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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA preserved Jaina pillar[1] (mânastambha).[2] A lithograph of a similar pillar at Vêṇûr is given in Ind. Ant. Vol. V. Plate facing p. 39. Prof. Hultzsch, who has published[3] three of the inscriptions at Kârkaḷa, asked me to edit the subjoined record.[4] The black granite slab on which it is engraved is set up on the proper right of the western entrance into the sanctum sanctorum of the Chaturmukhabasti. At the top of the slab are, in relief, the following sculptures. In the centre, within a maṇḍapa surmounted by a triple umbrella, is a Jaina figure squatting on a raised seat ; the maṇḍapa is flanked on both sides by a lampstand, and beyond the lampstand is the disk of the sun on one side and the crescent of the moon on the other ; below the moon is the figure of a cow suckling its calf. The inscribed surface of the slab, including the erased lines at the end measures roughly 4′ 4½″ by 3′ 2″.
The record is written in Kanarese characters of the period to which the inscription belongs,
between two margins which are marked out on both sides of the slab by two double lines with
a space of ⅝″ between them. These double lines are entered on either margin up to l. 42
where the main portion of the inscription ends. It contains eight Sanskṛit verses (ll. 1 to 8,
l. 15 f. and l. 49 f.) and four short sentences (ll. 1, 3 and 8) in the same language. The remainder
of the inscription is in Kanarese prose. At the end is a diagram, consisting of a square
bounded by a double line. Within this is another square, similarly bounded by a double line
and sub-divided into 25 minor squares with single letters written in each. The diagram
is inserted between ll. 42 and 49 just in the centre of the slab, thereby dividing ll. 43 to 48 into
two equal halves. About a dozen syllables in l. 42, the second halves of ll. 43 to 46, the diagram
itself and the remainder of the inscription are faintly engraved. A few lines at the end
of the inscription are completely erased. Although comparatively modern, the Kanarese
characters in which the inscription is written differ in many points from those of the present
day. Aspirates are not generally distinguished by a vertical stroke added at the bottom
of the letter, except in pha of phala (l. 38) ; da is distinguished from dha, as in old Kanarese,
by a small opening at the right side of the letter ; in bha the aspiration is marked by the
talekaṭṭu and a small projecting stroke at the bottom of the left side, which seems to be the
origin of the vertical stroke of the modern bha ; kha, gha, and tha are distinguished, by their
very form, from the corresponding unaspirates. Chha, ḍha and ṭha do not occur in their
primary form as independent letters, but only in their subscript secondary forms. Cha is differentiated from ba sometimes by the talekaṭṭu alone (e.g. cha of aicharuº in l. 40), and in other cases
by the talekaṭṭu and a slight indenture at the middle of the left side (e.g. cha of ºchaṁdra,
l. 13) ; in modern Kanarese this indenture is projected out into a horizontal stroke. In cases,
however, where the i-curl is added to cha, this horizontal stroke is necessarily introduced. The
same remarks hold good as regards the indenture in the middle of ka. The loop on the left side
of ḍa is not fully developed. Ta and ṭa still preserve their older forms. Sha is, as in old
Kanarese, written like pa, with a small slanting stroke cutting its left side in the middle. Ra,
which is now altogether replaced by the common ra, occurs in 11, 12 (twice), 17, 25, 27, 28,
[1] South Canara Manual, Vol. I. p. 19.
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