South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

the Banavâsi twelve-thousands, the Beḷagali three-hundred, the Kundarage seventy, the Kundûr five-hundred, and the Purigere three-hundred :─

(Line 8) Kundaṭṭe, the son of Baṅkêya, while governing the Niḍugundage twelve, said to Baṅkêya─ “ Let there be a religious grant ;” and Kundaṭṭe the Râpa, being convened,^[1] gave one mattar of garden-land and five mattars of cultivable land to the god Mahâdêva of the temple of Kuppaṇṇa the Pergaḍe of the Niḍugundage twelve.

(L. 13) On Malda giving his own share, that same honourable Kuppa caused the temple to be made ; and, while Śaṁkara was holding office as Nâlgâmuṇḍu, Gâḍiyamma, protecting that property, acquired it so that it continued unimpaired, free from all molestation.^[2]

(L. 16) To him who protects this, there shall accrue the reward of performing an aśvamêdha-sacrifice at Vâraṇâsi ; to him who destroys it, there shall attach the guilt of the great sin of destroying a thousand brown cows or a thousand Brâhmaṇs !

(L. 19) Durgadâsa prepared this stone.

At the top of the stone.

(L. 20) Let there be reverence ! The honourable one, the saintly Viṇakadêva, did a kindness to the whole . . . . . . . ,^[3] and obtained this property.

* * * * * *

The family-name of the Râshṭrakûṭas of Mâlkhêḍ.

To my previous paper on some of the records of the Râshṭrakûṭa kings of Mâlkhêḍ, in Vol. VI. above, p. 160 ff., I attached some notes on a few special points, chiefly in connection with the names, birudas, and other appellations of the various members of that family. Eventually, we shall consider some wider questions, such as the antiquity that may be assigned to the Râshṭrakûṭa stock, the extraction of the Râshṭrakûṭas, the period and localities in which they first came to the front as a ruling power, and the distribution of them in later times as indicated in the first place by epigraphic records, and in the second place by the existence of tribes and clans who now claim to be of Râshṭrakûṭa descent. Meanwhile, I deal now with some more preliminary points.

In line 13 of the Sirûr inscription A.D. 866,^[4] as also in the corresponding passage in line 16 of the Nîlgund inscription of the same date,^[5] the family-name of the Mâlkhêḍ dynasty is presented to us, in the formal praśasti or eulogy in Kanarese prose which introduces the practical details of the record, as Raṭṭa, in the description of Amôghavarsha I. as Raṭṭa-vaṁś-ôdbhava, “ born in the race of the Raṭṭas, or in the Raṭṭa race.”^[6] And these two passages are earliest known passages which present the name Raṭṭa.

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^[1] Ildu is equivalent to ­oḍan=ildu ; see Vol. VI. above, page 68, note 6.
^[2] This passage, the construction of which is not grammatical seems to recite the previous founding of the temple, and the original endowment of it.─ The meaning of nile is not quite certain ; but the word seems to be a form of the infinitive of nil, nilu, in the sense of ‘ to stand or last, to continue unimpaired.’ A very similar expression, nila mâḍisidoṁ, occurs in line 46 of the Hebbâḷ inscription of A.D. 975 (Vol. IV. above, p. 354) ; nila,
also, is a form of the infinitive of nil, nilu.
^[3] The meaning of the word at the beginning of line 23 is not known.
^[4] Page 206 above.
^[5] Vol. VI. above, p. 103.
^[6] It is convenient to speak of “ the Raṭṭa or Râshṭrakûṭa race, lineage, or family,” and of “the Raṭṭa or Râshṭrakûṭa kingdom, rule, or sovereignty.” And we meet with the actual expression Raṭṭ-âhvayô vaṁśaḥ, “ the race which has the appellation Raṭṭa ;” see page 218 f. But the exact analysis of all such compounds as Raṭṭa-vaṁśa, Râshṭrakûṭa-kula, and Raṭṭa-râjya, etc., seems to be Raṭṭânâṁ vaṁśa, “ the race of the Raṭṭas.” Râshṭrakûtânâṁ kula, “ the family of the Râshṭrakûṭas,” and Raṭṭânâṁ râjya, “ the kingdom, rule, or sovereignty of the Raṭṭas,” and so on ; compare the expressions vaṁśô . . . . Yadûnâm and Yadu-kula on page 37 above, text line 8, 9, and 9-10, and Yadôr=anvayaḥ and Yadu-vaṁśa in Ind. Ant. Vol. XII. p. 264, text lines 4 and 6-7. .