________________
JAINA EPIGRAPHS: PART II
289
few palaeographical peculiarities worthy of special attention. The use of spirals as a mark of punctuation in a majority of cases to denote the end of a passage in verse or prose may be noted. The outstanding orthographical convention of the age, viz., the doubling of the latter member of a conjunct consonant made up of r, is generally adhered to. With the exception of the opening verse in Sanskrit, the language of the record is Kannada verse and prose. The writing is not free from clerical mistakes and these have been corrected in the body of the text itself.
Commencing with an invocation to the Boar-incarnation of Vishnu, the charter proceeds to describe the geographical position of the Bharatakshetra as in Inscriptions 2 and 4. This is followed by the genealogical account of the Chalukya princes, who ruled in this country. The genealogy starts with Taila II, who founded the later line of the Western Chalukya Dynasty of Kalyāṇa and is brought down to the last ruler of the house, Tribhuvanamalla (Sōmēśvara IV). The record then states that he was ruling over the kingdom and that under his rule the Kuntala country was enjoying the fruits of peace and prosperity. The Kuntala country included a tract known as Aṛal Nāḍů or the district of Aral. This region presented a picturesque spectacle with its natural resources and thriving villages and towns. Sēḍimba was a notable town in the Aral district. It was distinguished by the large number of its temples. Its fortifications were strong and impregnable and its administrators, the Three Hundred Mahājanas, ensured security within its walls to persons seeking protection in times of distress. They had a leader named Chandirāja. He was a man of great ability and many sterling virtues. He claimed to be a devout adherent of the Jaina faith. He constructed a splendid gate-way with towering bastion, which was considered to be a fitting monument to his fair name and high reputation.
It may be seen from the above brief summary of the contents of the inscription that unlike the usual manner of inscriptions, this epigraph does not constitute a charter of gift. The main object of the document is to record the construction of the bastion. This occasion has been utilised to commemorate the event by a description of the circumstantial details. The opportunity has also been seized for paying a tribute to the councillors of the town and their chief who was primarily responsible for the construction.
But for the departure noted above, the inscription falls in line with the general conventions of epigraphical records. Reviewing the genealogical account contained in the epigraph we may notice one discrepancy. After describing Nurmaḍi Kshitipa in verse it proceeds to praise Tribhuvanamalladēva in the next verse. Any student who is familiar with the history of the Western Chalukya family of Kalyāņa, will easily see that
37
