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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA Kabbani, in the Nañjanagûḍ tâluka of the Mysore district. Both Nugunâḍu and Navalenâḍu are mentioned in a Western Gaṅga record.[1] This is perhaps the first inscription that has been discovered, concerning the self-immolation of a Śûdra’s wife after her husband’s death. This self-immolation is not identical with the so-called suttee (satî) of Brâhmaṇical usage, according to which a wife, on being widowed, burned herself with the corpse of her deceased husband upon the funeral pile. In this instance there is no pyre (chitâ, chiti, chityâ, the tadbhava-form of which is sidige in Kannaḍa), but a koṇḍa (tadbhava of the Sanskṛit kuṇḍa), a hole in the ground for any fire, especially one for the fire of a burnt oblation. The Śûdras at the time of the present inscription, worshippers of Śiva, probably in most instances disposed of their dead by cremation (instead of which the Liṅgavantas introduced burying), and thus the body of Êcha may have been burned at Talekâḍu, That sahagamana was customary among Śûdras, does not follow from the inscription ; the contrary seems to be proved, as the parents and relations of Dêkabbe strongly oppose her burning herself ; she herself however (who may have been influenced at the time somewhat by Brâhmaṇical notions), seeks to justify her act by pointing out the dishonour that would be brought upon the families by her surviving as a widow. The koṇḍa into which Dêkabbe threw herself was obviously neither at Talekâḍu nor at Pervayal, but at her native place Beḷatûru (where she had gone in the absence of her husband and heard the report of his death), near the house of her own people, and had been filled with kindled charcoal, etc., for presenting funeral oblations.
Malla, the poet who composed the inscription, uses two epithets of a peculiar kind regarding Raviga, the father of Dêkabbe, who had the monument erected, viz. “ a lion to the angry ” and “ powerful over the envious ” (v. 22) ; and at the end (l. 36) the engraver quotes the very same two epithets. Malla also calls himself “ a discus to those among Brâhmaṇas who fret ” (v. 23). It is highly probable that these epithets are directed against Brâhmaṇas who might find fault with the erection of a monument that praised a Śûdra widow as, so to say, a suttee. TEXT.[2]
1 [Ôṁ][3] [||*] Svasti[4] śrî-Chôḷa-râjaṁ sakaḷa-vasudheyaṁ koṇḍu Râjêndradêva[ṁ]
[5]d[ṛi]st-âri-vrâta-ghâtaṁ negaḷe barisam=âr=âge mattaṁ Sak-âbdaṁ vi[stâ]-
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