Page:Epigraphia Indica vol 6.djvu/326

260 EPIGRAPHIA INDTCA. [Vol. VI.

0m! Hail! While the Dharmamahdr&jddhir&ja Satyav&kya-Kongunivarma, the lord of KuvaJ&Ja 1 the best of towns, the lord of the mountain Nandagiri, — he who (had) subsisted (like a bee) on the water-lilies that were the feet of the lintel of firmness of character, 2 the sole hero of the world, the glorious Nolambaku}antakadeva-(Mftrasimha n.),'— he who is a hero when he sees an army, he who is a very lion of heroes, he who is daring even without companions, he who is terrible to princes, he who attracts bravery, he who is a very lion to the Chajukyas, the glorious PafLchaladSva, was governing, without any disorder, from the limits of the eastern and the western and the southern oceans with the great river as the boundary (on the north) : —

(Line 5) Hail ! [When it was] Thursday, the second tithi of the dark fortnight of the month Bhadrapada of the Yuvan samvatsara, which was the eight hundred and ninety-seventh Saka year, and when there was the Kanyasamkrfinti, the whole of the five divisions, 4 headed by the Mahdjanas [of the town], being convened, 6 the sellers of betel-leaves.

The subjoined record 6 is in^he KurmSsvara temple at Srikurmam in the Chicacole taluka of the Ganjam district. It is inscribed on the east and north faces of one of the black granite pillars 7 which support the hall enclosing the temple, and is written in clear Telugu characters.

The inscription consists of nine Sanskrit verses in various metres. It mentions first an ascetic Purushottama-mahatirtha, who is represented to have been an incarnation of the god Vishnu (v. 1) and to have composed a commentary (v. 2) which is not known from other sources. His pupil was Anandatirtha, who explained the Vydsasutras in accordance with the principles of the Dvaita school (v. 3) and who bore the title Bhagavatpdddchdrya (v. 5). His pupil Naraharitirtha (v. 8) seems to have been the governor of the Kaltfxga country (v. 6) and to have defended Srikurmam against an attack of the Sabaras 8 (v. 7). On Wednesday, the eighth tithi of the bright fortnight of MSsha in Saka-Samvat 1203, he built a shrine of Ydg&nanda-Nrisimha in front of the temple at Srikurmam (v. 9).

1 This name is usually found with I in the last syllable ; see, for instance, page 43 above, text line 2, Kovnlala, and page 54, line 5, Kdlala. Here, however, we distinctly have /. The vowel of the first syllable, when the name is written in four syllables, is sometimes u and sometimes o. a This and the following two birudat were appellations of the Western Ganga prince Marasimha II.; see Vol. V. above, p. 168. quite distinct, separates the preceding matter (also really a compound) from that compound, and makes it apply to Pafichaladfeva, not to Nolambakulantakadfiva.— As regards my supplying the word "had" before "subsisted," it is to be remembered that Marasimha had either died or abdicated before June- July, A.D. 974 (see Vol. V. above, pp. 152, 168), more than a year before the date of this record. The allusion is to Panchaladeva having served under him in AJ). 971 and 973 (see ibid. pp. 172, 173). 4 Baa ; see page 258 above. k IWu is equivalent to odan*i}du ; see page 68 above, note 6. 9 No. 290 of the Government Epi^raphist's collection for 1896. 1 On the west and south faces of the same pillar is another inscription (No. 291 of 1896) of Naraharitirtha, the pupil of Anandatirtha, which is dated in Saka-Samvat 1215 and records the setting up of images of Bama, Si (4 and Lakshmana in the Kurmeivara temple. • The Sahara* are the savage inhabitants of the forests of the Gafijftm district. Digitized by Google
 * From chaladuttaramga to 6 pa jit i is one word, a compound. The anutvdra of ndiham, which seems to be