South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

tures explain their subject matter. The second line of the inscription commences just below the
third label indicating that it constitutes its part. The inscription reads as follows :─

TEXT^[1]

1 (i) Jēḍara Dāsimayyaṁgaḷu dēvarige vastrava kuḍuva ṭāü ||
(ii) Siriyāḷa-seṭṭi Chaṁgaḷavve dēvarige maganan=ikkuva ṭāvu ||
(iii) Kuṁbāra Gu[ṁ*]ḍana muṁde
2 baṁdhā(ṁd=ā)ḍida naṁma Śivanu [||*]

TRANSLATION

(i) Here is ( depicted the scene of )Jēḍara (weaver) Dāsimayya offering cloth to the god (Śiva).
(ii) Here is depicted the scene of Siriyāḷa-seṭṭi and (his wife) Chaṁgaḷavve offering their son to the god (Śiva).
(iii) Our (god) Śiva came down and danced before Kuṁbāra (potter) Guṇḍa.

Jēḍara Dāsimayya, as the story goes, was a weaver and a devotee of Śiva. By offering a cloth to is deity he received from him the boon of inexhaustible treasure (tavanidhi). This episode is frequently referred to in the Vīraśaiva literature of Karnāṭaka, the earliest allusions being those found in the Vachanas or Sayings of Basavēśvara.^[2] Siriyāḷa-seṭṭi is said to have offered the cooked flesh of his son to god Śiva who came to him in disguise as a Śaiva mendicant to test his faith.^[3] It is interesting to trace the ramifications of this story the roots of which are found in the Tamil country. According to the Periyapurāṇam, Parañjōti, the general of Pallava Narasiṁhavarman I (circa 7th century), who in his later life became famous as the Śaiva saint Śiruttoṇḍa Nāyanār^[4], had a son named Sirāla. This Sirāla was sacrificed by his father to propitiate Śiva. This legend had several adaptations in Śaiva literature of the Telugu and Kannaḍa countries and also of Mahārāshṭra. In these versions the son’s name appears to have passed on to the father who became popular as Siriyāḷa-seṭṭi.^[5] In Mahārāshṭra a festival is observed in the name of Siriyāḷa-seṭṭi on Srāvaṇa śu. ^[6] in a queer fashion by the ladies of the household.6 Kumbāra or Potter Guṇḍa, again, mentioned in the above epigraph, was a devotee of highly spiritual status. While beating his earthenware into shape he went into a trance and was absorbed in the meditation of Śiva. Pleased with his devotion Śiva descended from Kailāsa and danced before him.^[7] The accounts of ēkāntada Rāmayya, Jēḍara Dāsimayya, etc., noticed above, along with a host of other Śaiva devotees, are often met with in the Vīraśaiva literature of the Kannaḍa country. Epigraphical references to them, however, are not so numerous and they belong rather to a late period. The earliest epigraphical notices of some of these devotees, associated with their sculptures, are found for the first time in the inscriptions of Ablūr, as indicated above. Herein lies the main interest and importance of these brief records.

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^[1] In situ and from impressions.
^[2] Basavaṇṇanavara Shaṭsthaḷada Vachanagaḷu (edited by S. S. Basavanāḷ), Nos. 147-48, etc. Jēḍara Dāsimayya appears to have been referred to as Dāsa in the following inscriptions also ; Ep. Carn., Vol. V, On. 210 and
Vol. XII, Ck. 18.
^[3] Ibid., Nos. 146-49, 152, etc ; Basavapurāṇa, sandhi 24.
^[4] Above, Vol. V, p. 254, n. 6 ; V. Rangacharya’s article ‘The Legend of Siruttonda Nayanar’. The Hindu,
Jan. 3, 1943.
^[5] Siriyāḷa Charitra’, Bhārati (Telugu Journal), 1951 August.
^[6] B. A. Gupte : Hindu Holidays and Ceremonials (Calcutta, 1916), pp. 207-08.
^[7] This story is narrated by the Kannaḍa poet Harihara (circa 13th century) in one of his compositions in the Ragaḷe metre. A later epigraphical reference to this devotee is found in the Ep. Carn., Vol. III, Md. 83.