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294
JAINISM IN SOUTH INDIA
Ingalgi inscription (No. 1). Similar allusions to the region may be noted in the Inscriptions of Nāgāi, B, C and D.' The learned editor of these inscriptions has failed to identify the place, Aralūru, which was the headquarters of the district. But it is beyond doubt that it is represented by the modern village Allūru which is situated in the Chitāpur taluk and contains ancient temples and inscriptions. We are further informed by the present record (verse 11) that this area was the home of the chiefs born in the Ahihaya lineage, who were ruling in this region. As pointed out in the introductory remarks on the Ingalgi epigraph (No. 1), there is a reference to a ruling chief of this family in that record. The genealogical account of the chiefs is found in an unpublished inscriptions at Handarki in my private collection. One of the published inscriptions form Nāgāi also contains the genealogy of these Ahihaya or Haihaya chiefs.
We may now turn to the literary side of the inscription. Except for the invocatory verse in Sanskrit, the record is composed in Kannada and the major portion of it is in verse. The only noteworthy passage in prose is the eulogy of the Three Hundred Mahājanas of Sēờimba. But this is only a repetition of a similar passage found in the foregoing epigraphs of this collection (Nos. 3 and 5). Many of the verses dealing with the genealogical account of the Chalukya sovereigns and some of the stanzas extolling the citadel of Sodimba and its heroic custodians are already familiar to us on account of their occurrence in the previous inscriptions (Nos. 4 and 5). The remaining passages that are new and worth considering here are the geographical descriptions of the Kuntala country and the district of Aral, and verses devoted to the praise of the president of the town assembly and the bastion constructed by him.
It may be observed from the above analysis of its contents, that the task of the composer of this record has been like that of a renovator who builds a new edifice on an old framework. The skill of the renovator consists in seeing that his new construction fits in with the earlier piece of art. Judging on the whole, it has to be said to the credit of the poet-author of our epigraph that he has succeeded to a large extent in maintaining the reputation. We do not know who composed the descriptive verses on Sēdimba met with in the preceding epigraphs which are dated about a generation earlier. We are equally in dark regarding the composer of the present inscription, whoever he be. Anyway, the old verses were there handed down froin the predecessors. The present poet took them up, inserted them suitably in his new composition and presented the whole as a uniform piece of decent literary production,
1 Hyderabad Archaeological Series, No. 8. 2 Ibid, p. 26,
