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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA The inscription B consists of 27 lines in Old-Kanarese characters on the fourth face of the pillar. It is not dated, but in Dr. Fleet’s opinion belongs to much the same period with A. It contains six-Kanarese verses in the Kanda metre. The inscription appears to record that the school or hall (śâlâ), the building of which was referred to in the inscription A, was re-built by a certain Kañchiga (verses 1 and 5), who was a native of Kupaṇapura and a member of the race of the Seḷaras ; that he bestowed certain land on the same hall ; and that he caused this edict (śâsana) to be inscribed on the pillar. In verse 3 the donor declares that he “ caused the hall to be built just as the renowned prince Dantipriya (had built it).” Consequently, the hall must have fallen into disrepair during the period between the two inscriptions A and B. It is not improbable that by Dantipriya, i.e. ‘ the lover of elephants,’ we have to understand the original builder of the hall, Nârâyaṇa, who, in verse 13 of the inscription A, receives the biruda Gajâṅkuśa, i.e. ‘ the elephant-goad.’ As Kañchiga himself professes to be a member of the race of the Seḷaras and to have come from the town of Kupaṇapura, it may be assumed that he was an ancestor of the Śiḷahâra chief Gôvuṇarasa of Kopaṇapura, during whose reign the inscription C was engraved. Regarding Kupaṇapura or Kopaṇapura see the remarks on the inscription C.
The inscription C consists of 26 lines in Old-Kanarese characters. It is not dated, but in Dr. Fleet’s opinion may be referred to about the 11th or 12th century A.D. The language is Kanarese prose. The inscription records a grant of land to “ the god Trayipurusha of the hall (śâlâ) at the agrahâra of Paviṭhage,” which belonged to a group of 36 villages, the chief place of which was Bâḍaḷe. The granted land was situated in Paviṭhage itself, in Baḷambuge (?), and in Siṅganakaṭṭe near Makiriyiṇṭi (?). These localities cannot be identified, with the exception of Paviṭhage or, as it is spelt in the inscription A, Pâviṭṭage, which, as stated before,[1] must be identical with the modern Sâlôṭgi. The name appears to have been developed from Śâlâ+ Pâviṭṭage or Paviṭhage, as the village may have been called after the establishment of the hall (śâlâ) in the midst of it. The name of the god Trayîpurusha, i.e. ‘ the deity (consisting of) a triad,’ evidently refers to the ‘ triad of principal gods ’ which, according to verse 16 of inscription A, had been placed in the hall by its founder, Nârâyaṇa. The donor of the land was the Mahâmaṇḍalêśvara Gôv[u]ṇarasa, who belonged to the Śiḷahâra race ; who traced his descent from the mythical Śiḷahâra king Jimûtavâhana ; whose banner was a golden Garuḍa ;[2] and who was the lord of the city of Kopaṇapura. In his Essays on Kannaḍa Grammar, Bangalore 1894, p. 49 f., Mr. R. Raghunatha Rao states That, Kopaṇanagara is referred to by Nṛipatuṅga in his Kavirâjamârga as one of the places where the Kannaḍada tiruḷ, i.e. ‘ the pulp of Kannaḍa ’ or ‘ the purest Kannaḍa,’ was spoken. Nṛipatuṅga mentions as other centres of purest Kannaḍa : Kisuvoḷal, Puligere and Oṅkunda, which are respectively identical with Paṭṭadakal, Lakshmêśvar and Hungund in the Dhârwâḍ and Bijâpur districts. Mr. Raghunatha Rao adds that in Mr. Rice’s opinion Kopaṇanagara was near Muḷgund in the Dhârwâḍ district. Perhaps Kopaṇanagara or; as it is called in the inscriptions C and B, Kopaṇapura or Kupaṇapura, may be identical with Kopal in the Nizam’s State, on the Railway line from Gadag to Hospet. At any rate Kopaṇapura or Kupaṇapura must have been the residence of a separate branch of the Śiḷahâra or Seḷara[3] dynasty, whose remaining three branches called themselves ‘ lords of Tagarapura.’[4]
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