194 Hindu Inscriptiovs, [JAiSr. 



dar of the Nagavansa at Bheiranmati, near Bagalkntali, in Saka* 912, 

 exhibits, under a representation of the sun, a cobra di cnpello snake, 

 with the hood expanded, a Lingam in the centre, and the cow and calf 

 under that of the moon. 



The language employed is for the most part Sanskrit, arranged in 

 slokas of different metres, and containing a considerable mixture of 

 ancient Kanarese words and phrases, many of them now obsolete. 

 Sometimes the Kanarese tongue predominates much more, and a few 

 are entirely in that dialect. The monumental stones are invariably 

 Kanarese. 



It was not until I became possessed of a great number of these in- 

 scriptions, and endea,voured to arrange them chronologically, that I 

 derived any useful results from them. I then perceived that they con- 

 tained historical facts of considerable importance, together with notices 

 of ancient manners and customs, particularly regarding rights of pro- 

 perty and tenures of land, of a very interesting nature. The present 

 paper is confined to a notice of the historical data, as far as tliey have 

 been made out. 



The first object was to make a catalogue raisonne of the whole col- 

 lection, a copy of the most useful portion of which is transmitted, serv- 

 ing as an index, or table of contents to the volumes themselves. But 

 in accomplishing this, several difficulties presented themselves. The 

 inscriptions all commemorate grants of land, money, or the transfer of 

 seignorial rights to temples, gurus,t or religious establishments, or for 

 the preservation of tanks, and public works. Some of these are dated 

 from the Saka year in which they were made, but a great number re- 

 cord only the Samvatsara, or year of the cycle (the Vrihas pati yuga), 

 of sixty years, which, in a period extending over some centuries, indi- 

 cates no definite epoch. Others, again, merely state the year of the 

 king's reign, or that of some petty aera introduced by a sovereign of 

 the time, ambitious of perpetuating his name by founding a new Saka 

 of his own. 



By comparing the whole of these together, however, and making 

 use of such as had the Samvatsara and the Saka years both mentioned, 

 all the other cycle years in the series before and after the ones speci- 

 fied were arranged in their proper places. The results were so satis- 

 factory, and tallied so well with each other, as to establish the convic- 

 tion that the arrangement now offered must be very nearly correct. By 



* This Saka, or, as it is commonly called, Salivahaua Saka, or Era of Salivaliana, 

 commenced a. d. 79. 



i Guru, a family priest, one of a particular sect or order.— Edit, 



