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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
No. 24.- THREE INSCRIPTIONS IN THE DHARWAR DISTRICT. A.- AN INSCRIPTION AT DIDGUR. This inscription is now brought to notice for the first time. I edit it, and collotype (see opposite page 253 below) is given, from an ink-impression obtained by me in 1887. Diḍgûr is a village about thirteen miles towards the south-west from Karajgi, the head-quarters of the Karajgi tâluka of the Dhârwâr district. The Indian Atlas sheet No. 42 (1827) shews it as ‘ Dindgoor,’ with a nasal in the first syllable for which it is difficult to account ; and moreover, as compared with the map that I mention next, it transposes the position of it with the position of a neighbouring village named Timâpur. The map of the Dhârwâr Collectorate (1874) shews it as ‘ Deergoor.’ And the Postal Directory of the Bombay Circle (1879) shews it as ‘ Didgur.’ Line 3 of the record, taken in connection with the general purport and with its existence at Diḍgûr, suggests that the earlier name of the place was Mugunda. And the reference to the governor Dosi has the effect of placing Mugunda, and the other village that is mentioned, Saṅgavûr, in the Banavâsi twelve-thousand province. The inscription is on a stone which was found in a field, Survey No. 1 of Diḍgûr.
At the top of the stone there are sculptures, which shew, in the centre, a seated figure, squatting and facing full-front, on a seat of three tiers, and holding in each hand apparently some weapon which looks like a short spear ; on the proper right of this figure, there is a boar, standing to the proper left, i.e. towards the central figure ; and on the proper left there is some animal which, in the drawing submitted to me, looks more like a badly sketched horse or donkey than anything else, standing to the proper right, i.e., again, towards the central figure.─ The extant portion of the writing covers an area ranging in breadth from about 10″ in line 8 to 2′ 3″ in line 2, by about 1′ 9¼″ high. It is in a state of fairly good preservation, and is legible with certainty almost throughout. But, owing to parts of the stone having been broken away and lost, letters are missing at the ends of the lines from line 4 onwards, and at the beginning of lines 7 and 8. And there must have been originally at least one more line, containing the usual end of the imprecatory verse of which there is a remnant in line 8.─ The characters are Kanarese, boldly formed and well executed. The size of them[1] ranges from about ⅝″ in the r of the re in tereya, line 3, to about 1¼″ in the s of sâ in sâsi[ra], line 6 ; and the ḷbi in line 2, No. 17, is about 4″ high, on the slant. The superscript long î is used throughout, for the short i as well as for the long vowel. The distinct form of the lingual ḍ is used ; and it is very pointedly marked in the ḍi of keḍisi[doṁge], line 5, No. 15. There is a final form of the ḷ in line 4, No. 12, in grahaṇa[do]ḷ. As regards the palæography,─ the kh and ṅ do not occur.[2] The j occurs twice, in lines 1 and 3, and, in both places, is of the old square type, closed ; it can be seen best in the ja of mahâjanadâ, line 3, the last akshara but one. The b occurs seven times, and is, throughout, of the old square type, closed ; but the actual form of it, being mostly compared of curves rather than of straight lines, must be looked on as a somewhat cursive form of the old square _____________________________ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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