Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c10.31

c10.31

One of the earliest recorded in the inscriptions was the formation of the tank at Tālgunda in the fourth century by the Kadamba king Kākustha (Sk 176). To the eighth century or before belongs the Vijayādityamangala or Bētmangala tank on the Pālār river, named after the Mahāvali or Bāṇa king who caused it to be made. It breached more than once, as it was restored in about 950 by the Vaidumba king (Bp 4), and again in 1155 by the Hoysala general Chōkimayya (Bp 9). Of the tenth century were the tanks made by the priest who ruled at Āvani in the Mulbāgal tāluq (Mb 65), and of the twelfth century those in the Tumkūr tāluq made by the liberal-minded Kaydala chief who, it is said (Tm 9), supported all the four creeds—those of Jina and Buddha, Śiva and Vishnu. In 1358 we have the account (Ml 21, 22) of a number of tanks made by a Bhaṭṭa or bhāṭ, who also planted lines of trees on the four sides, and performed the upanayana ceremony to the pīpal trees planted at the four corners. In 1653 was made the tank in Channagiri tāluq called Vali Surūr, by the Bijāpur governor Bari Mālik (Ci 43, 44). In connection with this is quoted the verse describing the merit acquired by all who assist in the formation of a tank. It runs thus: "The quail and the boar, the she-buffalo and the elephant, the teacher and the performer,—these six went to svarga." The explanation given is that a quail once scraped a hollow in the ground to nestle in; a boar came and made it larger; a buffalo and an elephant each in turn enlarged it still more; a holy man then pointed out that it could be made into a tank or pond, and the king to whom he gave this advice carried it out. For their shares in this work of merit they all went to svarga or paradise.¹