South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

have been rescued from oblivion is due to, and is a point of special interest in, the present inscription.

In the 7th of the introductory verses of the Harshacharita Bâṇa says :^[1] ─

“ In the North plays on words are mainly admired, in the West it is only the sense ; in the South it is poetical fancy ; in Gauḍa pomp of syllables.”

Judging hereby the present little poem, which the author himself in verse 34 calls a Kâvya, I would say that, taken as a whole, it would certainly be assigned to the West of India. There is in it no pomp of syllables, and little of poetical fancy (utprêkshâ) or any of those other ornaments which lend their charm to the classical Kâvyas. But the author presents to us a vivid picture of the persons and events dealt with, and does so in plain, but vigorous language. This, at any rate, is the case with the verses 4-24. The verses 25-32 are in a different style, approaching somewhat to that of a real Kâvya ; but they mainly contain such conventional phrases as are met with in any ordinary praśasti.^[2]

The inscription was composed and written on the stone by Kubja, under the orders of the king Śântivarman. And its immediate object is, to record that Śântivarman’s father Kâkusthavarman constructed a great tank near a Śiva temple at which Śâtakarṇiand other kings had formerly worshipped (at Sthânakundûra, the modern Tâḷagunda where the inscription is still preserved). The occasion is taken by the poet to celebrate the origin and advancement of the Kadamba family to which Kâkusthavarman belonged, and to give the names of his ancestors.

The^[3] Kadambas were a Brâhmaṇ family, devoted to the study of the Vêdas and the performance of sacrificial rites ; their name, the poet says, they had received from the fact that they carefully tended a kadamba tree which grew near their home. Now once upon a time a member of this family, named Mayûraśaman, went with his guru to (Kâñchîpura,) the city of the Pallavas, to study fully the sacred writings. The poet tells how he became exasperated there with the Kshatriya Pallavas and, abandoning his priestly vocation, took up the sword, ‘ eager to conquer the earth.’ Mayûraśarman defeated the frontier-guards of the Pallavas and occupied the forest stretching to the gates of Śrîparvara.^[4] He levied tribute from the Great Bâṇa^[5] and other kings, and caused much trouble by his raids. The Pallava kings of Kâñchî, finding it impossible to subdue him even when they had taken the field with a large army, and recognizing his valour and ability, then made a compact with him by which he entered their service and eventually received a territory of his own, bounded on the west by the sea and on the east (?) by the (?) Prêhara(?), of which he was anointed chief or king. His son was Kaṅgavarman,^[6] and
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^[1] I quote from the English translation.
^[2] It will be seen from the above that in my opinion this poem, however interesting, is not ‘ written in the highest Kâvya style.’ So far as I can see, its author was better acquainted with the Mahâbhârata than with the Kâvyas which may have existed in his time.
^[3] For the details, see the translation, below.
^[4] Śrîparvata, which we also find in line 1 of the Chikkulla plates of Vikramêndravarman II. (above, Vol. IV. p. 195), I here as there take to be the sacred Śrîśaila in the Karnul district. It is the modern Srisailam, situated on the west of the Eastern Ghâṭs, between them and the river Kistna ; see Constable’s Hand Atlas of India, Plate 34, D. a.
^[5] According to Prof. Hultzsch (South- Ind. Inscr. Vol. III. p. 89) the capital of the Bâṇa dynasty appears to have been Tiruvallam, ‘ as one of its names was Vâṇapuram, and as it belonged to the district of Perumbâṇappâḍi,’ i.e. the country of the Great Bâṇa. Tiruvallam is only about 40 miles west by north of Conjeeveram (Kâñchîpura). It may be noted that the Bṛihad-Bâṇa of our text exactly corresponds to the Tamil Perumbâṇa ; bṛihat apparently forms an essential part of the name, and is not a mere epitheton ornans.
^[6] It is significant that, while the name of the founder of the family, Mayûraśarman, ends with śarma, the names of nearly all his descendants (Kaṅgavarman, Kâkusthavarman, Śântivarman, Mṛigêśavarman, Mândhâtṛivarman, etc.) end with varman. The former is the characteristic ending of a Brâhmaṇ’s name, the latter that of a Kshatriya’s. In the inscriptions of the later Kâdambas Mayûraśarman’s name, too, appears as Mayûravarman ; see my Southern List No. 210.