South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

cook of the temple, sometime in 1930, in course of the repairs being done to the temple, near the southern wall of the outer prākāra just to the west of the shrine where the present Nālvars are placed, at the depth of about three feet, found the set of plates in the earth. The present store-room stands now on the spot where the plates were found.”^[1] The plates are now the property of the temple.

The set consists of five plates each measuring 8½″ by 2¾″ and about 1/16″ in thickness. At the proper right margin in each plate is a hole, about ½″ in diameter, through which passes the copper ring bearing the seal. The ring measures about 3½″ in diameter and its ends are soldered into the bottom of the seal which is oval in shape and measures 2″ by 1½″. On its surface is carved in relief the figure of a standing elephant facing the proper right. The set with the ring and the seal weighs 130 tolas.

The characters belong to what is called the Southern class of alphabets and are of the regular type of the period to which the record belongs. The engraving is good and fairly deep and the writing is excellently preserved.

Of the letter kh, both the early form and the later or the cursive form in Fleet’s terminology are found in this inscription. The former is met with in mukhaḥ l. -5, -ākhyas= l. 25, nakha l. 29, vikhyāta l. 35 and likhitaṁ l. 57 ; while the later or the cursive form is found in khaṇḍita l. ^[2], mukha l. 14, khaṇḍa l. 28, khaḍga l. 40 and khaṇḍuka l. 53. Fleet’s theory that this later or the cursive form did not occur in genuine records earlier than A. D. 804 no longer holds the ground. The instances cited above show that both the forms were used at the time of our inscription and the engraver made little distinction between the two. As regards the form of b, the closed or box type has been used throughout the inscription, cf. labdha-bala l. 2, Kadamaba l. 11, bahu l. 35, etc. The form of the subscript n is the same as that of the primary n, the secondary form being absent throughout the record, cf. –āvasanna l. 10, ratn- l. 26, mūdhni(rdhni) l. 31 and Nānnappa l. 39. The form of ph is distinguished from that of p by a hook inside at the right-hand stroke, cf. sphuṭa l. 35. Initial a is met with in Avinīta l. 13, Andari l. 14, anēka l. 20, api l. 23 ; initial ā in ājji(arjji)tānāṁ l. 47 ; initial i in Indarājaṁ l. 43, Indarājō l. 47, and initial u in Uttara l. 50. The vowelless k is met with in –āsṛik l. 23, and the vowelless t in āsīt, =ābhavat l. 42, and kasmiṁśchit l. 47.

With regard to orthography, the following few points may be observed. The anusvāra is changed to class nasal in jitam=bhagavatā l. 1; and anusvāra in place of consonant nasal is found in nityaṁ l. 36. The use of upadhamanīya is found in words –sūtra-vṛittēh=praṇētā l. 6, -rajah-pra(pa)vitrīkṛit- l. 9, -charitah=prati- l. 22 and yasyāh=pit= l. 42 ; and jihvāmūlīya is used in bhaṭ-ōraḣ-kavāṭ- l. 23, and amaradhanuh-khaṇḍa l. 28.

The language of the inscription is Sanskrit. The composition is partly in prose and partly in verse, and is, on the whole, grammatically correct. The following phonetic features are noteworthy. The voiceless stops are represented as voiced in the intervocalic position in the following words antarādmā for antarātmā l. 12, ādma-kōpō for ātma-kōpō l. 30, Nīlagaṇṭha for Nīlakaṇṭha l. 19, and abahārakaḥ for apahārakaḥ l. 56. This may be due to the influence of the Tamil pronunciation, since the record comes from the Tamil parts. The assimilated speech-form Kañchiyabbā<Kañchiyambā is met with in l. 44.2 An epenthetic vowel -i­- is found in Śaka-vari-shēshv=atītēshu l. 50. The consonant after r is usually lengthened, cf. chāturddanta l. 7, Harivarmma- l. 8, durddanta-vimardda l. 16, śāstr-ārttha l. 21, kīrttiḥ l. 27 and mārgga l. 33. From these instances it can be seen that this phenomenon occurs both when the vowel preceding r is short

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^[1]From the diary of Dr. B. Ch. Chhabra.
^[2] The Kannaḍa speech-form Kañchiyabbe is found in E. C., X, Kl. Mb. 80.