Svasti

Author(s): Nalini Balbir
Publisher: K S Muddappa Smaraka Trust

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SVASTI -Essays in Honour of Prof. Hampa Nagarajaiah
The inscription of 1522 A.D. mentioned above also gives the genealogical details of these saints. It also mentions Vādīndra's predecessor Vidyānanda and seems to associate him with Ahamanda-suratāņa of Vēņāpura. But since the concerned portion of the inscription is damaged, it is difficult to know the exact import of the passage. While Ahamanda can be equated with Mahamanda of the inscription of 1515 A.D., it is difficult to ascertain his relationship with the ruling king. Though it may be surmised that he could be an officer at Vēnāpura i.e., Vēņūr (presently a village near Karkala) under Immadi Bhaiavarasa it is difficult to imagine that the Muslims were holding some position under the Vijayanagara rulers in so early a period. The imprecatory verses in inscriptions generally state that those who transgress a grant would go to hell or something like that. But interestingly, the inscription under study prescribes the payment of heavy penalty for violating the grant: sādhanakke tappidavaru tathā-tithiyimda himde ayivattu varuşada hīnāyada honnanu rāyabhandārakke teruveü i.e., he would pay to the royal treasury, as penalty, an amount equal to the income of 50 years backwards, from the said date i.e., 19th January 1515 A.D., which is the date of the record. The points of interest are the terms tathā-tithi and hīnāyada honnu. Tathā-tithi figures elsewhere also and its exact English equivalent is 'the said date.' The term hīnāyada honnu appears here for the first time and we are inclined to interpret it as money for humiliation i.e., penalty for having committed a crime.
The verses leveling curses on the wrong doers are also interesting and unusual in this inscription. One such verse says that the transgressor is like the one who mixes deadly poison (singi) in the plate of food (harivāna) of the king, he is like the one who destroys with his own hand, his whole family, and he is like the one who breaks the idol of his own favourite deity.