South Indian Inscriptions

TOURS OF THE SUPERINTENDENT AND THE ASSISTANTS

  52 villages in all and secured copied of 128 inscriptions. In four villages he also conducted some trial excavations in prehistoric sites known as Vāliyaṅkāḍu or Vāliyantiṭṭu and secured specimens of ancient pottery therefrom. Among the places inspected by him, mention may be made of the Śiva temple at Elavānāśūr which contains early images of Gaṇapati, Kāḷi, Subrahmaṇya and a standing Durgā with a deer behind. The temple here stands on an eminence formed of a boulder shaped into a platform to a height of about 10 feet. Tradition has it that this temple with its extensive outer prākāra surrounded by high stone-walls all round which are further raised to a few feet by mud walls, was once used as a citadel. The temple is in fact in the middle of a fort surrounded by a deep moat, the vestiges of which can now be seen in a few places. A furlong or two to the south-east of the temple, near the margin of the fort is a boulder about 12 feet in height with the figure of Hanumān cut in bold relief to the full height of the boulder. The figure is represented as trampling under foot a demon said to be Rāvaṇa’s son Akshaya. A temple has been erected over and round this image and worship is being offered to the deity.

  9. The Second Assistant was on tour for about 2½ months from 4th Decem- ber 1937 to 25th February 1938 with short intervals during the period. He visited 28 villages in the South Arcot, North Arcot and Trichinopoly districts including four villages in the last which were jointly inspected by him and the Tamil Assistant. He also accompanied me to a few important places like Trichinopoly, Karūr, Pugaḷūr and Nāmakkal.

   Chittamāmūr in the South Arcot district, one of the places inspected by him, deserves special mention. The Jains shrine of Malainātha at this village contains some very good freizes of figures of Bāhubalin,. Pārśvanātha, Mahāvīra, Mallinātha and Yakshis cut in a series of panels on the rock surface. They are finished in beautiful detail and are comparable with Pallava sculptural art of the 8th century A. D.

   10. The Tamil Assistant visited a few villages in the Chittoor district early in December 1937 and as stated above, worked with the Second Assistant in the Trichinopoly district from the 21st January to the 25th February 1938. He started again on the 5th March 1938 to the Tirukkoyilur taluk to relieve the Senior Assistant in the epigraphical survey of the taluk and returned to Madras on the 16th March after visiting 13 villages in the taluk. The total collection of both the Second and the Tamil Assistants, comes to 242 inscriptions.
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   11. The Reader was on tour from the 20th September to 29th November 1937, during which period, besides completing the epigraphical survey of the Kamalapuram taluk of the Cuddapah district, he inspected six other villages in the same district and 5 villages in the Kurnool district.

   Tippalūru in the Cuddapah district is important, as containing the earliest Telugu inscription known so far. Besides it has a temple dedicated to a group of three goddesses known as ‘Mugguru-Akkalamma’. This is a group of three female deities seated side by side with one leg of each hanging down, and represented with their respective lāñchhanas of a scorpion, a fox and a lion. Similar sculptures have been found at Indukūr and a few other places in the Kamalapuram taluk and seem to be a peculiar feature of these tracts. In the Saṅgamēśvara temple at Animala in the Kurnool district, are found in the ceiling of the maṇḍapa some paintings of royal personages which are now faded and have partly also peeled off.

   12. In the Bombay-Karnatak, the epigraphical survey of the Indi taluk of the Bijapur district was completed during the year by the Telugu assistant, who was on tour in this region for a little more than 3 months from the 18th