South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

TRANSLATION.

Hail ! While the Bhaṭâra,^[1] the glorious Akâlavarsha-(Kṛishṇa I.), was reigning over the earth :─ In the destruction^[2] of the village of Maltavur, Dâsamma and Ereya, of the village of Surageyur,^[3] pierced (some of their foes) and died^[4] and ascended to heaven. These are the stones of those two men themselves.^[5]

B.- Naregal inscription of the time of Dhruva.

This inscription was brought to notice by me in 1895 or 1896, in my Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts, p. 394, note 3. It is now edited for the first time. I edit it, and the collotype is given, from a plain uninked estampage sent to me in 1882 by Mr. Govind Gangadhar Deshpande.^[6]

Naregal is a village about eleven miles E.-N.-E. from Hângal, the head-quarters of the Hângal tâluka of the Dhârwâr district. The Indian Atlas sheet No. 42 (1827) shews it is ‘ Neirgul.’ The record gives its old name in the form of Nareyaṁgal, and tacitly places it in the Banavâsi twelve-thousand province. The inscription is on a vîrgal or monumental tablet, found on, and apparently built into the wall of, the sluice of the tank.

I have no information as to whether there are any sculptures on this stone.─ The writing covers an area about 2′ 2½″ broad by 1′ 0″ high, and is in a state of excellent preservation throughout.─ The characters are Kanarese, boldly formed and well executed. The size of them ranges from about ⅞″ in the th of prithuvi, line 1, to about 1¾″ in the upper t of sattu, line 4 ; and the rgg of svargg, line 4, is about 3⅞″ high. The characters include final forms of n (damaged) in line 4, and of ḷ in line 3 ; and the distinct form of the lingual ḍ^[7] is clearly recognisable in Kâḍavaṁ, line 4. As regards the palӕography,─ the kh and ṅ do not occur. The j occurs in râjyaṁ, line 1, No. 11, and is of the old square type, closed ; and so, also, is the b, which we have in Bbanamâsi, line 2, No. 5. The l occurs in three syllables, and is perhaps seen most clearly in the lo of puyyaloḷ, line 3, No. 13 : it, also, is of the old square type ; it does not present, here, the marked prolongration and sweep to the right of the downstroke which we have met with in the Hattî-Mattûr inscription, A. above ; and the downstroke is closed in onto the body of the letter, towards the bottom. As regards the way in which the vowel o is formed in the same word, puyyaloḷ, see page 164 below.─ The language is Kanarese, of the archaic type, in prose. The record gives us, in line 4, Domma, as another form of Domba, = Ḍomba, ‘a

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^[1] This word,─ a title of paramount sovereignty, as used here,─ occurs sometimes with the double ṭṭ, bhaṭṭâra, in which form, only, it is given in Monier-Williams’ Sanskṛit Dictionary, new edition, with the meanings of ‘ a noble lord (= pûjya) ; honourable.’ For other instances of the use of the title, see Dyn. Kan. Distrs. pp. 368, 393, 394, 402.
^[2] Compare the Baṭgere inscription of A.D. 888─ (in a continuation of this paper),─ which describes Sâdêva as “ destroying ” Baṭṭakere. The expression ûr-alivu, ‘ village-destruction,’ occurs again in a record of A.D. 1092 at Srîraṅgpur in the Beḷgaum district, which mentions Jakkivâḍad=ûr-aḷivu, “ the village-destruction of Jakkivâḍa.” And we have it, practically, again in an inscription at Kuḍakûru (Ep. Carn. Vol. IV., Hs. 50), where, however, the translator has confused alivu with aḍavi, aḍivi, and has rendered Peḷtiyûr=alivinoḷ by “ in the Peltiyûr forest.”
^[3] This is, perhaps, the modern ‘ Surangi,’ which the Bombay Postal Directory places somewhere in the Karajgi tâluka.”
^[4] Or “ were pierced and died.”
^[5] There are or were, then, two memorial tablets at this place,─ the second of them perhaps without any writing on it.
^[6] I regret that I had forgotten this, and did not turn up my note of it in time to indicate the fact below the collotype.
^[7] See page 41 above.