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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA The inscription does not supply any new historical information either with regard to the king or to his date. As many as seven inscriptions belonging to his time have been discovered so far and the present record will be the eighth. Two of his copper-plate grants have been already published in the pages of this journal.[1] His Sirsi plates are dated in his 35th year showing that he ruled at least for 35 years. According to the revised chronology of the Kadamba dynasty, Ravivarman had been assigned to the period circa 484-519 A. D.[2] The grant was issued from Vijaya-Paṅktipura. The other known grants of this king have been issued either from Vaijayantī or Palāśikā.[3] So the present inscription is the only one known so far, which is issued from Paṅktipura. I have shown elsewhere[4] that this Paṅktipura should be identified with modern Hangal in the Dharwar District of Mysore State and that it is not another name of Vaijayantī as supposed by Dr. Sankalia. Paṅktipura is also mentioned as Pāṁktipura in the Kirukuppaṭūr grant of Kadamba Kṛishṇavarman II.[5] Here it occurs as Pāṁktipura-vishaya which is evidently the region round about Hangal. In later records the place-name appears as Pāntipura or Pānthipura[6] and is subsequently replaced by Pānuṁgal which is the earlier name of modern Hangal.
In connection with the gift of the land the following expression occurs in the record : Kārppaṭēśvara[m=iti chaturvviṁ]śati-nivarttanaṁ pukkōḷi kshētraṁ. . . . The portion given in brackets is damaged as a chip of the copper has peeled off there. However the traces of the letters can be seen and the reading chaturvviṁśati can be restored without difficulty. But it is difficult to make out the two aksharas after Kārppaṭēśvara which I have proposed to read as ºm=iti. If this reading is accepted, then Kārppaṭēśvara may be the name of the land granted. Probably the land belonged originally to a person or god called Kārppaṭēśvara. The meaning of pukkōḷi is also not clear to me. It might suggest the variety or kind of land granted. This expression occurs also in the Sirsi plates referred to above and in a copperplate grant of the Bhōja king Kāpālivarman.[7] At the end of the record, there is an endorsement referring to a house-site and some land in the village. The purport of this endorsement is not clear. The village Variyakā may be modern Bargi about 14 miles to the south-west of Kuṇṭagaṇī. TEXT[8] First Plate
1 Svasti [|*] Vijaya-Paṅktipurē Svāmi-Mah[āsēna-mā][9]tṛigaṇ-ānu-
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[1] Nilambūr plates, above, Vol. VIII, pp. 146 ff ; Sirsi plates, ibid., Vol. XVI, pp. 264 ff.
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