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JLANA EPIGRAPHS: PART III
No details, however, are forthcoming in regard to this Gudḍagala Chandappa or the teacher Chandrasena. As stated before, the inscription speaks of the setting up of the Nishidhi memorial. Here in this case, and in a few others which we shall presently examine, the expression Nishidhi refers to the inscription itself; and this may be taken as a kind of memorial; for, apart from the present record and except for the carvings described above, no relic of a structure or any construction could be traced on the hill or in the vicinity.
1 Śri-Kopaṇada
2 Chamdrasēna-dēva
855
Another important aspect of the inscription lies in its reference to the ancient name of the place itself. Though modern Kopbal has been identified with ancient Kopana, on the strength of a volume of circumstantial evidence, this record constitutes the only piece of authentic epigraphical document hailing from the same locality that attests the seal of absolute confirmation on the issue.
TEXT
3 ra gudda Guda(dd)gala 4 Chamdappana ni5 sidhi [*]
7.8
INSCRIPTION No. 27
(Found on a Hill-rock at Kopbal)
TRANSLATION
This is the memorial set up in honour of the late Guḍdagala Chamdappa, a lay disciple of the teacher Chandrasenadeva and a resident of the illustrious town of Kopana.
This inscription was found on a rock of the hill adjacent to the fort area at Kopbal. It is incised at a distance of a few yards away from the previous inscription (No. 26). The epigraph is worn out on account of long exposure to the sun and rain and only faint traces of the writing have been preserved.
The record, is brief comprising six short lines. It is engraved in the Kannada alphabet and the language also is Kannada. The characters bear the stamp of a later period. The epigraph contains no date; but we might ascribe it to the 13th century A. D., judging by the standards of palaeography. The purpose of the record is to perpetuate the memory of a person named Payana who died according to the Jaina religious rite of Sallekhanā. Pāyaṇa was a lay disciple of a divine who belonged to the Mula Samgha and Sēna gana, The name of the teacher is lost. The epigraph seems to contain a few more details in regard to the deceased person, but they are not legible.
