South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

cipation (from the bondage of this world), having pierced through the frontal disc of the orb of the sun in the heaven.^[1]

(Verse 7) From him (Chōḍagaṅga) was (born his) son, king Anaṅgabhīma, a very parasol of piety,^[2] who was not touched by the spurting of billows of the ink of sins of the Kali age. What a (wonderful) magic trick was that, leaving aside the array of rutting elephants, (and depending rather) on the one-legged bull (i.e., dharma), adopting merely^[3] that (magic), he had secured the empire ?^[4]

(Verse 8) In the family of (the Brāhmaṇas belonging to the)Vatsa (gōtra) there was born an excellent Brāhmaṇa, called Gōvinda, who was voluntarily adored by the hymns and chants of (all) the three Vēdas.^[5] What an (astonishing) greatness was this of the king that he made him (Gōvinda) the bull-at-the-yoke for carrying the burden of (his) empire ?^[6]

(Verse 9) Then, from him (Anaṅgabhīma) was born a king, named Rājēndra, the swans (in the form) of toe-nails, the house-holders (so to say) of lotuses (in the form) of whose feet, rest^[7] on the top of mossy weeds (in the shape) of locks of hair of all the hostile chiefs who bowed (to him).

(Verse 10) He (Rājēndra) begot that king Anaṅgabhīma whose manner of disporting himself by giving charities far excels in fulfilling desires (of the suppliants), even if the mountain of gold (i.e., Sumēru) gets melted by the blasts of the flames of the fire of his prowess, and the clouds, having taken it (molten gold), shower it in milliard streams day and night for filling (all) the quarters (of the space).

(Verse 11) If his fame purifies (all) the three worlds, in vain is there the celestial Gaṅgā ! If his utterances roll about in the neck (of the people),^[8] fie upon pearl necklaces ! If the purpose

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^[1] All this means that the enemies fought and fell. Seeing no escape from the sure death, they made a virtue of necessity, hoping to be rewarded in the world hereafter with the reward of a happy warrior. And that reward consists in the attainment of perfect bliss in the solar region, as the tradition has it, which only two can reach, a yōgin and a warrior. Compare the couplet : Dvāv=imau purushau lōkē sūrya-maṇḍala-bhēdinau parivrāḍ-yōga-yuktaś=cha raṇē ch=ābhimukhō hataḥ. ‘ There are these two men in the world who burst through the disc of the sun, (one is) a peripatetic yōgin perfected in meditation, and (the other is he) who is killed in the battle without turning his back (upon his opponent)’. (Subhāshitaratnabhāṇḍāgāra, Nirṇayasāgar Press, Bombay, 6th edition, 1929, p. 161, verse 106.) Mr. N. Lakshminarayan Rao, kindly informed me that this couplet is met with in certain Kannaḍa hero-stone inscriptions. See B. Lewis Rice’s Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions, London, 1909. p. 172. It may be recalled that, among the duties of a kshatriya, a noteworthy one is yuddhē ch=āpy=apalāyanam, ‘ not running away in the battle field’ (Śrīmadbhagavadgītā, XVIII, 43), which is echoed in the raṇē ch=ābhimukhō hataḥ of the couplet quoted above.
^[2] This means that the pious people enjoyed special protection and security under Anaṅgabhīma.
^[3] Mark the use of the word śuddha in the sense of kēvala in the present context. The English word pure offers a parallel inasmuch as this likewise is occasionally used in the sense of sheer or mere. See remarks above, p. 122.
^[4] The implication is that Anaṅgabhīma was a peace-loving and righteous king. Though he possessed war elephants, he never went to war. The bull, symbolic of dharma, stood on all the four legs in the Kṛita age, on three legs in the Trëtā age, on two legs in the Dvāpara age, and in the present Kali age, he stands only on one leg, mythologically speaking. Again, mantra-kalā apparently denotes here ‘ magic trick ’ or the like, but in reality it stands for mantra-śakti, ‘ the expedient of wise counsel,’ which is one of the three expedients well-known in the lore of statecraft, the other two being prabhu-śakti and utsāha-śakti, referring to the personality of the king himself and the enthusiasm of his forces respectively. The poet astutely tells us in the present verse that Anaṅgabhīma’s success as a ruler was due to the wise counsel he used to receive from his ministers, one of whom is described in the verse that follows.
^[5] In other words, he easily acquired proficiency in the Vedic lore.
^[6] Another of the poet’s pet conundrums ! Being a calf (Vatsa), a great favourite of the cows (gavī), Gōvinda must indeed have made a fine bull of himself to drag the great burden ! Shorn of the poetic embellishment, the circumlocution means that Gōvinda was Anaṅgabhīma’s chief minister.
^[7] Mark in this verse and in the following ones the historic present tense, referring to the past events.
^[8] It need not be pointed out that the Sanskrit word kaṇṭha means both ‘throat’ and ‘neck’.