inscriptions in the hassan district

X INTRODUCTION.
to himself this is heroic soil, a holy rishi in his fear of the tiger called out as
above, and before it could step a span (#6n), Sala slew it with his dagger (gGri).
This is in accordance with the Hoysala crest (see illustration). Hn. 65 gives
substantially the same account, but omits the hare, and says the muni wanted
to test Sala's bravery. Ak. 71 says that Sala was prostrating himself to the
holy yogindra, who was an adept at incantations, and pleased with Sala he
resolved to give him an empire. For this purpose he was performing the necessary
rites to bring the goddess Vasantika of Sasakapura into his power, when, in
order by any me'ans to break the spell, she sprang forth in the form of a tiger;
on which the yogi uttered the exclamation and Sala killed it with his cane
(betta). Bl. 112 is to tho same effect, but calls it a cane rod (bettava sele).
Ak. 82 gives sele in the body of the inscription and explains it by betta in the
margin. Ak. 108 calls it kxmchada sele, the rod of the yogi's fan or whisk,
which is properly a bunch of peacock's feathers. It also adds that he had
uttered a spell into it. By cane must not be understood a schoolmaster's ferule
or horseman's switch, but the solid bamboo rod (called danda) of an ascetic !) ,
at the top of which in the case of a Jam the kuncha or bunch of peacock's
feathers might be tied. The only other variation is in Bl. 74 which calls it a
salakif properly an iron rod, which is not admissible for a Jain; but it may
also mean a pointed stick. The seals of some of the copper plates give the
crest as the tiger and the rod, and this also appears on the coins.
The earliest inscriptions in this volume are those relating to Nripa-Kama
Poysala, hitherto unknown, whose discovery was brought to light in Vol. VI
(Introd. p. 14). We there had in Mg. 19 an inscription of his 7th year, without
any date. In the present volume we have three dated inscriptions relating to
him. The first is Mj. 43 of 1022 where he appears repelling an attack by
the Kongalva king The enemy's general Kannama seems to have singled out
the king as his opponent, but the Poysala general Jogayya came to the rescue
by charging against Kannama's horse and killing him, but lost his own life
too. In Ag. 76 we find the Kongalva king again attacking Poysala, here
called the base (munda) Poysala, in 1026, and claiming a victory over him in
a battle at Manni. In Mj. 44, a year later, Nripa-Kama appears as helping
to oppose some one (the name is gone) who had attacked Banavasi, that is the
Kadambas. The relation in which this king stood to the rest of the Hoysala
kings according to their oft-repeated genealogy is made clear by Ak. 167 of
1154, and Ak. 141 of 1159, in which it is stated that Vinayaditya wa"s his son
(atana taneya), and in Ak. 142 of 1162, in which Vishnu varddhana is said to
be his son's son (atana ta[ne]yana taneya) 2), . In all three he is mentioned
l ) The feat is not inoredible, for we see in Mj.lO that a man killed a tiger with his flat.
2) This is not strictly correct, as Ejeyanga was the son of Vinayaditya and father of Vishnu
But he did not reign, having died before his father.