North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF KOLHAPUR

No. 54 : PLATE CVIII
BAMAṆĪ STONE INSCRIPTION OF VIJAYADITYA : SAKA YEAR 1073

.. THIS inscription is on a stone near the door of a Jaina temple at Bāmaṇī, a village 25 miles south-west of Kāgal, the chief town of the Kāgal tālukā in the Kolhāpur District. It was first noticed by Major Graham, who summarised its contents and gave a kind of transcript of its text in his Statistical Report of the Principality of Kolhāpur, p. 381. It was next edited by Dr. Kielhorn, without a facsimile or an English translation, in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. III, pp. 211 f. The inscribed stone is now preserved in the courtyard of the Pārśvanātha basadi near the Śukravāra gate in Kolhāpur. I am editing the record here from an estampage supplied by the Chief Epigraphist for India.

.. “The inscription contains 44 lines of writing which covers a space of about 2’ 10½” (87.63 cm.) high by 1’ 4” (40.64 cm.) broad. At the end of each of the lines 1-3 and 13 one akshara, which in each case can be easily supplied, is effaced, and one or two aksharas, which cannot be restored, are broken away at the end of each of the lines 14 and 15; otherwise, the writing is well preserved. At the top of the stone are some sculptures : immediately above the writing, in the centre, a seated Jaina figure, facing full front, cross-legged, with the hands joined in the lap, and surmounted by a serpent coiled up behind and displaying seven hoods; to the proper left of this figure, a crooked sword or dagger and a cow with a calf; and above these, again, on the right the sun, and on the left the moon‒The average size of the letters is about 3/8” (.95 cm.)[1]‒The characters are Old-Kannaḍa. The language is Sanskrit, except- ing part of line 436 and line 44, which are in Old-Kannḍa. The main part of the text is in prose, but nine verses occur in lines 1-2, 26-31 and 34-43.” As regards orthography, we notice the usual reduplication of the consonant following r in nānārttha, line 1, the substitution of ḷ for l in many places (see Śiḷāhāra, line 2), and the upadhmānīya in a few places such as that before Purudēvasya, line 1. Besides, dhdh is used in place of the correct ddh in sidhdhiḥ, line 10, and udhdhāra, line 19.

.. After an opening verse in praise of the Jaina teaching, the inscription proceeds to give the genealogy of the reigning Śilāhāra king Vijayāditya. It is as in other inscriptions of the Śilāhāras of Kolhāpur, but the names of collaterals except Gūvala (I) have been omitted, and only princes in the direct line are mentioned. Vijayāditya, is mentioned with birudas as in other inscriptions, but their number is much less.

.. The object of the inscription is to record the grant, made by Vijayāditya at his camp at Vaḷavāḍa, of a field which, by the measure of the Kuṇḍi-dēśa, measured one quarter of a nivartana, a flower-garden measuring 30 stambhas, and a house measuring twelve cubits, in the village Maḍalūra in the district of [Pa]ṇaturagegolla, for the worship of gods at a vasati of Pārśvanātha, for the repairs of it and for providing food for the ascetics residing there. The grant was made at the request of the king’s maternal uncle, the Sāmanta Lakshmaṇa, and for the spiritual benefit of his family. The vasati had been constructed by Chōdhorekāma-gāvuṇḍa, son of Saṇagamayya and Chaṁdha. . vvā, husband of Punnakabbā and father of Jantagāvuṇḍa and Hemmagāvuṇḍa. The grant was made after washing the feet of Arhannandi-siddhāntadēva, a disciple of Māghanandi-siddhāntadēva, who is mentioned in some other records of the period[2]. The present inscription gives some more information about him, viz. that he was a pupil of Kulachandramuni and be-longed to the Kundakunda lineage.
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[1] Ep. Ind., Vol. III, p. 211.
[2] See e.g. above, No. 53.