North Indian Inscriptions

GADAG INSCRIPTION OF BHILLAMA.

No. 30.─ GADAG INSCRIPTION OF THE YADAVA BHILLAMA ;

SAKA-SAMVAT 1113.

BY F. KIELHORN, PH.D., C.I.E. ; GÖTTINGEN.

......This inscription is on a stone at the temple of Trikûṭêśvara (Śiva) at Gadag, the chief town of the Gadag tâlukâ in the Dhârwâr district of the Bombay Presidency. Its existence was indicated, twenty years ago, by Dr. Fleet in the Indian Antiquary, Vol. II. p. 298, and I now edit it from an excellent impression, supplied to me by the same scholar.

......The inscription contains 21 lines of writing which covers a space of about 1’ 7” broad by 1’ 11” high. Excepting that in line 12 three aksharas have been intentionally effaced, lines 1-19 are in a fair state of preservation and may be read with confidence throughout ; but the greater part of lines 20 and 21 is broken away, and so is the end of the inscription,— probably one or two more lines, of no particular importance. At the top of the stone are, in the centre, a liṅga and a priest ; to the right, a cow and calf with the sun or moon above them ; and to the left, a bull with the moon or sun above it.— The size of the letters is between ⅝” and ¾”.— The characters are Nâgarî.— The language is Sanskṛit. Speaking generally, lines 1-9 are in verse, and lines 10-20 in prose ; and the inscription apparently ended with other (benedictive and imprecatory) verses.— The orthography calls for no remarks.

......The inscription records a grant of land by the Yâdava king Bhillamadêva (of Dêvagiri). Opening with a verse which invokes the protection of ‘Kaṁsa’s foe’ (Vishṇu), it gives in seven verses the following genealogy of the donor :— In Yadu’s family there was a king named Sêvaṇadêva. His son was the prince Mallugidêva. His son, again, was the prince Amaragaṅga. After him his younger brother Karṇadêva became king. And his son was the king Bhillamadêva, an incarnation as it were of Kṛishṇa, who, conquering many countries and acquiring much wealth, rendered the rule of the family of king Sêvaṇa (or of the Sêvaṇa kings) highly prosperous.— After this, the inscription in another verse (in line 9) states that Bhillamadêva had minister, named Jaitasiṁha, who was endowed with the three constituent elements¹ of regal power, whose prowess was surpassing thought, and was a very scorpion to rulers of districts.

......Lines 10-19 then record that, at the representation of this Jaitasiṁha, His Majesty Bhillamadêva, adorned with such titles as ‘the refuge of the whole world, the illustrious favourite of the earth, Mahârâjâdhirâja, Paramêśvara, Paramabhaṭṭâraka, the ornament of Yadu’s family, born in the holy Vishṇu’s lineage,’ while his camp of victory was located at Hêrûrâ,─ at a solar eclipse on Sunday, the new-moon tithi of Jyaishṭha of the Virôdhakṛit year, when 1113 years had elapsed of the era of the Śaka king,─ after having washed the feet of the holy chief of ascetics Siddhântichandrabhûshaṇapanḍitadêva, also called Satyavâkya, the disciple of Vidyâbharaṇadêva who in turn was a disciple of Sômêśvaradêva, and superintendent (or chief priest) of the shrine of the god Svayaṁbhû-Trikâṭêśvara at Kratuka, granted the village of Hiriya-Handigôla in the Beluvola Three-hundred, free from tolls, taxes and molestation, with every kind of income, with its boundaries as they were known before, not to be pointed at with the finger by the king’s officials, and together with the tribhôga,² making it a sarva-namasya grant and dividing it into two parts, one of which, according to line 19, was destined for the god Trikûṭêśvara.— From here the text becomes mutilated or is entirely broken away ; and what remains of lines 20 and 21, only shows that the
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......¹ viz. prabhutva, mantra, and utsâha.
......² See Ind. Ant. Vol. XIX. p. 271 ; I do not feel sure that the explanation, there given of tribhôga, is correct, but am unable to explain the term myself.