232 



INSCRIPTIONS. 



Durgi, Gandikota, Kandanavolu, and Adaveni. Otherwise 

 not much is known about him. Timmaraja was eventually 

 killed by his nephew Ramaraja. 9 



Timmaraja had four sons, Tirumalaraja, Vithala (or Vitha- 

 lesa), Cinnatimmaraja and Papatimmaraja. 10 The eldest, 

 Tirumalaraja, acquired, it seems, great power ; he was called, 

 like his ancestor Vijala, a Galukya Ndrdyana. 11 At his court 

 lived Konerinatha, the author of the Balabhagavatam, and it 

 was at his patron's request that the work was composed. 

 One need therefore not be astonished that the poet is anxious 

 to praise his protector, but Konerinatha does not seem to have 

 overstepped the limits of truth for the sake of glorification. 



Next to Tirumalaraja, the principal personage in our 

 inscription, Vithala, is the subject of Konerinatha's eulogy. 

 Of him Konerinatha speaks in the following strain : — 



" Yithala, the highest among kings, is a Dharmaraja, 12 who 

 never prevaricates ; aNarayana, who never begs; an Arjuna, who 

 does not recede from the fight ; a spotless moon, that does not 

 lose her brightness ; a sun, which never sets ; an Indra, who does 

 not covet other men's wives ; he is like an emblem of righteousness 

 and the first among worthy men. Krsna not being able to 

 shake off the bond of friendship which existed between him 

 and Arjuna, was born as Vithala, as the fortieth (forty-fifth ?) 

 in his (Arj una's) prosperous family, as the son of Timmabhupala, 

 for the purpose of protecting righteousness. Vithala, the son of 

 Ramaraja Timmabhupala, acts amidst the sound of the war- 

 drum as an impediment to the full flow of the rut, which comes 

 from the crowd of elephants, which belong to the lord of ele- 

 phants (Gajapati), who resides in the city of Kataka, as a 

 destroyer of the pride in their strength of the famous warriors of 

 the Pandya king, as an originator of the shivering of the body of 

 the king of horses (Tukkharapati) of the great fortress of 

 Makkha, 13 and as a source of fear which prognosticates future 



9 See Narapativij., p. 36; Balabhag., p. 9; and Vasucaritram. 



10 See Balabhagavatam, p. 8. 



11 See Balabhagavatam, p. 3. 



12 All these comparisons are allusions to well known legends. 



13 See page 240. — The king of horses also called Asvapati represents the 

 Mahomedans. 



