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886
JAINISM IN SOUTH INDIA
INSCRIPTION NO. 17
(Found in a temple at Harasür) This inscription was found at Harasūr. It was incised on a large slab of stone set up in a neglected Jaina temple. Most of the record was damaged and worn out. A few words and expressions that were legible here and there have been picked up and put together in the following text. The inscription must have been fairly big extending over a large number of lines. But on account of its effaced condition it was not possible to take proper account of them. I saw another slab of stone set up in the same temple, which, also, must have contained an inscription. But it was so completely wiped out that I could not make out even a single word in it. I learnt later on from the priest of the temple that he himself had wilfully rubbed out these inscriptions in desperation; for he was constantly harassed by the treasure-hunting Bairāgis on the one side and the residents of other communities in the village on the other.
The inscription is engraved in Kannada characters of about the 12th century A. D. The language is Kannada. The epigraph commences with a prayer to the commandment of Lord Jina. Next it seems to have contained a genealogical account of the kings of the Western Chālukya dynasty of Kalyāņa, brought down to the reigning king Tribhuvanamalladēva or Vikramāditya VI. This seems to have been followed by a description of the Mahājanas of the place. It is gathered from other inscriptions in the locality that this village was an agrahāra in the 12th century A. D. and was known by the name Śālega Simaļa. After this we come across a lady named Kāļikabbe and a member of the mercantile community, named Kāļisetti. These persons figure in another contemporary record of the place, from which we know that the latter was the son of the former and that they were Vaisya by caste. It seems, they were Jaina by persuasion. Now comes the date portion most of which is unfortunately lost. The inscription mentions a regnal year of the king [Tribhuvana ]malladēva, and the cyclic year Dhātu. As the king reigned from A. D. 1076 to 1126 the cyclic year Dhātu was the one which corresponded with a. D. 1096-97. The king must have been residing at Jayantīpura or Banavāsi at that time as may be gathered from a reference to the place. The record also speaks of a faudatory chief, who bore the titles, Mahāmaņdalēśvara and Kopanapuravarādbīśvara (overlord of the foremost town of Kopaña which is modern Kopbal in the Hyderabad State).
TEXT ...............m= astu........................ bhavya-janānāṁ...................... ................Chālukya-pratāpa-chakri
..................vipra-samkuladim ......
