South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

resemble most those of the Dêvagere plates of the fourth year and the Halsî plates of the Mahârâja Mṛigêśavarman (Ind. Ant. Vol. VII. p. 37, and Vol. VI. p.24, Plates). As regards individual letters, I would draw attention to the very clear and distinct form of ḍh in dṛiḍha, l. 6 (as compared with the sign for ḍ in Kauṇḍinya, l. 9) ; to the form of the Draviḍian ḷ in Koḷâla, l. 7 ; and to the fact that the subscript t─ while in the conjunct kt it is denoted by the ordinary sign for t (without the loop) used inscription, and in nt by the sign with the loop─ in the conjunct tt is written in both ways, as may be seen e.g. from sva-dattâṁ and paradattâṁ, in line 14. I would lay some stress on this last point, because we have the same two ways of writhing the conjunct tt also in the Dêvagere plates of the third year of the Mahârâja Mṛigêśavarman, in which the single t, as in the present inscription, is always denoted by the sign without the loop ;^[1] (compare ibid. Vol. VII. p. 35, Plate, nivarttanaṁ in line 12, and the same word and dattavân in line 13). For final consonants the full signs, written below the line, are used in dattavân, l. 12, pramâdât, l. 13, and ­–bhâk, l. 16. Final m is written in the same way in siddham, l. 1. ; but in other places where my text shews a final m, that letter is denoted by a small hook, engraved at the bottom of the line.─ The language of the inscription is Sanskṛit, and, with the exception of two benedictive and imprecatory verses, the text is in prose. In respect of orthography, I need only mention that word brahma is written bramha, in line 10. The phraseology of the text is the usual one, except that some rare technical terms occur in lines 8 and 9.

The inscription records that the Dharmamahârâja of (the family of) the Kadambas, Vijaya-Śiva-Mândhâtṛivarman, at Vaijayantî (i.e. Banavâsi), on the full-moon tithi of Vaiśâkha in the second year (of his reign), granted some land at the village of Koḷâla to a spiritual teacher (perhaps the king’s own teacher), named Dêvaśarman. The charter (paṭṭikâ) was written by the rahasy-âdhikṛita,^[2] or private secretary, Dâmôdaradatta.

The genealogy of Mândhâtṛivarman is not given ; and as his name does not occur in the published inscription, his relation to the known princes of the same family cannot for the present be determined with any certainty. But I may say that a comparison of this inscription with the other Kadamba inscriptions would lead me to connect Mândhâtṛivarman more closely with Mṛigêśavarman then with any other Kadamba prince. Palæographical reasons for this statement have been given above. Other reasons are, that both princes, and they only, are described as residing at Vaijayantî ; that one is called Vijaya-Śiva-Mṛigêśvarman,^[3] and the other Vijaya-Śiva-Mândhâtṛivarman ; and that, corresponding to the epithets of Mândhâtṛivarman in the present inscription, anêka-sucharit-ôpachita-vipula-puṇya-skandha and âhav-ârjita-vipula-parama-dṛiḍha-sattva, we have, in Mṛigêśavarman’s inscriptions, anêka-janmântar-ôpârjita-vipula-puṇya-skandha (Ind. Ant. Vol. VII. p. 35, l. 4, and p. 37, l. 6 of the text), and âhav-ârjita-parama-ruchira-dṛiḍha-sattva (ibid. p. 35, l. 5) or naik-âhav-ârjita-parama-dṛiḍha-sattva (ibid. p. 37, l. 10). All this looks to me as if Mândhâtṛivarman might have been either, as a younger brother of Śântivarman, the immediate predecessor of Mṛigêśavarman, or the younger brother and immediate successor of this prince.

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^[1] The case is different e.g. with the Halsî plates of the fifth year of the Mahârâja Harivarman (Ind. Ant. Vol. VI. p. 31, Plate), where the single t is denoted by both the sign without the loop and the sign with the loop, and where tt is written in three different ways (by two signs of t without the loop ; both with the loop ; and the first without the loop, and the second with it).
^[2] The same official title (in Prâkṛit rahasâdhikata) occurs in the Pallava inscription in Ep. Ind. Vol. I. p. 7, l. 50 of the text. The same inscription has another rare term in common with present inscription ; see below, p. 15, note 7. The rahasy-âdhikṛita in other inscriptions is called simply rahasya ; see above, Vol. III. p. 21 note 1.
^[3] See Ind. Ant. Vol. VII. p. 37. ll. 4 and 17 of the text. Mṛigêśavarman is so called also in the Hiṭṇahebbâgilu plates, Ep. Carn. Vol. IV. p. 136, No. 18. The same plates apparently have in common with the present inscription the rare term antahkara-vishṭika, which I have not found elsewhere. (The term parihṛita-paṅgêtkôṭa in the same plates may be compared with sarvva-paṅga-parihṛita─ not sarva-paṅgu-parihṛita, as printed─ in the 5 of the Goa plates of Śaka-Saṁvat 532, Jour. Bo. As. Soc. Vol. X. p. 365, and Plates.)