North Indian Inscriptions

BITRAGUNTA GRANT OF SAMGAMA II.

completion of all obsequial rites ; and this completion is reached with the sâpiṇḍya and âbdika ceremonies, which are to be observed at the end of one full year after the death. After this period, and through the several charities made during the final ceremonies, the Prêta is supposed to become one of the Manes, i.e. to become classed with the Pitṛidêvas.¹ Thus, it may be that the anniversary on which immortality or godhead was conferred on Kampa, was the first ; and if so, the date of Kampa’s death and the accession of Saṁgama II. would be Śaka-Saṁvat 1277. But this is only a conjecture which requires corroboration.

......The contents of the inscription furnish us with two important facts, viz. first, the distinct mention of the five sons of Saṁgama I., and, secondly, that of a grandson of his, by name Saṁgama II. Both these facts are valuable ; for, most of the inscriptions that contain a regular genealogy of the Vijayanagara dynasty, mention only Harihara I. and Bukka I., the first and third sons of Saṁgama I., and ignore altogether the other three ; and even the limited few that mention all the five sons of Saṁgama I.,² are either open to suspicion or are imperfectly read. The importance of the second fact is even greater, inasmuch as it enables us to correct certain inferences which have been drawn from the colophon of the Mâdhavîyâ Dhâtuvṛitti. This colophon reads as follows :— “The Mâdhavîyâ Vṛitti, composed by Sâyaṇâchârya (who was) the uterine brother of Mâdhava, the son Mâyaṇa, (and) the great minister of Saṁgamarâja, the son of Kamparâja, the glorious lord of the Eastern,

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Western and Southern oceans.”³ As the title indicates, the Mâdhavîyâ Dhâtuvṛitti was dedicated by its author, Sâyaṇâchârya, to his brother Mâdhavâchârya, who, as we learn from other sources, was the minister of Bukkaṇa or Bukka I. of Vijayanagara.⁴ Further, Mâdhavâchârya says of himself that “his mother (was) Śrîmatî, his father (was) the famous Mâyaṇa, (and) his two uterine brothers (were) Sâyaṇa and Bhôganâtha, (who appeared to be his) mind and intelligence.”⁵ That Saṁgama, whose minister was Sâyaṇa according to the Mâdhavîyâ Dhâtuvṛitti, has been hitherto considered as identical with Saṁgama I., the father of Harihara I. and Bukka I. The present inscription, however,— which acquaints us with a king Saṁgama II., who, as the Saṁgamarâja of the colophon of the Mâdhavîyâ Dhâtuvṛitti, was the son of Kampa, and which also mentions a certain Bhôganâtha, who is probably identical with that Bhôganâtha who, according to the commentary on the Parâśarasmṛiti, was the brother of Sâyaṇa,— shows that Sâyaṇa must have been the minister of Saṁgama II., and not of Saṁgama I., who, in the present state of our epigraphical knowledge, is nothing more than a name. In the colophon of his commentary on the Śatapathabrâhmaṇa, Sâyaṇâchârya calls himself the minister of king Harihara, who bore the titles of Râjâdhirâja and Râjaparamêśvara.⁶ This can hardly refer to Harihara I., who claimed to be only a Mahâmaṇḍalêśvara ;⁷ and it must be assumed that Sâyaṇa, who was originally the minister of Saṁgama II., subsequently held the same office under Harihara II. According to
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