North Indian Inscriptions

SPURIOUS SUDI PLATES.

Vikârin saṁvatsara,─ having gratified six female mendicants with gifts and honourable treatment, etc., (and) having of his own accord washed the feet of Nâgadêvapaṇḍita, the head of the holy Vadiyûr-Gaṇa,¹ has given, at Sûṇḍî, in the northern part (of the village), sixty nivartanas (of land), by the staff which is the royal measure, for the purpose of repairing anything that may become broken or torn, (and) for the performance of worship, and to provide food, to the chaityâlaya.— built at Sûṇḍî, the city which is the chief (town) of the Suldhâṭavî seventy villages,─ of his wife, the glorious Dîvaḷâmbikâ, who is a manifest goddess through the purity of (her) aceurate perception.² The boundaries of it (are) :— On the east, the cultivated land called Mânasiṅga-keyi ; on the south, the land called the land of the jack-fruit trees ; on the west, the field called Keppara-pola ;³ (and) on the north, the stream that comes from (the village of) Bâlugêri. The village gives three gadyâṇas as the aruvaṇa ;⁴ (and) the village preserves the entire arrangement.

......(L. 80.)— “This general bridge of piety of kings should at all times be preserved by you,”— (thus) does Râmabhadra again and again make a request to all the future princes ! The earth has been enjoyed by many kings, commencing with Sagara ; whosoever for the time being possesses the earth, to him belongs, at that time, the reward (of this grant that is now made, if he continue it) !

......(L. 83.)— At Sûṇḍî, the chief (town) of the Suldhâṭavî seventy, the glorious Dîvaḷâmbâ,─ the one Rambhâ of the world,— celebrated the sacrificial rites of six female mendicants,⁵ and caused the famous Jaina temple to be built. Ôm ! Ôm ! Ôm !

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No. 26.─ SRAVANA-BELGOLA EPITAPH OF MALLISHENA ;

AFTER SAKA-SAMVAT 1050.

BY E. HULTZSCH, PH.D.

......This inscription is engraved on four faces of a pillar in the Pârśvanâtha-Basti⁶ on the Chandragiri or Chikkabeṭṭa hill at Śravaṇa-Beḷgoḷa, the well-known Jaina village in the Channarâyapaṭṇa tâlukâ of the Hassan district of the Mysore State. Fairly correct transcripts in Roman and Kanarese characters, and a tentative English translation of it, were published in 1889 by Mr. Rice.7 The subjoined Nâgarî transcript and English translation are based on excellent inked estampages, which were prepared on the spot by my Kanarese Assistant, Mr. H. Krishna Sastri. In spite of all possible trouble, I do not flatter myself to have made out the correct meaning of every verse of this difficult inscription. Future investigation of the literature of the Southern Digambaras will probably lead to the elucidation of most obscure passages. Professors Kielhorn and Leumann, to whom I sent one of the first proofs of this paper, have placed me and the readers under great obligation by valuable additions and suggestions, most of which I have inserted in the introduction and the footnotes under their initials (F. K. and E. L.).
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......¹ Or, perhaps, “Vaṭiyûr-Gaṇa.”
......² Samyag-darśana, ‘accurate perception, or complete vision.’ samyag-jñâna, ‘complete knowledge,’ and samyak-châritra, ‘correct conduct,’ constitute the ratna-traya, or ‘three excellent things,’ of the Jaina.
......³ Or “Koppara-pola.” If the first component of the name is keppara, the whole word seems to mean “the field of the deaf men.”
......⁴ The aruvaṇa,— lit. ‘six paṇas,’— was a tax on mânya-lands (see Ind. Ant. Vol. XIX. p. 249).
......⁵ See page 181 above. note 8 ; and compare the mention of six female mendicants in line 74 of the record.
......⁶ No. 1 on the plan of Chandragiri in Mr. Rice’s Inscriptions at Śravaṇa-Beḷgoḷa, p. 2 of the Introduction.
......⁷ Inscription No. 54 of the same work. Mr. Rice’s text is reprinted in Nâgarî characters in the Kâvyamâlâ, No. 34 (Prâchînalêkhamâlâ, Vol. I.), p. 144 ff.