Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c14.1

c14.1

THE early inhabitants of the country were probably to a great extent, especially on the female side, Nāgas or serpent worshippers, that is, of the cobra, which is the Nāga. Effigies of the cobra are set up to this day at the entrance of every village or town for public adoration, and ceremonial offerings are made to the living cobra. In the Śātavāhana inscription at Banavāsi, of the first or second century, the king's daughter is named Nāgaśrī, and she makes the gift of a Nāga. The province corresponding with the Shikārpur tāluq, said (Sb 263) to have been ruled by the wise Chandra Gupta, was named Nāgakhaṇḍa or Nāgarakhaṇḍa. Some of the minor royal lines in the west claim Nāga descent. Thus, the Sēndrakas were of the Bhujagēndra-anvaya or lineage of the snake king (*IA*. vii. 106), and the Sindas were of the Phaṇirāja-vamśa (Hl 50, 20), which has the same meaning, while the Sēnavāras had the *phaṇi-dhvaja* or serpent flag (Cm 95). Jinadatta, the founder of the Śāntara line, is said to have married a Nāga virgin. The Chōla prince Rājādhirāja is said to have bravely gone down into a cavern, and by his radiant beauty won the hand of the noble daughter of the Nāga race. The professed Janamējaya grants (Sk 45, etc.), which really belong to the twelfth century, are records of donations made to Brāhmans for performing the *sarpa-yāga* or serpent sacrifice, perhaps indicative of a wholesale subjection or extinction of serpent worshippers or Nāgas. Of the Vijayanagar king Harihara II, it is said (Si 95) that his virtues were sung in pleasant stories by the Nāga maidens in Pātāla. Hottenna- Nāyaka of Harati is described (Cl 54) as brother to the Nāga virgins of the Nāga-lōka.