South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

VOLUME VI.

No. 1.- AIHOLE INSCRIPTION OF PULIKESIN II. ; SAKA-SAMVAT 556.
BY F. KIELHORN, PH.D., LL.D., C.I.E.; GÖTTINGEN.

This inscription is on the east side-wall of an old temple called Mêguṭi, at Aihoḷe in the Hungund tâluka of the Bijâpur (formerly Kalâdgi) district.^[1] It was first edited, with a photo-lithograph, by Dr. Fleet in Ind. Ant. Vol. V. p. 67 ff., and a revised version of the text and translation, with and improved photo-lithograph, has been given by the same scholar, ibid. Vol. VIII. p. 237 ff., and Archæol. Surv. of West. India, Vol. III. p. 129 ff. I re-edit the inscription at the suggestion of, and from an estampage supplied to me by, Dr. Fleet himself, who was anxious to publish the accompanying photo-lithograph which is the first true facsimile of this record. In common fairness I am bound to state that Dr. Fleet’s edition, published more than twenty years ago, was an excellent piece of work, which has been of great assistance to me ; and I would wish it to be understood that I consider any improvements in the reading or interpretation of the text which I may be able to offer, to be mainly due to the rapid advance of Indian epigraphy, brought about to no small extent by Dr. Fleet’s own exertions.

The inscription contains 19 lines of writing, of which nearly the whole of line 18 and the short line 19 apparently are a later addition of little importance, which may be left out of consideration in these introductory remarks. The writing covers a space of about 4ʹ 9½ʺ broad by 2ʹ ½ʺ high ; it is well engraved, and generally in an excellent state of preservation. The size of the letters is between ½ʺ and ⅝ʺ. The characters belong to the southern class of alphabets ; they are of the regular type of the characters of the Western Chalukya records of the period to which the inscription belongs. Of initial vowels, the text contains the sings for a, â, i and u, and of the sings of the ordinary Sanskṛit consonants, all excepting ḍh ; but chh, ṭh and the rare jh^[2](in =ôjjhati, l. 7) occur only as subscript letters. The alphabet also includes the signs of the jihvâmûlîya (e.g. in Ravikîrttih=kavitâ- at the end of line 17), the upadhmânîya (e.g. in yah=prabhavaḥ=purusha-, l. 1), and the Draviḍian ḷ (e.g. in Mâḷava-, l. 11, and puḷina-,

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^[1] See Revised Lists of Antiquarian Remains Bombay Pres., p. 183.
^[2] It is strange that none of the published palæographic Tables should give a single instance of the southern form of jh from an inscription. The form of the subscript jh used in the present inscription is almost identical with the one employed in the first Cambodian inscription (in the word ujjhita in line 7, Inscr. Sanscrites du Cambodge, p. 13, and Plate), the alphabet of which in other respects essentially differs from that of the Western Chalukya inscriptions.