October, 1873.]

GADDAK INSCRIPTIONS. 297 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 T r i k u fc e s - varadeva. 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 Agrahara* vil¬ lage of Kratuka (Gaddak) in the Be 1 vo 1 a Three-hundred,t and finally records a grant made in Saka 1135, the Angirasa Samvatsara, to the god TrikutesvaradtJva, while the Yadava prince S inghanaddva was governing the country. The emblems over it are :—In the centre, a Imga 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 J with the moon above it. No. 2 is the inscription of which a transliterated version and a translation 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 aud slanting. The tablet is chipped here and there, bat 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,

• Agrahftra, lands or villages conferred upon Brah¬

mans for religious purposes. t e. the Be’vola district consisting of three hundred villages. Beh'ol'i- or belpola, an Old Canarese word, means literally ‘a field of standing corn tho name was given to the fertile district in about the centre of which are Gaddak, Dambal, and Lakkundi. the Subhakrit Samvatsara, to Trikut^svaradeva , while the great chieftain king Sabhana, or perhaps, S 6 b h a n a, was governing the Belvola Three-hundred, and some other districts, under Ahavamalladeva. Some doubt is thrown upon the date of this inscription by the opening portion, which is :—“ While the victorious reign of Irivibhuj angadeva, the favourite of the whole earth, tho ornament of the C h a 1 u k- yas, the forehead-ornament of the Satyasraya- kula, &c., was continuing,” and by expressions which represent the chieftain Sabhana as being the subordinate of both I r i v i b h u j a n- gad£va and Ahavamalladeva. Irivi¬ bhuj angadeva, or the Chalukya king Sat- y a s r i, flourished, according to Elliot, from Saka 919 to Saka 930 (?) ; while A ha vamalladfiva, or the Chalukya king Som5svaradevaI. flourished, according to the same authority, from Saka 962 (?) 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 Vini 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 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 rather hard to read. It mentions the names of the Chilukya kings Jayasimha, Ahava- ma 11 a,and Vikramadityall. orTribhu- vanamalla, and and also gives the name of a princess, Bachaladevi, who would ap¬ pear to be the wife of A ha v am alia. The inscription records a grant made in the Vikrama Samvatsara, the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Tribhuvanamalladeva, i. e. 6aka 1023, by some chieftain subordinate to him. The J Basava, the founder of the LingAyat roligion in its present form, is looked upju as an incarnation of Nandi, the bull of S i v a. Tho story of his birth and life is to be found in a Canarese work called the Basav ipur In i. Ba¬ sava, though in bis incarnation lie 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 Sauskfit vrishabha, bull.