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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA The Script of the inscription is Kannaḍa and its language, except the opening line which contain a verse in Sanskrit, is also Kannaḍa. The record is not dated but from the internal evidence afforded by it, the approximate date when it could have been set up is indicated in the sequel. The following orthographical peculiarities in the epigraph are noteworthy. The ligature rpa in the word Purpagiri (line 9) is an ancient Kannaḍa or Haḷe-Kannaḍa usage, instances of which are quoted by Kittel.[1] In another inscription[2] at the same place belonging to the reign of Rāshṭrakūṭa Kṛishṇa III(?) the place is also spelt as Purpagiri. The Dravidian l is used for the Sanskrit l in nilaya (line 13). This shows that the engraver was influence by the local pronunciation of Sanskrit words. The inscription commences with the well-known Sanskrit verse, Namas=tuṅga-śiraś-chumbi, etc., embodying obeisance to god Śaṁbhu. Thereafter, without referring itself to the reign of any ruler, it introduces Lakshmīdēva-Daṇḍanāyaka with a number of birudas like Mahāpradhāna, Samastasēnādhipati, Bāhattaraniyōgādhipati, Anēkadēśādhipati, Paśchimarāya-Bhōjadēva-diśāpaṭṭa and Nāyakanārāyaṇa[3] and describes him as the ‘ right arm ’ of Pratāpachakravarti Siṅgaṇadēva (Śrīmatu-Pratāpachakravarti-Siṅgaṇadēva-dakshiṇabhujādaṇḍa). The generalissimo is stated to have made some provision for the worship and offerings to god Vaidyanāthadēva of Pushpagiri. The nature of the provision or the object granted is not clear as the portion indicating it is illegible. As the engraver seems to have written on an erasure the letters are very indistinct.
Pushpagiri is stated in the record as being situated at the southern entrance (dakshiṇa-dvārapradēśadalli) of Śrīparvata, i.e., Śrīśailam, the holy abode of god Śiva on the crest of the Nallamalais in the Kurnool District. Lakshmīdēva-Daṇḍanāyaka is further stated to have raised a maṭha called Lakshmīnilaya after his own name and to have made provision for perpetual free-feeding (avāri-satrava naḍasuv-ant-āgi). The record is important as it enable us to determine the extent and nature of the Yādava penetration into the south in the time of Siṅghaṇa whose general Lakshmīdēva-Daṇḍanāyaka figures as the donor in the record. It also throws some light on the career of this general. This military commander who is described in the epigraph as the right arm of the Yādava ruler seems to have had a long and distinguished career as the generalissimo of the Yādava forces. If he is identical with Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara Lakshmīdēva who figures in two inscriptions of the reign of Jaitugi II of dates A.C. 1196[4] and 1197[5], it would appear that he also served this Yādava ruler who was the _____________________________________________________
[1] See Kittel’s Kannaḍa-English Dictionary, p. 998. It may be suggested that the r in purpa is the upadhmānīya sign for the visarga before p since the word pushpa (Skt.) might have been pronounced as puḥpa by the Kannaḍa
speaking people under the influence of the Prakrit form puppha.
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