North Indian Inscriptions

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
KOLHĀPUR STONE INSCRIPTION OF VIJAYĀDITYA : ŚAKA YEAR 1065

.. 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.

.. “The 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.”[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
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[1] Ep. Ind., Vol. III, p. 208.
[2] Purudēva was the former name of Bāhubalī, son of the first Tīrthaṅkara.