South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

No. 2] BADAMI INSCRIPTION OF CHALIKYA VALLABHESVARA : SAKA 465

therefore, no question of Mr. Joglekar being aware of your discovery of the same in February last, when he went to Bādāmi on 18th April ”. The discovery of the inscription was made independently both by me and by the Archæological Survey, Western Circle, Poona. The inscription is edited below at the desire of the Director General of Archæology, from the impression taken under my supervision.

The characters belong to the southern class of alphabets prevalent in the Dekkan in the 5th and 6th centuries A. D. and resemble the script of the early Kadamba copper-plate grants of Harivarman^[1] and Kṛishṇavarman II^[2] and more closely that of the Bādāmi cave inscription of Kīrtivarman I, dated Śaka 500.^[3] The writing covers an area 3′ 4″ by 3′ 4″ and the height of the biggest letter is approximately 7″ and the smallest 3″. The letters are well-formed and boldly executed and the whole inscription is well preserved. In respect of palæography the following points may be noted : Among the vowels, only the initial a is used twice in Aśvamēdh-āº (l. 2) and adhastād (l. 5). The medial sign for ā is formed by the addition of a downward bend on the right side at the top of the letter, as for example, Aśvamēdh-ādi (l. 2), Vātāpim (l. 4), except in the case of j where the middle horizontal arm is taken up and curved to the left as in yajñānāṁ yajvā (l. 2). The long ī is distinguished from the short one by a curve inside at the top, e. g. vidhānataḥ (l. 2) and achīkarat (l. 5). The u-sign is marked in two ways : (i) by a hook at the bottom turned to the left as in varshēshu (l. 1), durgga (l. 5), etc.^[4] and (ii) by a tube-like bend shooting from the bottom to the right side of the letter, see : e.g. chatuś- (l. 1), bhuvaḥ (l. 4). The long ū is shown by an ordinary u mark with a downward curve added to the right side of it. The signs for ē, ō and au are of the usual archaic type : see e. g. Aśvamēdh-āº (l. 2), Chalikyō (l. 3) and śrauta (l. 2). Orthography is free from errors. The language is Sanskrit.

The record consists of five lines of writing, of which the first line is in prose and the remaining four are the four feet of two Anushṭubh verses forming a yugma. It states that in Śaka year 465 the Chalikya king, who is described as a performer of sacrifices such as Aśvamēdha according to the śrauta rites, Hiraṇyagarbha^[5] and as Vallabhēśvara, made the great hill of Vātāpi into an invincible citadel unapproachable from the top as well as from the bottom, for the prosperity (i.e. security) of the earth. In fact the hill-rock is cut across to mark a narrow pass about 250 feet deep which event is commemorated by the present inscription engraved on one, half of the rock. [There is no reference in the inscription to the construction of a pass.─C. R. K.]

The record is of historical importance in more than one way. Firstly, it furnishes the earliest authentic instance of the use of the Śaka era in inscriptions. The pillar inscription of Kīrtivarman I in the Vaishṇava cave at Bādāmi bearing the Śaka date 500 was considered so far, as the earliest lithic document mentioning the Śaka era by name.^[6] An earlier instance of this era is cited in the Lōkavibhāga of Siṁhasūri, a Digambara Jaina work in Sanskrit, which is stated to have been completed in 80 beyond 300, (i.e., 380) of the Śaka years.^[7]

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^[1] Above, Vol. XIV, p. 163.
^[2] Ibid., Vol. VI, p. 18. The characters of this grant (Bannahaḷḷi plates) betray a strong influence of the early Pallava script, in the box-head and the formation of the looped l, etc.
^[3] Ind. Ant., Vol. X, p. 58.
^[4] [The consonant following r is doubled in one instance and not in others : see durgga (l.5) and varshēshu (l. 1) and garbha (l.3).─C. R. K.]
^[5] See foot-note to Translation below on p. 9.
^[6] Ind., Ant. Vol. III, p. 305 and Vol. X, p. 58.
^[7] Above, Vol. XIV, p. 334. Mysore Arch. Report, 1922, p. 23. The relevant verse is extracted in the Mysore Arch. Report, 1910, p. 46, thus :─ Saṁvatsarē tu dvāviṁśē Kāñchīśaḥ Siṁhavarmmaṇaḥ | aśīty-agrē Śak-āhvānāṁ (bdānāṁ in the Mūḍabidare manuscript) siddham = ētach=chhata-trayē ||