Page:Epigraphia Indica, Volume 2.djvu/197

ATAKUR INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF KRISHNA III. 167 ( J 7 . 27.) He has placed Tarkshya, 70 [the foe] of serpents and dear friend of Hari, here on the top of this pillar, the .... beauty of which, like that of his own person, attracts the eyes of people, which like his own aspiration rises to an unparalleled height and is firm like his affection, and which clearly is as it were a stake planted in the breast of the Kali age.

(28.) Having roamed to the furthest ends of the world, and hence descended even to the bottom of the lower regions, his spotless fame has risen here in the guise of this Garuda with a serpent in his mouth.

This eulogy was incised by the artisan Vishnubhadra.

This inscription was first brought to notice by Mr. Rice, in 1889, in his Inscriptions at Sravana-Bflgola, pp. 19, 21 (see note 6 below). It is now published in full for, I believe, the first time. I edit it from inked estampages, for which I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Hultzsch.

Atakur is a village about fifteen miles to the north-east of Mandya, which is the head-quarters town of the Mandya Taluka of the Maisur District in Maisur. It is shown in the Indian Atlas, Sheet No. 60, as ' Atcoor,' in Lat. 12° 40' N., Long. 77° 8' E. ; l and it is entered, as ' Atagur,' in the map given in Mr. Rice's Gazetteer of 31ysore and Coorg, Vol. II, pp. 190-91. In the inscription the name occurs in the slightly different form of Atukur. The inscription is on a stone slab, set up in front of a temple known as that of the god Challesalinga, about a quarter of a mile to the north of the village. The temple is mentioned in the inscription, by the name of Challesvara.

Towards the top of the stone there are, in connection with part of the record, the sculptures of a dog and a boar fighting with each other ; the dog is on the proper right, and the boar on the proper left ; they occupy a space of about 3' 2" broad by 1' 6" high. — Below this lies the inscription proper, lines 1 to 19, covering a space of about 4' 11" broad by 4! 0" high. At each side, however, of the boar and the dog, and along the top of the stone, there were left blank spaces, which were subsequently utilised for a slightly later additional record, consisting of four lines, which I have numbered 20 to 23. Lines 20 and 21 run up the proper right margin of the stone, curve round jat the corner, run right along the top, and then curve down into the proper left margin. Line 22 breaks off on the proper right margin with the ppa of ppanneradurh, and continues on the proper left margin, below the ends of lines 20 and 21. Line 23 is a short line, lying below the ends of lines 20, 21, and 22, on the proper left margin. The writing is in a state of fairly good preservation throughout ; and, with the exception of two aksharas in line 4, the whole record can be made out with perfect certainty. The

70 i. e. t he bird Garuda, the vehicle of Vishnu. 1 The name seems to be not an uncommon one. The maps show an ' Atagur,' forty-nine miles north-east of Maisur, and an ' Adagur,' eleven miles north by west of Hassan.