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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
by an ordinary y (but without the top-stroke) attached below the upper y, instead of by the
usual subscript form which we have in the preceding word râjyaṅ : I cannot quote any similar
instance in so late record ;[1] and it seems to be hare a freak.─ The language is Kanarese, of the
archaic type, in prose. The record gives us, in line 1-2, ballaha, as a Prâkṛit form of the
Sanskṛit vallabha ; in line 4-5, paṭṭagâra, as a variant of paṭakâra, ‘ a weaver ;’ in line 5,
sêṇiya, ‘ a (head)-man of a guild,’ from sêṇi, = śrêṇi, + a (3), with which we have to compare
nâḍa, ‘ a (head)-man of a district,’ from nâḍ, nâḍu, + a (3) ;[2] in lines 7 and 9, sâmpu, which
seems to mean ‘ a length (of cloth or silk),’ and to be another variant of châpu, ‘ stretch, length,
extent,’ jâpu, ‘ the measure of a long stride,’ and dâpu, ‘ stretch, etc., the measure of a stride ;’
and in line 8, kelagu (with the copulative affix), as a variant of keḷagu, ‘ under, down, below.’─
The orthography does not present anything calling for comment.
The inscription refers itself to the reign of a king whom it mentions by only the biruda
Śrîballaha, that is to say Śrîvallabha. On palӕographic grounds, it is to be placed in the last
quarter of the eighth century A.D. For that reason, coupled with the locality to which it
belongs, it is unquestionably a Râshṭrakûṭa record. And this king Śrîvallabha is, in all
probability, to be identified with the Râshṭrakûṭa king Dhruva : the only alternative is that
he is Dhruva’s son Gôvinda III.; but, in spite of what has previously been thought, it now
appears very questionable whether Gôvinda III. was so specifically well known by the biruda
Śrîvallabha as was his father Dhruva.[3] The object of the inscription is to record that
the head-man of the guild of the weavers of the mûruṁkêri[4] of Purigere-(Lakshmêshwar)
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[1] It was the ancient way of forming the subscript y ; see the Junâgaḍh inscription of Rudradâman, in the word
mahâkshatrapasya near the end of line 3, and in other places (Archӕol. Surv. West. Ind. Vol. II. p. 128, and
Plate).
[2] For an instance of the word nâḍa, see page 71 above, note 2.
[3] When I first brought this inscription to notice, I treated it as a record of the reign of Gôvinda III. At
that time, in dealing with the Râshṭrakûṭas I was chiefly following the lead of Dr. Bühler. His Table of the
Râshṭrakûṭas shewed the biruda Śrîvallabha for only Gôvinda III. ; see Ind. Ant. Vol. VI. p. 72, and his
remarks (ibid. p. 64) in his introduction to the Râdhanpur grant which he was then editing, and his translation
(ibid. p. 71) of the passages from which he took the biruda. And, as a matter of fact, it is only recently.─
since the time when the collotype of this record, now issued, was prepared and titled,─ that it could be
recognised that this biruda, when used in a Râshṭrakûṭa record, referable to an indefinite date in the period
A.D. 775 to 800, in the special manner in which it is used in this record, does not by any means necessarily denote
Gôvinda III. On this point, see further on, under the use of the biruda Śrîvallabha in the Râshṭrakûṭa records.
[4] This word mûruṁ-kêri,─ or mûruṅ-kêri, as actually written in this record, with the guttural nasal instead
of the anusvâra,─ would mean, by literal translation, ‘ three streets.’ But it seems to be a technical expression,
the exact purport of which is to be found in connection with the wider meaning of ‘ quarter, quarters, a division of
a town,’ which kêri has in, for instance, holegêri, ‘ the Holer’s quarters,’ the well known expression for that part
of a village (usually outside the village itself) in which the Mahârs, Mâṅgs, and other low-caste people dwell. I do
not at present find anything, helping to explain it, in any of the other records at Lakshmêshwar. A proverbial
saying, which may or may not indicate some clue, is given in the Rev. Mr. Kittel’s Kannaḍa-English Dictionary,
under nûru, namely nûru âru iddarû kêri bêku, “ though there be fully a hundred (persons), a street is
necessary ;” and it is explained to me by Mr. Kittel as meaning that a hundred persons, or more, may be a large
number, but, it their houses are erected unsystematically, one here and one there, there is no proper village, and a
street, along which houses are built in rows, is necessary to constitute a regular village.─ It seems likely that we
have a synonym of mûruṁkêri in another technical expression, mûruṁpura, of which, also, the exact purport is
not apparent. Mûruṁpura would mean, by literal translation, ‘ three towns ;’ but the exact bearing of it is, no
doubt, to be explained in connection with the more special meaning, which pura has, of ‘ a division of a town, a
ward,’ particularly in the actual names of such divisions or words. There was a mûruṁpura at Baḷagâmi. A record
there, of A.D. 1129, likens the pañcha-maṭhaṁgaḷ or five maṭhas of that place, which it specifies as the shrines
of Hari (Vishṇu), Hara (Śiva), Kamalâsana (Brahman), Vîtarâga (Jinêndra), and Bauddha (Buddha), to the five-
fold string of pearls of the Earth, and likens the mûruṁ-puraṁgaḷ, which it calls alliya mûruṁ-kaṇgaḷ or “ the
three eyes of that place.” to three strings of pearls on the neck of that same lovely woman (the Earth), who is
thus superior to even the perfect Lakshmî (P. S. O.-C. Inscrs. No. 178, lines 43 to 46, and see Mysore Inscrs.
p. 90). Also, a record of A.D. 1181, at the same place, mentions a certain Sâvidêva, who is described as ─ nagara-
paṁchamaṭha-mûruṁpurada saudo(?)re-herggaḍe,─ “ the Saudore(?)-Hergaḍe of the nagara and the
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