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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA No. 20.─HOSUR INSCRIPTION OF VIRA-BALLALA, [SAKA] 1129 B. R. GOPAL AND SHRINIVAS RITTI, OOTACAMUND This inscription, edited here with the king permission of the Government Epigraphist for India, is engraved on a pillar in the Trikūṭēśvara temple at Hosūr in the Gadag Taluk of the Dharwar District, Mysore State. It was copied in 1926-27 and noticed in the Annual Report on South Indian Epigraphy for the year.[1] The record covers a space of about 1′ 2·5″ X 1′ 2″ and is in a fair state of preservation, though a few letters in the middle are worn out. It contains 19 lines of writing. The record is in Kannaḍa and is written in prose throughout. The palaeography of the record is regular for the period to which it belongs, i.e. early half of the 13th century A.D. However, the following points deserve notice. Anusvāra is used in place of anunāsika as in Chikka-[Nara]siṁgayyaṁgalu, line 7. The use of the prosthetic y in Yēḷunūrv-vara, (line 9), may be noted. The cursive forms of v and m are used, e.g. gāvuṁḍa, (line 8) and mukhyavº (line 9). The following may be noted in orthography : the doubling of letters preceded by r as in sarvvādhikāri and Chakravartti (line 6, etc.), the use of ś for sh as in āśāḍha, (line 4) and varuśa, (line 3), and the wrong use of l for ḷ, e.g. [Nara]siṁgayyaṁgalu and Mulugunda in line 7, Tuppadahalli in line 14, etc. The long mā in saṁkramāṇa in line 5 is a scribal error for ma.
The purpose of the record is to register a gift of land to the god Morakēśvaradēva by Chikka-Narasiṁgayya who is described as Mahāpradhāna and Sarvvādhikāri and as the second son of the sovereign. He is stated to be governing Muḷugunda Twelve. The gift land was obtained by the donor from the Seven-Hundred of Hosavūr, headed by Mahābaḷa-gāvuṇḍa. Mahābaḷagāvuṇḍa along with others figures in another record[2] of this place, dated in 1192 A.D.,[3] as the recipient of the income derived from taxes as a compensation for the damage caused to the town of Hosavūru, when king Vīra-Ballāḷa had camped there. It is likely that the gift was made in the course of the king’s campaign against Yādava Bhillama which took place between 1191 and 1192 A.D. The record under review is dated in 1129, apparently of the Śaka era, Prabhava, Āshāḍha śu. 11, Sunday, Karkkaṭaka-saṁkramaṇa. The details of the date are irregular. The saṁkramaṇa occurred on Wednesday, the 27th June in the year 1207 A.D., when the tithi was śu. 1, the month being Nija Āshāḍha. The given tithi, however, corresponds to July 7 of the same year when the week-day was Saturday and not Sunday as stated in the record. The details do not work out correctly in the Adhika Āshāḍha either. The record is important inasmuch as it furnishes certain details pertaining to the Hoysaḷa family which were hitherto not properly assessed. Chikka-Narasiṁgayya is introduced as the second son (dvitīya kumāra) of Vīra-Ballāḷa. It is well known that Vīra-Ballāḷa was succeeded by his son Narasiṁha II in 1220 A.D.[4] If Chikka-Narasiṁgayya, apparently Narasiṁha II, was the second son of the king, who was his first son and what became of him? In his account of the Hoysaḷas, Fleet has referred to a record from Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa which mentions Sōmēśvara as a _________________________________________________
[1] Appendix F, No. 116. This has also been noticed in the ARASI for 1926-27, p. 192.
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