South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

(V. 34.) And when fifty (and) six and five hundred years of the Śaka kings also have gone by in Kali age ;

(V. 35.) This stone mansion of Jinêndra, a mansion of every kind of greatness, has been caused to be built by the wise Ravikîrti, who has obtained the highest favour of that Satyâśraya whose rule is bounded by the three oceans.

(V. 36.) Of this eulogy and of this dwelling of the Jina revered in the three worlds,^[1] the wise Ravikîrti himself is the author and also the founder.

(V. 37.) May that Ravikîrti be victorious, who full of discernment has used the abode of the Jina, firmly built of stone, for a new treatment of his theme,^[2] and who thus by his poetic skill has attained to the fame of Kâḷidâsa and of Bhâravi !^[3]

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No. 2- TWO KADAMBA GRANTS.
BY F. KIELHORN, PH.D., LL.D., C.I.E. ; GÖTTINGEN.

Both these grants were discovered by Mr. B. L. Rice, C.I.E., Director of Archæological Researches in Mysore, and are edited here, with his kind permission, from ink-impressions made in 1892 by Dr. Fleet from the original plates, which Mr. Rice had been good enough to send to him for examination. Dr. Fleet has placed the impressions at my disposal, and has also supervised the preparation of the accompanying photo-lithographs.

A.─ KÛḌGERE PLATES OF VIJAYA-ŚIVA-MÂNDHÂTṚIVARMAN.
The second year.

These plates were obtained by Mr. Rice at Kûdgere in the Shikârpur tâluka of the Shimoga district of Mysore, and were first publicly mentioned in his Report for 1890-1. A summary of their contents has been already given by Dr. Fleet, in his Dynasties, second ed., p. 290.

These are three copper-plates, the first and last of which are inscribed on one side only, and each of which measure about 6⅝ʺ broad by 3ʺ high. The plates are quite smooth, their edges being neither fashioned thicker nor raised into rims. They are thin ; but, the engraving being shallow, though otherwise quite good, the letters do not shew through on the reverse sides at all. The interiors of the letters, here and there, shew marks of the working of the engraver’s tool. Various marks and faint lines on the margins and between the lines of writing, in my opinion, render it very probably that the plates originally bore another inscription. The ring on which the plates are strung seems to be of brass, not of copper ; it is a plain one, about 3/16ʺ thick and 2⅞ʺ in diameter. It had already been cut when the grant came into Dr. Fleet’s hands. There is no seal, and no indication about the ring of one having ever been attached to it. The weight of the three plates is 13 oz., and of the ring, 1¼ oz. ; total, 14¼ oz. ─ The writing is well preserved. The size of the letters is about 5/16ʺ. The characters are of the ‘ box-headed ’ type of the southern alphabet, and in their general appearance, among Kadamba inscriptions,

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^[1] Or ‘ the preceptor of the three worlds.’
^[2] Viz. the history of the Chalukyas.─ In the original verse observe the Yamakas at the ends of the first and second, and of the third and fourth Pâdas (jinavêśma and ravikîrttiḥ). The locative artha-vidhau is a good instance of a nimitta-saptamî.
^[3] I purposely omit from my translation the line which follows in the original, and which is a later addition to the poem. The first part of it enumerates six villages, the revenues of which apparently were assigned to the temple of Jinêndra founder by Ravikîrti. The concluding part of it, which speaks of boundaries, I do not understand.