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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA No. 13─EKKANCHI INSCRIPTION OF YADAVA SIMHANA ; SAKA 1147 R. N. GURAV, ATHNI Ekkañchi is a petty village in the Athni taluk of the Belgaum District, Bombay State, situated about six miles from Athṇi, east by north, and two miles north of the village Baḍchi on the Athni-Bijāpur road. The inscription edited below is fixed in the temple of Hanumān to the right of the image. As reported by the villagers the stone beating the inscription was found buried in the village site while digging the earth for a manure pit, about twenty years ago. It was then fixed in the Hanumān temple where it now stands. The writing is damaged in places and this makes the reading difficult. The inscription is written in mediaeval Kannaḍa Language and alphabet. In regard to palaeography we may note that the Dravidian r is retained as in mūnūrar-oḷagaṇa (l.4), aru-gayi (l.9) and aruvaṇa (ll. 12-13). The cursive form of v appears in aruvaṇav-eraḍu (ll. 12-13). The doubling of the consonant after r is observed as in Mallikārjjuna (ll. 10-11) and sarvvabādhā (l. 15). The consonant is also doubled after anusvāra, e.g., saṁnnidhāna- (l. 14). S is used for ś as in saka (l. 1) ; ri occurs in place of ṛi in Bri-vā (l. 2) ; initial p is changed to h as in haṇa (l. 13) and hūsi (l. 15), but not in paḍuvalu (l. 11). The intervocalic p is changed to v in aruvaṇa (ll. 12-13). The abbreviations Kārtti-ba and Bri-vā are noteworthy. The expressions sūḷavāḷa (l. 7) and hiṭṭa hūsi (ll. 14-15) (having smeared with flour) are of lexical interest. The former may stand for sūlāyta in the sense of a ‘ herald ’. The context in which the latter is placed seems to suggest that it may have been used to denote a cognate custom which normally finds its expression in the familiar phrase dhārāpūrvakaṁ māḍi, i.e., ‘ by pouring water ’. The epigraph commences with the expression svasti and cites the date Śaka 1147, Pārthiva, Kārttika ba. 11, Thursday. This date regularly corresponds to October 30, 1225 A.C. It then refers to the reign of the Dēvagiri Yādava king Siṁhaṇa. As no regnal year of the ruler is mentioned, the date is of no special interest. Several inscriptions of this king in the Athni taluk and bordering areas have been found, for instance, at Kokaṭnūr,[5] Hire-Paḍasalagi,[6] Madbhāvi,[7] Biḷḷūr[8] and Khidrāpur.[9] The charter purports to register the grant of a house and a piece of land, with certain privileges, to the carpenter Champōja in recognition of his service (the nature of which is not clear) by Vīrabhadra, the priest in charge of the temple of Koppanātha of Ekaṁchi, Hegaḍe Sauḍayya, Sūḷavāla ______________________________________________________
[5] Karnatak Inscriptions, Vol. II, pp. 129 ff. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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