INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF KOLHAPUR
shall incur the great sin of killing his own eldest son at the holy places sacred to Āditya (the
Sun) and eating from his skull.
..(Lines 41-43) Hail ! While the illustrious Mahāmaṇḍalēśvara Vijayādityadēva is reigning
from the permanent camp at Vaḷavāda, being engaged I present conversation‒
..
(Lines 43-49) Bhāyipayya Nāyaka, the Mahāpradhān and Controller of Customs, and
Māḷapayya Nāyaka, the Superintendent of markets of the District of Miriñje, who are
dependent on his lotus-like feet, have donated the following dues for the offerings in worship
of the god Mādhavēśvara, (whose temple has been) constructed by the Sāmanta Mādirājayya, the Prabhu of Sēḍambāḷ, and for the provision of food to the ascetics of that place,
on Thursday, the 10th (tithi ) of the dark fortnight of Māgha, on the occasion of the
festival of Śivarātri, after washing the feet of Sōvarāsi Siddhantideva, the priest of the
monastery of that god, and after pouring out water‒
..
(Line 49-54) For the shops built within the town east of the rivulet flowing on the
east of Sēḍambāḷ, the oil-men (and) the shopkeepers shall give in the paddy-market, excluding the house-tax, a pitcher of oil, a pomma on loads of betel-leaves, and the miscellaneous
dues, (and) half the dues inclusive of the tolls on bags of various kinds of grains, (and ) one
hundred and fifty superior areca-nuts on each bullock-load of the nuts tightly filled ; the tool-
collectors on duty in the revenue office shall give every month one eighth on each gold coin.
..
(Here follow a benedictory and an imprecatory passage about the preservation and the infringement of
the gift respectively.)
..
No. 53 : PLATE CVII
..
THE inscription was found on a stone in front of the Jaina temple near the Śukravāra
gate of the city of Kolhāpur. An imperfect account of its contents with an indifferent
facsimile is given in Major Graham’s Statistical Report of the Principality of Kolhāpur, p. 358.
The inscription was edited, without a facsimile or an English translation, by Dr. Kielhorn
in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. III, pp. 207 f. I am editing the record here from an estampage
supplied by the Chief Epigraphist for India.
..
âThe inscription contains 31 lines of writing which covers a space of about 2’ 3” (68.58
cm.) broad by 2’ 1” (63.50 cm.) high, and is in a perfect state of preservation. Above the
writing are some sculptures ; in the centre a seated Jaina figure facing full front, on its proper
right a cow with a calf, and on the left a crooked sword or dagger ; and above these on the right
the moon, and on the left the sun.‒The average size of the letters is about 11/2” (1.27 cm.)‒
The characters are Old-Kanarese.â[1]
..
The language is Sanskrit up to the middle of line 28. Thereafter, there is a verse in
Old-Kannaḍa. The Sanskrit portion opens with two verses in praise of the teaching of Jina
and of the Arhat Purudēva[2]. This is followed by the prose portion, giving first the genealogy of the reigning Śilāhāra king Vijayāditya, and then the particulars of the grant made
by him, with an appeal to future rulers for the preservation of the gift. The record contains
some Kannaḍa words including some royal birudas. As regards orthography, the consonant __________________
Ep. Ind., Vol. III, p. 208.
Purudēva was the former name of Bāhubalī, son of the first Tīrthaṅkara.
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