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.
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| 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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