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No. 25.]
INSCRIPTIONS AT ABLUR.
223
pamditar-yvasudhevol=ithn=ê må[t]o Lekulisarett&m=ene Sarvvajña-ka! paruesedaralumbasin). -"the chief disciple of that great saint was the holy Srikanthapandita, who, being but little inferior (in knowledge) to the Omniscient one, shone out excessively in the world just as if, what more could be said ?,- he was 'Akuļisal himself." For Srikantha, again, we have s9 yet no date.
The son and disciple, and evidently the successor, of Srikantha was Sômêsvara. The record of A.D. 1094 names him as his disciple (line 22); and the record of A.D. 1112 names him as his son (line 52). In A.D. 1094, he was the Acharya of the god Nakhareśvara; and his feet were then laved by the assembly of the Pattanasvamin and other representatives of the people of the town, on the occasion of making a grant to that god. In A.D. 1101, as we learn from the Ablûr inscription A., he was at Ablûr, and his feet were laved by the Dandanayaka Govindarasa, on the occasion of making a grant to the god Brahmêsvara of that village. The record of A.D. 1102 describes him (line 49) as the Acharya of the sthana of the god DakshinaKêdârgsvara, and tells us that his feet were then laved by the Dandanayaka RaņarangabhairavaGovindarasa, in making a grant to that god. And in A.D. 1112 his feet were laved by the Påndya Mahamandalesvara Tribhuvanamalla-Kamadevarasa, when another grant was made to the same god. This last record describes Sömêsvara, in line 34, as the Aradhya or family-priest of Kamadevarasa.
The record of A.D. 1129 opens the account of these teachers with a new verse, which runs (line 58 f.)- Muvara-kôņeys-Barntati-dévabra (vra)tan-eseva Parvvat-gval iyol-tån&virbhbha (bbha)visidan=amala-yagð-vibhu Kedåraśakti-papdita-deva[m], "in the famons Parvatavaļi there was born Kedårasaktipanditadeva himself, the lord of pure fame, & devotee of the gods in the Mûvarakoneyasaṁtati." It mentions Srikantha as the disciple of Kedårasakti, and 8ômê variryya as the disciple of Srikantha. After Sômêsvara there came, it tells us, his younger brother Vidyabharaṇa. But he, it says, did not care for any occupation except the steady parsuit of knowledge, and so he transferred all the business affairs of the matha to his own chief disciple V&masakti. In A.D. 1129, however, when the grant registered in this record was made,-namely, the allotment of a village for the repairs and other purposes of the matha,- it was Vidyabharaṇa who was summoned (line 69), and whose feet were laved, by the Western Chalukya king Sömêsvara III., who had then come south to make a state progress through his dominions and was encamped at Hulluniyatirtha.8 Vidyabharana's name was afterwards expanded into Vadividyabharaṇa, by which appellation he is mentioned in the Ablûr inscription O., and line 44 of the Balagâmi record of A.D. 1149.
As far as dates go, the next name is that of Jñanasakti, who is mentioned 88 & disciple of V&dividyabharana in the Ablûr inscription C. This record gives dates for him in A.D. 1180 and 1144. In A.D. 1130 his feet were laved by the Nalprabhu Barmagávunda, when the latter made his grant to the god Brahmêsvara of Abbalúr. In this record there is used a
The vowel in the first syllable of this name is properly the short 4. It was lengthuned here to suit the metre. I record of A.D. 1098 (P. 8. 0.-c. Inacra. No. 167, Mys. Insor. P. 107) mentions (line 31 f.) Srikanthapanditadeva, the Achdrys of the temple of Patiebslinga." But he must have been a different person, it only because the date there given for him is later than the date of Somešvara, the son and disciple of the
értkantha who was the son and disciple of K arabakti. • Mr. Rice (Mys. Incore. Introd. p. 90, note) would allot to him an earlier date, in A.D. 1071, from another record at Bulagami (P. 8. 0-0. Insors, No. 160, Mys. Insors. p. 164). But the person there mentioned (lines 26. 29 2.) was a different person, namely some varapandita, Sthanapati of the god Mallikamodéivars, and a disciple of Chandrabhushanapandita.
• This record was composed by Mallikarjunarya or Mallikarjunabhatta, who describes himself as a servant (kithkara) of some var. In it, be three times (lines 34, 80, 84) speaks of Somesvara med/arvata-mahsdaye. which may or may not morn anything more than simply " master, a leader, of learned people."
Metre, Kanda. • Dig-vijayath-geyyalmonds dakship-dbhimukhan-dgi bandu Hulluniya-lirtthadol-bidan bifu.
