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876
JAINISM IN SOUTH INDIA
'be not many. The orthographical peculiarity of doubling the consonant after r in a conjunct letter deserves to be noted.
The epigraph commences directly with the mention of the ruling king to whose reign it belongs. This was Akalavarsha Kannaradeva. Then it seems to indroduce a feudatory provincial governor. Next comes a local chief and an officer who appears to have been directly connected with the administrative affairs of the area. The object of the inscription seems to be to record a gift, most probably of land. The other details in regard to the gift are lost.
The name and the title of the ruling king noted above are distinctly associated with the Rashtrakuta dynasty of Malkhed. The name of the feudatory governor which is partly preserved may be read as Permānaḍi. He is endowed with the following titles which might be deciphered with certainty: Satyavakya, Komgunivarma, Dharmamahārāja and Kuvalalapuravarēśvara. It is clear from these titles which were characteristically borne by the princes of the Western Ganga house ruling in Mysore, that the feudatory governor was a member of that family.
We may here make an attempt at precise identification of the reigning king and his feudatory of the above description. In the Rashtrakuta house of Malkhed two later monarchs bore the name and the title, Akālavarsha Kannaradeva. One was Krishna II and the other Krishna III. The members of the Ganga house came into closer contact with the Rashtrakūtas in the reign of Krishna III. This contact was deepened by the matrimonial alliance between the two royal houses. Būtuga II was the contemporary ruler of the Western Ganga house. He was not only the brother-in law of Krishna III, but his close ally and associate in his career of political ambition. In view of these historical facts we can identify the Western Ganga feudatory of the present record with Butuga II who also bore the appellation Permanaḍi. This identification gains support through the reference to the territory under his authority, which, as suggested by the partly preserved expressions in our record, was Gangavāḍi Ninety-six Thousand and Belvala Three Hundred. All doubts in the matter are cleared by a comparison of the present record with similar epigraphs which unmistakably speak of the Rashtrakuta king Krishna 111 as the suzerain and the Western Ganga prince Būtuga II as his feudatory governing the above-named territories of Gangavaḍi and Belvala.1
The record contains a date which is partially preserved. It is the cyclic year Vikari and Phalguna su. 1. There is a reference to the
1 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. I, part 11, pp. 410 and 418; Fombay Karnatak Inscriptions, Vol. I, pt. 1, Nos. 36-38. In these inscriptions Bütuga is referred to as Bütarya and Bütayya.
