inscriptions in the hassan district

INTRODUCTION. XXIII
guards brave, the traders wealthy, the fourth caste of unshaken speech, the
women beautiful, the labourers submissive, the temples ornaments to the world,
the tanks deep and wide, the woods full of fruit, and the gardens full of
flowers. On. 2116 states that Ballala-Deva being of full age, established
Narasimha in the kingdom and went to heaven. This was in 1220, as Cn.l72&
states that Narasimha was crowned on the 18th of April in that year. Ballala
was thus at least 55 years of age at his death and had reigned 47 years.
Coincident with his death, it appears, was the self-sacrifice of the prince
Lakshma, recorded on a pillar near the Hoysalesvara temple at Halebid, bearing
at its base the iuteresting inscription Bl. 112. Kuvara-Lakshma was Ballala's
minister and general, cherished by him as his son. "Between servant and king
there was no difference; the glory and marks of royalty were equal in both "
"His wealth and his life Kuvara-Lakshma devoted for the gifts and victories
of vira-Ballala-Deva, and conquered the world for him as far as the southern
ocean." "Of the sixty-four branches of learning there was not one of which he
was ignorant: of only two things was he ignorant,—how to say no to supplicants,
and how to suffer defeat." He had received the decorations of the todar
and the pende (jewelled anklets). His wife was Suggala-Devi, who also wore
a todar on her left foot as a sign of devotion to her husband. He had a
company of a thousand warriors, vowed to live and die with him. He set up
this wra-sdsana, on which, as evidence that Garuda alone was his equal in
fidelity to his master, images of himself and of Garuda were equally engraved
thereon. "While all the world was praising him as the founder of the greatness
and increase of king Ballala and the cause of his prosperity, - the dandesa
Lakshma, together with his wife, mounted up on the splendid stone pillar,
covered with the poetical vira-sasana, proclaiming his devotion to his master:
and on the pillar they became united with Lakshmi and with Garuda." The
sculptures on the pillar point unmistakably to suicide, being all figures of men
with swords cutting off their own arms and legs, and even their own heads 1)
The next king Narasimha II was crowned on the 18th of April 1220
(On. 172b), and in the same year, farther said to be the first year of his reign
(Bl. 116), he and his mother Padmala-Devi granted endowments for the temple
of Kedaresvara at Dorasamudra or Halebid, which had been erected by his
father Ballala-Deva and his father's junior wife Abhinava-Ketala-Devi. From
Bl. 113 it appears that an attack by a Bijjana was repulsed in the same year.
The king's usual titles are as given in Cn. 197 of 1223, namely,—uprooter of
the Magara kingdom, displacer of Pandya, establisher of the Chola kingdom.
He is said to be, by his victorious expedition to the east, in the enjoyment of
a wealth of elephants, horses, jewels and articles never before acquired His
minister was Amita, whose son was Ballala, and this father and son were the
1) This is no doubt also the explanation of Kp. 9 and 10 of later dates (see Vol. IV).