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THREE MAISUR SASANAMS.

Dec. 6, 1872.]

I suggested that these might be the remains of an early Portuguese Settlement.” It has been suggest ed in an article in the Madras Mail, that they are more probably the remains of the early Venetian or Genoese traders, who penetrated to India by the land route long before the Portuguese visited the country. I have heard of the discovery of old

Italian coins in the district, which might throw some light on this matter. I have not, however, been able to trace any. Sir Walter Elliot, who was a most successful collector of coins, may, perhaps, have been more fortunate, and may be in a position to afford some information that may assist in clear ing this doubt.

THREE MAISUR COPPER GRANTS.

Memo. on Certain Copper Grants found during the Settlement of the Indims in the Malnád or Hill-tracts of the Nagar Division. DURING my investigation into the ináms lo cated in the Malnád talukas of the Nagar division, I had occasion to inspect the copper grants held by the Agrahárdárs of the villages of 1. Kuppagadde, Soraba Taluka ; 2. Gauja, Anantapura Taluka ; 3. Bhimanna Katté Matha of the Kāvaledurga Taluka. It will be observed in the translations of the

I.

TRANSLATION OF THE COPPER

GRANT

PRO

DUCED BY THE AGRAHARDARS OF KUPPAGADE, SORABA TALUKA.

ŚLoka I.-Jayatyávishkritam Vishnor. Váráham kshobhitárnavam :

Dakshinonnata damshtrigra. Wishránta bhuvanam vapuhu.

grants for the Gauja and Kuppagadde Agrahāras, which have been rendered by my Personal Assistant, that these grants are said to have been made during the great “Sarpa Yága,” or sacrifice of serpents, though the allusion to the solar eclipse is only made in the grant for the Gauja Agrahára. A copy of this grant was sent some years ago by Sir Mark Cubbon to Colonel Ellis, who was then Political Agent at

The body of Vishnu, incarnate in the form of a boar, on the edge of whose lofty right tusk the earth rested, and which agitated and troubled the ocean, exists in transcendent glory. Emperor Janaméjaya; the refuge of the whole universe ; the master of the earth ; the Mahārāja of Rājas ; the arbiter of Rájas; the great Mahárája; the master of Hastinapura, the Queen of cities ; the

Bundelkhand.

Colonel Ellis asserted that the solar

bestower of widowhood on the wives of the hostile

eclipse alluded to in the grant was that of 1521 A.D.,t and drew the conclusion that the Janaméjaya - alluded to must have been one of the Vijayanagar kings. Colebrooke denounced this grant as a for gery, and declared that the writing was modern, and that the errors in the composition betrayed gross ignorance.: The grant of the Bhimankatte Matha is dated in the 89th year of the era of Yudhishthira, who was the eldest of the five brothers, the sons of Pándu by

princes of Aroha and Bhagadatta ; the sun of the

his wife Kunti or Putha.

This Matha is situated on

the banks of the Tunga and takes its name from a Katte, or anicut, partly natural and partly composed of huge blocks of stone, which Bhima, another of the five sons of Pándu, is alleged to have hurled across the bed of the river so as to form the dam.

I have begun

the translation of the legendary account of the origin of this Matha, but as pointed out by Mr. Narasim

miyengar, the doctrine of Mādhaváchárya was only promulgated between 5 and 600 years ago. What ever may be the origin of the Matha, the dam bears undoubted traces of the wondrous magnitude of the works of those days. Rob. Cole,

Supt. of Inám Settlements, Mysore. 5th August, 1872. • Conf. Ind. Antiq. pp. 186-7. f Wide ante p. 850–ED. f See Colebrooke, Essays, Vol. II. p. 285-ED.

lotus of the Pándava race; the skilful in warfare ;

whose sun-like bow resembled the Kalinga serpent ; the single-handed hero ; the undaunted in battle; the slayer of ‘Asvapatiráya' and ‘Disãpata Gajapa tiráya'; the smiter at the head of Narapatiráya; the terror of Sámanta Mriga Chámara, Konkana and the four quarters of the globe; the famous in Bharata Sástra,S consisting of pure Sálanga, Brah ma, Vína, &c., sprung from the mouth of Brahma; professor of many Sästras, the celebrated professor of the three mantrás (charms) of Korantaka Vyāla Nága, &c., whose lotus-like feet are universally saluted ; the fire of the abodes of inimical dynas ties; the ever-bright; the son of others' wives|| ; the bearer of the flag of the golden boar; the most refulgent in the circle of Rájas ; who is duly adorned ; the descendant of the blessed lunar race; and the son of the emperor Parikshit was reigning at

Hastinapura in the midst of happy and virtuous amusements. During an expedition of conquest, at the confluence of the Tungabhadra and Haridra, at the shrine of Hariharadéva, in the dark half of the month of Chaitra of the year 111, on Monday

combined with" Bharaní Nakshatra, Sankránti and

Vyatipáta Nimitta, on the occasion of Sarpa Yága § Treats of music pantomime.
 * Astronomical symbols.


 * Chaste.