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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA No. 19─KALYANA INSCRIPTION OF SULTAN MUHAMMAD, SAKA 1248 (1 Plate) P. B. DESAI, DHARWAR Kalyāṇa is a small town in the Humnabad Taluk of the Bidar District, Mysore State. Its original name was also Kalyāṇa and this was modified as Kalyāṇa during the Muslim regime. The latter form of the name is still recognised in official quarters, although the common people prefer to call it by its earlier name. Kalyāṇa figures in hundreds of inscriptions of the rulers of the Later Chālukya family, who made it their principal headquarters about 1033 A.D.[1] This seat of political power was occupied by the usurpers of the Kalachuri family for some time in the latter part of the 12th century. It was also the scene of the religious conflict between Kalachuri Bijjala II and his minister Basavēśvara, the founder of Vīraśaiva school, when it witnessed the great upsurge of the latter’s followers. These memorable events are remembered to the present day and a visitor to Kalyāṇa is shown various sites associated with the activities of the historical personages.[2] An attempt is made in certain quarters event to restore the place-name as Basava-Kalyāṇa after the great leader of the Vīraśaiva movement.[3]
Kalyāṇa, until recently included in the Hyderabad State, was in the possession of a family of petty Nawabs or Jāgīrdārs who constructed a fort at the place. In the courtyard of this fort have been kept a large number of antiquities such as inscriptions, sculptures and remains of architectural constructions, brought over from various sites inside the town and also from the neighbouring villages. In the course of my official tour in search of inscription, I visited Kalyāṇa in January 1957 and copied 16 inscriptions kept in the said place, and two more in the Nawab’s Bungalow. Of these, seven belong to the reign of Vikramāditya VI, one to that of his son Sōmēśvara III and three to that of the latter’s successor Jagadēkamalla II. One more in the former place is the epigraph under study here. I edit the inscription from the estampages taken during my visit. It was previously edited in A. R. Arch. Dept., Hyderabad, 1936-37, pp. 43 ff. The inscribed area of the stone slab bearing the epigraph is clearly demarcated by lines drawn on its four sides and it measures 45·7″ long and 21·3″ broad. At the top of this space are engraved figures of the ereseent on the left and of the sun on the right. The stone has peeled off at the left corner of the bottom, resulting in the loss of a few letters. There are in all 32 lines of writing and in most cases they are in a fair state of preservation. ________________________________________________
[1] B. K. Coll., No. 126 of 1933-34 ; SII, Vol. I, Pt. I, Ins. No. 69. The Śaka years in both these records are
wrongly engraved. For an elaborated discussion on the various Chālukya capitals, see the Corpus of Inscriptions
in the Kannaḍa Districts of Hyderabad. Hyderabad, 1958, pp. 3 ff.
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