Early History of the Dekkan down to the Mahomedan Conquest c20.20

c20.20

The Paṇḍit translates this—“Before him was the illustrious king Vaddiga, a Hari on earth, and therefore he was exactly like the illustrious good Bhillama in his actions.” I have already remarked that instead of “before him,” we should have “after him” here. The word तस्मात् is translated by ‘therefore.’ ‘Wherefore?’ I would ask. No reason is given in the first of these lines for his being exactly like Bhillama, and therefore, it will not do to translate तस्मात् by “therefore.” Again, the Paṇḍit’s interpretation of प्रत्यक्षधर्मा as ‘exactly like in actions’ is far-fetched and unnatural. The thing is, the genitive or ablative तस्मिंस्त cannot be connected with any word in the line, and is therefore one of the innumerable mistakes which are to be found in this grant and most of which have been pointed out by the Paṇḍit himself. What is wanted here is the nominative चिसिर्गत for विनिर्गत and then the whole verse applies to Bhillama and तस्मात् will have its proper sense of ‘after him,’ or ‘from him.’ The correct translation then is:—“(After Dhrâhaṇasa) a king of the name of Vaddiga, the predecessor, like a Hari on earth, and after him out of him (he having passed away) came the prosperous great Bhillama in whom virtue was incarnate.”