Indian Epigraphy c8.s2.t2.1

c8.s2.t2.1

Among the other languages of the Dravidian group, Kannaḍa appears in inscriptions from the 6th century A.D. An inscription of Cālukya Maṅgaleśa (598-610 A.D.) outside the Vaiṣṇava cave at Badami is one of the earliest records in the Kannaḍa language.³ The Halmidi inscription⁴ of about the end of the 6th century is also written in Kannaḍa while there is a Kannaḍa endorsement at the end of the Aihole inscription⁵ (634 A. D.) which may be slightly later than the main record. The copper-plate grants issued by the Cālukyas of Badami are written in Sanskrit, though most of the stone inscriptions of their age, both official and private, are in Kannaḍa. The introductory part of an inscription⁶ (699 A.D.) of Cālukya Vinayāditya is written in Sanskrit. But its latter part containing the details of the grant is in Kannaḍa which is called Prākṛta-bhāṣā in the epigraph.