North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SILAHARAS OF KOLHAPUR

No. 55 : PLATE CIX
SHĒḌBĀḶ STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE REIGN OF VIJAYĀDITYA : ŚAKA YEAR 1075

.. THE stone bearing this inscription is set up in the Basavaṇṇā temple at Shēḍbāḷ, a village in the Athaṇī tālukā of the Beḷgaon District in the Karnāṭaka State. Its transcript together with an English translation was first published by Prof. K. G. Kundangar in his Inscriptions in Northern Karnāṭaka and the Kolhāpur State (1939), No. 34. It was subsequently very briefly noticed in the Annual Report on Indian Epigraphy for 1953-54, p. 36, No. 187. It is edited here from an estampage supplied by the Chief Epigraphist.

..The inscribed portion of the slab measures 50.60 cm. in breadth and 31.75 in height. It is considerably damaged. Consequently, some aksharas at the end of lines 6-10 have been lost. Besides, a crack has damaged some more in lines 1 to 5, while a few aksharas have become more or less indistinct here and there. About the general content of the inscription, however, there is no doubt.

.. The characters are of the Old-Kannaḍa alphabet of the twelfth century A.D. The language is a mixture of Sanskrit and Kannaḍa. The first twenty-three lines and a part of the twenty-fourth are in Kannaḍa. The record ends with an imprecatory verse in Sanskrit in lines 24-26 about the fate after death of the person who would violate the gift. The orthography does not call for any remarks.

.. The inscription refers itself to the reign of the Śiḷāhāra king Vijayāditya, who ruled over the former Kolhāpur State and the surrounding territory. It is dated Chaitra śu. di. 5, Ādityavāra (Sunday), Śaka year 1075, the cyclic year being Śrīmukha [1]. This date, for the Śaka year 1075, corresponds to Sunday, the 1st March, A.D. 1153, on which day the fifth tithi commenced 11 h. 45 m. after mean sun-rise. The cyclic year was Śrīmukha according to the southern system. This date falls in the reign of the Śilāhāra king Vijayāditya. The King bears the usual birudas of the Śilāhāra kings and is described as ruling from his camp at Vaḷavāḍa.

.. The object of the inscription is to record that certain taxes imposed ad valorum were assigned to the (local) assemblies of guilds by the goldsmith Nāgōja and Reva-gāvuṇḍa. Again for each marriage celebrated locally a tax on cloth sold by the traders’ guilds at the rate of one visā per honnu was also assigned apparently to the same assemblies. These taxes were to be distributed equally between the basadi and the temple at the place by Reva- gāvuṇḍa in consultation with the assemblies of the guilds.

.. There is only place-name in the present record, viz. Vaḷavāḍa, which has already been identified. [2]

TEXT [3]

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[1] Kundangar also read the date as Śaka 1075, Chaitra, fifth day of the half, and took it as corresponding to either Monday, 22nd March, or Saturday, 8th March. He further remarked that both the dates were possible as no other factors are given. But the record has, in line 12, Ādityavāradandu, which clearly shows that the day intended was Sunday. This date appears to be regular for Śaka 1075 as shown above.
[2] I am indebted to Dr. G. S. Gai, the Chief Epigraphist, for the transcript and translation of this inscription.
[3] From an estampage kindly supplied by the Chief Epigraphist.
[4] Expressed by a symbol.
[5] The akshara स is written above the line.