8 



TRANSLATION OF INSCRIPTIONS 



in which case his grants commence almost with his reign. He could not 

 therefore have founded Vijayanagar\ if the date commonly assigned for 

 that event is accurate ; and, at any rate, we need not correct that date by 

 the years of Bukka's reign, as on other grounds noticed above, it is little to 

 be doubted that Bukka Raya was not the first sovereign of Vijayanagar. 



All the accounts agree in representing Bukka Raja as an enterprising 

 and successful prince, and as having widely extended the limits of his 

 authority. Circumstances were favorable to his arms ; and, besides the 

 propitious consequences of foreign invasion, it seems likely that the rise of 

 Bukka Raya was favoured by previous internal dissensions on the score of 

 religion, and that his prosperity was founded upon a principle of toleration. 

 His minister Vidyaranya was a Saiva ; one of his generals Irugupu appears, 

 from inscriptions, to have been a Jain ; and in a proclamation, published in 

 the Researches, by the princes Bukka and Harihara, they appear as 

 mediators between the Jains and Vaishnavas, declaring that there is no 

 difference between the two forms of faith. 



In one of Mr. Ravenshaw's inscriptions Bukka is succeeded by his 

 son Harihara, having, it is also stated, a brother of that name. This 

 seems likely from the space through which the grants of Harihara extend, 

 viz. to A. D. 1429. If this were the brother alluded to in other inscriptions, 

 and by Madhava, aSarorya, we should have to assign him a reign of about 

 60 years. Even as the son he reigned a longer time than common, or 

 between 40 and 50 years. 



The 3d sovereign, in two of the lists, is Deva RXya, with this 

 peculiarity in the inscriptions that his grants begin three years before those 

 of his predecessors terminate. This circumstance recurs in the succeeding 

 reign, making it probable that the practice prevailed, which was common 

 in the remote periods of Hindu history, of a monarch's associating with him 



