October, 1873.]

GADDAK INSCRIPTIONS.

Containing about forty-two letters. This in scription, which is probably of about the same age as the preceding, is rather more legible; in the centre portion the letters are somewhat indistinct, but at the sides and on the upper part of the stone they may be read with tolerable ease. I, however, had no time to read any por tion of this inscription, or even to search for its exact date.

I have not met elsewhere with em

blems similar to those on the top of this tablet; they are very well carved, and represent Krishna playing on a pipe in the centre and many figures of human beings and animals dancing on each side of him.

The remaining inscriptions are in and about

the courtyard of the temple of Trik (, ; 6 Š v ar a dé va,

Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4 stand up

against the back wall of the temple.

No. 1,

the characters of which are Old Canarese, and

the substance of which is partly Sanskrit and partly Old Canarese, consists of fifty lines, each line containing about thirty-seven letters. The inscription is in a state of good preservation, except in one or two places where the sur face of the tablet has been chipped. It com mences with a description of the Agrahāra” vil lage of Krat u ka (Gaddak) in the Belvola

Three-hundred,t and finally records a grant made in Saka 1135, the Angirasa Samvatsara, to

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the Subhakrit Samvatsara, to Trikātésvaradēva, while the great chieftain king Sä bh an a, or perhaps, Só bh an a, was governing the Belvola

Three-hundred, and some other districts, under A h a vam all a dé va. Some doubt is thrown

upon the date of this inscription by the opening portion, which is :—“While the victorious reign of Irivi bhuja ng a dé va, the favourite of the whole earth, the ornament of the Châluk yas, the forehead-ornament of the Satyāśraya kula, &c., was continuing,” and by expressions which represent the chieftain Sã bh an a as being the subordinate of both Irivibhujan g a dé va and Ah a vam all a dé va. Irivi bhujang a déva, or the Chālukya king Sat

y a Śri, flourished, according to Elliot, from Šaka 919tosaka 930 (?); whileå hava malla déva, or the Chāl ukya king Söm é š war a dé va I. flourished, according to the same authority, from

Saka962 () to Saka 991 (?). The portion of this inscription containing the date is somewhat in distinct, but I could not read it otherwise than as

I have given it above. The emblems at the top of this inscription are:–In the centre, a shrine containing a linga with a priest on the right and a figure of Basava on the left of it; to the right, two figures seated,— one of them is a man holding a Vinā or lute, the other is a woman; to the left, a cow and calf; and above the central shrine, the Sun and Moon. No. 4, which is

the god Trikāté$varaděva, while the Yadava prince S in g h an a dév a was governing the country. The emblems over it are:—In the centre, a linga and a priest within a shrine; to the right, a cow and calf with the sun above them; and to the left, a figure of Basava: with the moon above it. No. 2 is the inscription of

the most eastern of this row of inscriptions, is another inscription in the Old Canarese char acters and language. It consists of forty-five lines, each line containing about fifty-one letters. The inscription is not altogether in bad order, but there are many flaws in the tablet, and it is

which a transliterated version and a translation

rather hard to read.

are given below. It will be noticed in detail further on. No. 3 is another inscription in the Old Canarese characters and language. It con sists of thirty-two lines, each line containing about forty-three letters. The characters are large and slanting. The tablet is chipped here and there, but on the whole the inscription is well preserved, though it is not an easy one to

read. It records a grant made in Saka 984,

• A grah Ār a, lands or villages conferred upon Brāh

mans for religious purposes. + i. e. the Belvola district consisting of three hundred villages. Belvola or belpola, an Old Canarese word, means literally ‘a field of standing corn ;' the name was given to the fertile district in about the centre of which are Gaddak,

Dambal, and Lakkundi.

It mentions the names

of the Chālukya kings Jay a simha, Åh a va. malla, and Vikram a ditya II. or Tribhu van a mall a, and and also gives the name of

a princess, Bă chala dévi, who would ap pear to be the wife of Āh a vam alla. The inscription records a grant made in the Vikrama Samvatsara, the twenty-fifth year of the reign of

Tribhuvan am all a déva, i. e. Šaka 1023, by some chieftain subordinate to him. The t B as a va, the founder of the Lingayat religion in its present form, is looked upon as an incarnation of N and i, the bull of Siva. The story of his birth and life is to be found in a Canarese work called the Basavapurána. Ba sava, though in his incarnation he assumed the form of a man, is always represented in Lingayat temples by the figure of a bull, and the name itself is a corruption of the

Sanskrit vrishabha, bull.