may further
1 Ep. Ind. Vol. XVI, p. 33. 2 Compare Kannada Sähitya Parishat Patrike, Vol. XXVI, No. 1, pp. 76 ff. In this article
the origin of the Sahavāsis is discussed in details. 3 Karṇātaka Kavicharite, Vol. II, pp. 490 and 541. 4 It is interesting to note that the expression bellaväsa is met with in the sense of
'nakedness' in the Dharmaurita of Nayasēna (p. 107). This shows that it was current in the language at one time,
