________________
JAINA EPIGRAPHS: PART III
881
the Steward of the Betel Pouch of the illustrious Gaurādēvi. The boundaries of the land are as follows: To the east, 147 breadthwise ghales in the neigh. bourhood of the land endowed to the Arasiya Basadi; to the north, 47 lengthwise ghales adjacent to the endowed land under the possession of the Tirthada Basadi; to the west, 141 breadthwise ghales towards the north in the vicinity of the endowed land owned by the Timambarasiya Basadi; to the south, 47 lengthwise ghales adjoining the one mattaru of endowed land belonging to the Arasiya Basadi.
INSCRIPTION No. 30
(Found on a Boulder in the Hill at Kopbal) This inscription was noticed on a boulder on the top of a hill near Kopbal. This is removed by some distance towards the south from the boulder named Pallakki Gundu, the provenance of inscription No. 20. The boulder comprises one of the sides of an arch-shaped natural cavern.
Before reviewing the contents of the epigraph in detail we should do well to devote our attention to the illustrations found in the cavern; for these are not only situated near the inscription under study, but are also closely associated with its contents. To the left of the epigraph is drawn a triangular niche which seems to represent a shrine. Inside this triangle is the figure of a Tirthankura with the triple umbrella overhead, standing on a pedestal. The symbolic pair of fly-whisks is shown on either side of the Tirthankara outside the triangle. A pair of foot-marks is also incised on the rock nearby. All these engravings are of the nature of a rough sketch and there is no fineness about them.
The inscription consists of four lines of writing; and is in & fair state of preservation. The epigraph is rather indifferently incised and the letters are not neatly executed. Its script is Kannada. The first line is written in Sanskrit language, whereas the remaining three lines are composed in Kannada. No date is mentioned in the record; the characters are of the later period, and we may ascribe the epigraph approximately to the 16th century A.D. on palaeographic grounds.
The inscription commences with an invocation to the illustrious deity Chhāyā-Chandranātha. Then it states that the holy feet, that is to say, the foot-marks of the illustrious preceptor Dēvēndrakirti Bhattāraka were carved by his favourite disciple Vardhamānadēva. Now in the light of these contents of the epigraph we can read into the representations described above. The figure of the Tīrthankara inside the triangular niche evidently stands for the deity Chhāyā-Chandranātha of the inscription. The foot-marks may be referred to those of the teacher Dēvēndrakirti. As discussed in connection with inscription No. 20, these foot-marks must have been carved to perpetuate tho
