Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c2: Preface
Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c2
- Language
- English
Preface
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THE present volume is the outcome of researches extending over a number of years. All who have had to do with Mysore and Coorg know the attraction of their grand and varied natural features, their agreeable climate, and their interesting racial characteristics. Indeed, a Kannaḍa poet describes the Hoysala country, that is Mysore, especially the west, as a hand-mirror (or reflection) of Kashmir. Regions so inviting could never have been entirely secluded from the general current of public affairs, but stirring events of recent times had brought them more prominently to notice. Curiosity was thus awakened as to their past. For though their chronicles could perhaps be fairly retraced for about five centuries, earlier periods were more or less a blank. To supply this want it was recognised that an examination was imperative of the inscriptions to be met with in all parts, which furnish almost the only contemporary records for the various periods to which they relate.
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These inscriptions are mostly on either stone or metal. Their primary object is, in general, to record the erection of temples or other public structures, the endowment of gods or Brāhmans with lands and gifts, or to commemorate acts of heroism or self-sacrifice. But occasion is taken to give at the same time details as to the ruling powers of the day, their ancestry and past achievements, and other information invaluable for historical purposes. Those on stone are engraved on natural rocks, on prepared pillars or slabs set up at the spots dedicated, and on the walls of temples and the gateways of forts and other buildings. Those on metal are generally on copper plates of a convenient size, strung together on a metal ring, which is secured with an impression in metal of the royal seal. Being portable, these can be secreted, and thus have often survived when inscriptions on stone have been destroyed.
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To arrive at a just conception of the past annals of the countries, therefore, no better or indeed other way existed than to collect copies of all the inscriptions wherever they could be discovered, and to combine their historical contents into a consecutive narrative. Such has been the task accomplished in the volumes of the *Epigraphia Carnatica* (see list above, p. v), of which the present volume forms a compendium—a convenience for consultation.
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As regards previous efforts in this direction, it is related that the Mysore king, Chikka-Dēva-Rājā, who ruled from 1672 to 1704, had lists and copies made of the inscriptions throughout his country, but this was for the purpose of checking the endowments. The register so compiled was unfortunately one of those in the royal library which, during the usurpation of the throne in the latter part of the eighteenth century, was ordered by Tipu Sultān to be taken for boiling the gram or *kulti* for the horses. On the restoration of the Hindū Rāj in 1799, during the Survey operations conducted at the beginning of the nineteenth century by Colonel Colin Mackenzie, copies were taken of inscriptions to the number of several thousands. But neither would the former of these collections, had it survived, nor the latter, the examination of which would be but labour lost on account of its unreliable
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character, satisfy the critical demands of the present day. Numberless errors have been unwittingly propagated in past times by copies that were not trustworthy of inscriptions and other records.
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The means of obtaining mechanical facsimiles, and the use of the photographic lens, together with a juster appreciation of the absolute necessity of exact and veracious counterparts, have raised the processes of epigraphy to those of a fine art. Scholars seated in their own libraries are thus now placed in possession of the texts in a form that cannot be surpassed for exactitude, and even easier to study than the originals.
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It was in 1865, when Mr. L. Bowring, C.S.I., was Chief Commissioner of Mysore and Coorg, that the services of Major Dixon, an officer skilled in the new art of photography, were engaged to obtain copies by that process of inscriptions in various places easily accessible, where they were known to be numerous, such as Chitaldroog, Harihar, Belgāmi, and the north-west. These, numbering 150, were, in the then imperfect state of the art, taken on a scale so reduced that they could only be read with a magnifying glass, and even so, owing to insufficient cleansing and preparation of the originals, with difficulty. The photographs, however, were eventually, after other efforts to deal with them, placed in my hands for decipherment of the ancient characters and for translation in such leisure time as could be found from my regular duties. My only qualifications for the work were a knowledge of the language and the country. Otherwise it was new to me, and the task was not an easy one, as I was already engaged on extra duty in compiling the first edition of the *Gazetteers of Mysore and Coorg*, published in 1877. But by 1879 I contrived to bring out, in a volume called *Mysore Inscriptions*, translations of all those photographed as above, and of some other inscriptions collected by myself. Archæology had now become a hobby.
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After the Rendition of Mysore in 1881 to the Native Government, on return from serving as Secretary to the Education Commission under Sir W. W. Hunter in Calcutta, I was appointed in 1884, in addition to my office of Education Secretary to Government, as Director of Archæological Researches, being relieved for that purpose of the Police Department, of which I also had charge. In 1886 was published the volume of *Coorg Inscriptions*, and in 1889 the volume of *Inscriptions in Śravaṇa-Beḷgoḷa*.
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So much interest was excited by this work¹ that in 1890, at the instance of the Dewan, Sir K. Sheshadri Iyer, a regular Archæological Department was formed under me. The exploration and copying of all the inscriptions throughout the country on a regular system, District by District, were now entered upon. The work was much interrupted by the outbreak of plague in 1898, and I was otherwise also greatly occupied with bringing out a new edition of the *Gazetteer of Mysore*, published in 1897. But several months each year were spent in the arduous work in camp, and the results of the Archæological Survey continued to appear in successive volumes of the *Epigraphia Carnatica*, according to the list on page v. The last (IX) bears date 1905, but was really issued in 1906. The total number of inscriptions and the magnitude of the whole undertaking far exceeded what had been anticipated either by myself or by the Government, and I am thankful to have been allowed to complete it.
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¹ As it has long been out of print, a new edition is in preparation.
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Of the results obtained by the Survey, the details of which are contained in the volumes above referred to, the present volume is a summary. Their importance has been abundantly
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acknowledged by competent authorities. The history has been traced back, with scarcely a break, to the third century B.C., and former conceptions in regard to it have been considerably modified. A few of the principal items, before unknown, which have been brought to our knowledge may here be briefly mentioned. The earliest in order of time, and among the first in novelty and interest, are the account of the migration of Jains from the North under their great leader Bhadrabāhu, and the statement that he was accompanied by the celebrated Chandra Gupta as his disciple, and that both ended their lives at Śravaṇa-Beḷgoḷa in the Hassan District. These cannot be said to be proved as undeniably true, for they are perhaps now incapable alike of proof or disproof. But there are probabilities in favour of the occurrences as narrated, while they are not discredited by any anachronism. And the crowning discovery by me of Edicts of Aśōka, which placed beyond all doubt the fact that the north of Mysore in his time formed part of the Maurya empire, may also be held to lend support to the alleged connection with this country of Chandra Gupta, whose grandson Aśōka was. A local seat of the Maurya Government had evidently existed for some time at Isila, which is probably indicated by the Sidda of Siddapura in the Molakālmuru tāluq, where the edicts were found.
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The rule of the Āndhras or Śātavāhanas, in succession to the Mauryas, has moreover been established. So also that of the line of Mahāvali or Bāṇa kings, hitherto unknown, has been made clear, together with details of the origin and rise to power of the Kadambas, who sprang from the Mysore country. The Gangas, who ruled over Mysore and Coorg for several centuries down to the end of the first millennium of the Christian era, but whose very name had been lost in oblivion, have been restored to their place in history. The Pallavas, equally unknown before, have now been recognised as a great ruling power in the South, whose dominion was perpetuated in Mysore by the Noṇambas or Noḷambas. The influence of the Chalukyas, especially their western branch, and the important part played by the Rāṣṭrakūṭas or Raṭṭas, who for two centuries supplanted them, have been amply elucidated. The first clue to the chronology of the Chōlas was obtained from Mysore, and the range of their conquests here has been made manifest. In regard to the indigenous royal dynasty of the Poysalas or Hoysalas, who made a name in the South, their place of origin has been identified, and the building up of their power shown in detail. Not to mention the Śāntaras and others, the Changālvas and Kongālvas, lines of kings quite unknown, have been brought to light, and a large blank in the history of Coorg thus filled up.
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For the more modern period, from the establishment of the Vijayanagar empire in the fourteenth century, less ignorance prevailed, but abundance of material has been obtained for adding to our knowledge and correcting previous misconceptions. Most important information has also been acquired regarding Karṇāṭaka literature and other matters which it is difficult to specify in a few words. The volumes of which this is a compendium can vouch for themselves, and I would bespeak for it as favourable a reception as has already been accorded to them.
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HARROW-ON-THE-HILL, Christmas 1908.