Thursday, March 8, 2018

401. Inscription stones of Bengalore



Inscription stones of  Bengalore is an enthusiastic  project group  dedicated to the preservation of historical inscriptions located in and around Bengaluru. Shri Uday Kiumar and Vinay Kumar on behalf of the group presented interesting information on the importance of preserving, studying and understanding the inscriptions of Bengaluru recently (4-3-2018) at the Centre for Internet & Society at Domlur, Bengaluru. (You can find the facebook page on #InscriptionStonesOfBangalore.)

Inscriptions
Inscriptions are ancient memorials that provide windows into the bygone history of the land. Many of the inscriptions directly or indirectly throw invaluable light on the status of land, language, customs and circumstances of the period of erection of these stones.
In those days, the death in war or by sacrifice was glorified with the promised expectations of glamorous benefits in the life after death.
An enticing Sanskrit couplet explains thus:

Jitena labhyate laxmiamritenapi surangana
Kshana vidhvansini kaaye kaa chintaa maranerane.

(Victory in war begets opulence; or else,   if martyred you get divine beauties. Why do you worry,   in the battle field to discard your body,   which anyway is destroyable within a moment.)

Martyr stone inscriptions
The historical inscriptions preserved in Karnataka region are mostly served as
(1) Martyr stones (Veeragallu, hero-stone) erected during the past history are usually written and erected in honor of legendary heroes laid their life in the service of public or the State.
(2) Mastikallu (stones honoring immolation of women of the martyred heroes along with (sahagamana) or after the death (anugamana) of her husband.
Or other types of martyrs such as
 (3) Ooralivu (died during defending the village)
(4) Gadi-kalaga ((died during defending the border of the State)
(5) Go-grahana/ Turugol ((died during defending the cattle)
(6) Pendirdadeurchu/Penbuyyal ((died during defending the women)
(7) Bete (died during hunting)
(8) Keelgunte (self burial)
(9) Siditale (sacrifice by blasting the head)
(10) Nisidi (self sacrifice in a holy place or occasion-especially in Jain monks) etc. (source: Karnataka itihasa academy .org).

Mysore Archeological Department
Benjamin Lewis Rice, the early British Director of Mysore Archeological Department studied, compiled facsimiles of hundreds of stone and copper plate inscriptions distributed all over the region of old Mysore State and published them in the form of volumes of  Epigraphiya Carnatica during 1898. The work was continued by other officers of the department. Rice (1898) reported some 1023 inscriptions from Bengaluru Taluk of which  merely  some 30 have survived and traceable now.
Begur inscription 890 Ce, Bengaluru

Begur inscription
One of these inscriptions found at Begur (South-eastern part of the modern Bengaluru city, near Electronic city) and dated at the end of ninth century (890 CE) is interesting as it contains probably the oldest documented   reference to the city of Bengaluru.
The inscription reads:
“Srimat Nagatarana manevagati pervona shetti Bengalura kaalegadol Nagatarana magmaam buttana pati sattam.”

 The inscription was discovered by R. Narasimhachar, an officer in charge of  Mysore Archeological Research, in the year 1915.

Bengaluru-Bangaluru
A printed post card containing the photograph and description of the  celebrated Begur  inscription, with chalk markings for enhancing the chiseled letters, was provided by the  Uday-Vinay  presentation team of #InscriptionStonesOfBangalore. One interesting point is that the photograph of the 890 CE Begur inscription shows the place name of Bengaluru  as Banguluru.

Vengaluru
Surprisingly the ancient inscriptions of Bengaluru can be found in Tamil and Telugu apart from Kannada, which indicates that the region was multilingual even during the past.  About six kilometers from Begur, in the Someshwara temple located at Madivala the outer wall of the temple contains an inscription written in Tamil and Grantha scripts dated at 1247 CE. The Tamil inscription contains reference to Vengaluru which is clearly the Tamil pronunciation of Bengaluru.

Benda kālur: a recent interpretation
So far it was in vogue that the place name Bengaluru was derived from the phrase “benda-kaalu-ooru “( literally: the village of boiled beans).  However, the discovery of the Begur and Madivala inscriptions refutes this hypothesis of the village of boiled beans, since the place was known as Bangaluru as early as 890 CE and Bengaluru or Vengaluru even during 1247 CE.
 Thus the interpretation of the village of boiled beans appears an imaginary hypothesis  of relatively recent origin and  does not have support in the ancient inscriptions.

Bengal+uru
The Begur inscription of 890 CE has documented the name of the city as Banguluru  or Bangaluru which has far reaching historical  implications than apparent.
First of all. it shares  analogous name with Bengal (or the Bangal) since Bengaluru (or Bangaluru )r represents Bengal + uru. (or Bangal+uru ), suggesting socio-cultural ties between the two regions in the antiquity.

Banga tribes
Beng+al (or Bang+al) is a ethnonym, evidently named after the now forgotten ancient Banga tribes. Masked signatures of the ancient Banga tribes can be found in not only in Bengal and Bengaluru but also widely in the West Coast of India (Tulunadu) as well in South east Asian countries.
In the Tulu regions of West Coast of Karnataka, minor kings and chieftains of Banga dynasty, followers of Jain traditions, ruled for years. Bangera (plural form of Banga in Tulu language) were a widespread tribe in ancient Tulunadu as we find them assimilated into various Tulu castes and communities but still retain their surname as Bangera.

Ancient migration of Banga tribes to Southeast Asian countries (or vice versa) has been preserved in their place names such as Bangkok.

References
http: //idb.ub.uni-tuebengen.de/diglit/EC_09_1905B/

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Books for Reference

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  • Puttubalakeya Pad-danagalu. Ed: Dr B.A.Viveka Rai,Yadupati Gowda and Rajashri, Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheswara Tulu Peeta. Mangalore University.2004
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  • Studies in Tuluva History and Culture.by Dr P Gururaja Bhat (1975).Milagres College,Kallinapur,Udupi.
  • Taulava Sanskriti by Dr.B.A.Viveka Rai, Sahyadri Prakashana,Mysore 1977
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  • TuLu NighanTu. (Editor in Chief: Dr U.P.Upadhyaya, Govinda Pai Research Centre,Udupi. Six volumes. 1988 to 1997
  • Tulu Patero-A Philology & Grammar of Tulu Language by Budhananda Shivalli.2004.Mandira Prakashana Mangalore. p.317. (The book is in Tulu Language using Kannada script)
  • TuLunadina ShasanagaLa Sanskritika Adhyayana. By Shaila T. Verma (2002) Jnanodaya Prakashana,Bangalore, p.304.(Kannada)
  • Tuluvala Baliyendre. Compiled by N.A.Sheenappa Hegde,Polali,Sri Devi Prakashana,Parkala,1929/1999

A Coastal estuary

A Coastal estuary
Holegadde near Honavar,Uttara Kannada dist, Karnataka

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