PERSONNEL

  8. The Reader, Mr. H. K. Narasimhaswami, was on tour for about 3 months during which he completed the epigraphical survey of the Cuddapah taluk in the Cuddapah district, besides inspecting a few other select places in the same district and in Bellary, Nellore and Guntur. He visited 130 villages in all and copied 121 inscriptions from 46 villages. The ancient ruined Kēśava temple at Vallūru which he examined is in the Chāḷukyan style, while the sculp- tural and other ornamental features on the outer walls of the main shrine appear to be Chōḷa. At Alidena in the Kamalapuram taluk, he excavated a prehistoric cairn on the hill-side near village.

  9. The epigraphical survey conducted during the year in the Bombay- Karnatak by Mr. R. S. Panchamukhi covered the Ramdrug and Jamkhandi States besides a few selected places in the Bijapur and Dharwar districts. He was on tour for about 3 months and secured 121 inscriptions and obtained on loan a copper-plate from the Rajah Saheb of Jamkhandi. The plate which is circular, is embossed with fine bold Hebrew characters containing some passages eulogising king Solomon’s reign. In the last week of November 1938, he was engaged with me at Hampi in checking in situ certain topographical and icono- graphical details in connection with his edition of the “Guide to Hampi”

  10. The earliest inscriptions in his collection are short labels engraved in characters of about the 6-7th centuries A.D. on the rocky sides of the Southern and Northern forts at Bādāmi recording names or birudas of some important persons possibly connected with the construction of the forts. These read Śrī-Nālpayan, Śrī-Tanuchalvan, Śrī-Gōindan, Vipramanōharn, Śrī-Chitrakā. . .’ etc., In Cave No. III at the place, on the inner side of the over-hanging caves containing the ancient fresco paintings, is found a line of writing in black paint in early Chāḷukyan characters which reads Duṭṭamanōdāruṇa. Close to it is another line of writing, also in paint, in apparent shell-characters similar to the one found engraved on the left side of the front rock-wall of the same cave. These are probably names of the sculptures who executed the elaborate carvings on the caves.

   11. At Rāmatīrtha situated in the thick forest of Muḷḷūr in the Ramdrug State, was discovered an interesting sculpture of a hero in the act of cutting off his head with a small dagger. The inscription engraved on its base, dated in Śaka 895, Śrīmukha, stages that Nālchuga, the younger brother of Adahalekā- ḷamma cut off his head and offered it to god Bhairava.

   12. Among the records of the later Chāḷukya dynasty copied in this region mention may be made of an inscription in the basadi at Guḍigēri, dated in Śaka 994 and belonging to Bhuvanaikamalla Sōmēśvara II mentioning for the first time his chief queen (piriyarasi) Kañchala-Mahādēvī as administering the country from the nelevīḍu Muḷugunda.
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   13. An important inscription at Chikkalgi in the Jamkhandi State belongs to Bijjala of the Kaḷachurya family. It is dated in his 5th regnal year corresponding to A.D. 1157. This record does not mention the then ruling Western Chāḷukya monarch who must be Taila III, but introduces Bijjaṇa with all the imperial titles of his family. In A.D. 1157 and 1158, Bijjaṇa is mentioned as a subordinate of Taila III in some records at Hāvēri, Tāḷgund and Baḷagāmve ; so the omission of the Chāḷukya overlord in the present instance perhaps indicates that independence was assumed by Bijjaṇa as early as A.D. 1157, at least in a portion of the Chāḷukya dominion.

  14. In the course of the survey of the Jamkhandi States, was discovered between Āsaṅgi and Kulhaḷḷi, a hill called Gombi-guḍḍa, containing a number of linear carvings and drawings of fighting bulls with prominent humps and pointed horns, elephants, antelopes, camels, men etc. These pictures are cut about 1 foot, 6 inches deep and some at least are reported to be similar to those found on the hill near Kappagallu in the Bellary district (Bellary Gazetteer, p. 225). Another important discovery in the same region is a much-weathered and withered rock-cut cave near the Śambhuliṅga temple at Kundgōḷ excavated about 25 feet below the ground level. This place as well as its neighbourhood is full of Jaina vestiges and so was evidently occupied by Jaina monks. No. sculptures or other vestiges of art are extant here now. XVI-1-6 2

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