Local Government in Ancient India c15.31.3

c15.31.3

In this connexion we may refer to the *vīrgals* or hero-stones of Mysore, which mostly record grants of land in addition to commemorating the deaths of heroes. An inscription on the Begūr stone and also a sculpture found in the Bangalore taluk record the death of the commander of the Nāgattara troops in a battle that was fought between the forces of Ayyapadeva and those of Vīramahendra, and also the appointment of his successor and grant of villages to him (A. D. 908–38; see *Ep. Ind.*, vol. VI, p. 45). A second clause in the supplementary inscription on the Ātakūr stone of A. D. 949–50 (see ibid., p. 57) gives another instance of a grant of villages in recognition of bravery in the battle-field to a hero who fought and survived, and we further learn from this record that grants of this kind were sometimes accompanied by the ceremony of washing the warrior’s sword, just as religious grants were usually accompanied by the ceremony of laving the feet of the priest into whose hands the donation was actually given (Fleet, in *Imp. Gaz.*, 1908, vol. II, p. 60). The Ablūr stone of about A. D. 1219 in the Dharwār district commemorates the death of the brothers Māca and Goma fighting valiantly to repel a cattle-raid against their village led by Īśvaradeva of Belagavatti, modern Belagutti, in the Honnāli taluk of the Shimoga district (*Ep. Ind.*, V, 262). The tablets of Kil-Muttugūr, Ambūr (villages in N.