A replica of the original Halmidi inscription at Halmidi village

The Halmidi inscription is the oldest known Kannada language inscription in the Kannada script. Experts agree on the relative date (it is the oldest), but differ on absolute date. Estimates vary by about 100 years either side of about 500 AD (see details below). The inscription was discovered in 1936 by Dr. M. H. Krishna, the Director of Archaeology in the (princely) State of Mysore (present-day Karnataka region of India), in Halmidi, a village in the Hassan taluk.

The original inscription is kept in the Office of the Director of Archaeology and Museums, Govt. of Karnataka, Mysore,¹ and a fibreglass replica has been installed in Halmidi.

Discovery and dating

In a report published in a Mysore Archaeological Department Report (MAR) in 1936, Krishna dated the inscription to 450 A.D., on paleographical grounds.²³ Later scholars have variously dated the inscription to 450 A.D.,⁴ 470 A.D.,⁵ 500 A.D.,⁶ "about 500",⁷ and "end of the fifth century A. D. or the beginning of the 6th century A.D."⁸ Epigraphist, D. C. Sircar has dated the inscriptions to "about the end of the 6th century,"⁹ and epigraphist Richard Salomon to the "late sixth or early seventh century."¹⁰

Epigraphist, K. V. Ramesh has written about the differing estimates:

And I attribute the origin of this doubt in their minds to the fact that scholars, even the reputed ones, have held differing views, mostly to prop up their preconceived notions, on the palaeographical dating of any given undated or insufficiently dated inscriptions. ... The undated Halmidi (Hassan District, Karnataka) inscription, allegedly written during the reign of Kadamba Kakusthavarman, is taken by some scholars to belong, on palaeographical grounds, to the middle of the 5th century AD, while a few other scholars have held, on the same grounds of palaeography, that it is as late as the second half of the 6th century A.D.

– K. V. Ramesh¹¹

He also hypothesized that, compared to possibly contemporaneous Sanksrit inscriptions, "Halmidi inscription has letters which are unsettled and uncultivated, no doubt giving an impression, or rather an illusion, even to the trained eye, that it is, in date, later than the period to which it really belongs, namely the fifth century A.D."¹²

Epigraphist G. S. Gai however disagrees with the view that Halmidi is a record of the Kadamba dynasty identified with King Kadamba Kakusthavarman. According to (Gai 1992), the inscription, which is dedicated to, "Kadambapan Kakustha-Bhaṭṭōran," refers to another ruler, Kakustha of the Bhaṭāri family, who is explicitly identified in line 13, "baṭāri-kuladōn=āḷu-kadamban;" in addition, the inscription does not "include any of the epithets like Mānavya-gōtra, Hāritī-putra, and most important Dharma-maharājā"¹³ that are a part of all Kadamba inscriptions.

Textual analysis

The replica of the Halmidi inscription mounted on pedastal

The inscription is in verse form indicating the authors of the inscription had a good sense of the language structure.¹⁴ The inscription is written in pre-old Kannada (Puruvada-hala Kannada), which later evolved into old Kannada, middle Kannada and eventually modern Kannada.¹⁵ The Halmidi inscription is the earliest evidence of usage of Kannada as an administrative language.¹⁶

Text

The Halmidi inscription translated into modern Kannada script

The Halmidi inscription translated into modern Kannada language

The pillar on which the inscription was written stands around 4 feet (1.2 m) high. The following lines are carved on the front of the pillar:

1. jayati śri-pariṣvāṅga-śārṅga vyānatir-acytāḥ dānav-akṣṇōr-yugānt-āgniḥ śiṣṭānān=tu sudarśanaḥ
2. namaḥ śrīmat=kadaṁbapan=tyāga-saṁpannan kalabhōranā ari ka-
3. kustha-bhaṭṭōran=āḷe naridāviḷe-nāḍuḷ mṛgēśa-nā-
4. gēndr-ābhiḷar=bhbhaṭahar=appor śrī mṛgēśa-nāgāhvaya-
5. r=irrvar=ā baṭari-kul-āmala-vyōma-tārādhi-nāthann=aḷapa-
6. gaṇa-paśupatiy=ā dakṣiṇāpatha-bahu-śata-havan=ā-
7. havuduḷ paśupradāna-śauryyōdyama-bharitōn=dāna pa-
8. śupatiyendu pogaḷeppoṭṭaṇa paśupati-
9. nāmadhēyan=āsarakk=ella-bhaṭariyā prēmālaya-
10. sutange sēndraka-bāṇ=ōbhayadēśad=ā vīra-puruṣa-samakṣa-
11. de kēkaya-pallavaraṁ kād=eṟidu pettajayan=ā vija
12. arasange bāḷgaḻcu palmaḍiuṁ mūḷivaḷuṁ ko-
13. ṭṭār baṭāri-kuladōn=āḷa-kadamban kaḷadōn mahāpātakan
14. irvvaruṁ saḻbaṅgadar vijārasaruṁ palmaḍige kuṟu-
15. mbiḍi viṭṭār adān aḻivornge mahāpatakam svasti

The following line is carved on the pillar's left face:

16. bhaṭṭarg=ī gaḻde oḍḍali ā pattondi viṭṭārakara

Notes

See also

• Indian inscriptions
• Indian copper plate inscriptions

References

• Datta, Amaresh (Ed.) (1988), Encyclopaedia of Indian literature - vol 2, Sahitya Akademi, ISBN 8126011947 
• Datta, Amaresh (Ed.) (1989), Encyclopaedia of Indian literature - vol 3, Sahitya Akademi, ISBN 8126011947 
• Encyclopædia Britannica (2008), Kannada literature, Encyclopædia Britannica Online, http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9044579 
• Gai, Govind Swamirao (1992), Studies in Indian History, Epigraphy, and Culture, Karnataka, India: Shrihari Prakashana. Pp. 346, http://books.google.com/books?lr=&ei=UjQDSLmPF5jWyATKo9x3&num=100&id=nOMbAAAAIAAJ&dq=&pgis=1 
• Gai, Govind Swamirao (1996), Inscriptions of the early Kadambas, New Delhi: Indian Council of Historical Research and Pratibha Prakashan. Pp. xv, 170, 88 plates, ISBN 8185268479
• Habib, Irfan (2000), "India", in Al-Bhakhit, M. A.; L. A. Bazin & S. M. Cissoko, History of Humanity, Volume IV: from the Seventh to the Sixteenth century, Paris: UNESCO and London: Routledge. Pp. xxiii, 682, 44 maps, 138 plates, 398-410, ISBN 0415093082, <http://www.unesco.org/culture/humanity/>
• Master, Alfred (1944), "Indo-Aryan and Dravidian", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 11 (2) 
• M. A. R. (1937), Mysore Archaeological Department, Annual Report-1936 (MAR 1936), Bangalore: Government Press, pp. 73–80 
• Mugali, R.S. (1975), History of Kannada literature, Sahitya Akademi, OCLC 2492406 
• Pollock, Sheldon (2003), Literary cultures in history: reconstructions from South Asia, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-22821-9 
• Pollock, Sheldon (2006), The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India (Philip E. Lilienthal Books), Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-24500-8 
• Pollock, Sheldon (2007). "Literary Culture and Manuscript Culture in Precolonial India". in Simon Elliot et al (ed.). Literary Cultures and the Material Book. London: British Library. pp. 77–94. ISBN 0712306846. 
• Ramesh, K. V. (1984b), Indian Epigraphy, Sundeep 
• Salomon, Richard (1998), Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Other Indo-Aryan Languages, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 378, ISBN 0195099842, <http://books.google.com/books?id=XYrG07qQDxkC&pg=PA106&dq=indian+epigraphy+halmidi&sig=3GleGj1g7gMFsJsx5JMSZ-gfLaU>
• Sircar, D. C., Indian Epigraphy, Motilal Banarsidass Publications, ISBN 0120811666 
• Stein, Burton (1980), Peasant State and Society in Medieval South India, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 550, ISBN 0195610652
• Various (1988) [1988]. Encyclopaedia of Indian literature – vol 2. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 8126011947. 

External links

• Editio princeps: Annual Report of the Mysore Archaeological Department for the Year 1936. Bangalore: The Government Press, 1938. Pages 72–74. [photographic facsimile, transliteration and translation (into English)]
• Banavasi Old Kannada Inscription
• Halmidi Inscription
• Halmidi village finally on the road to recognition
• Language of the Inscriptions — Archeological Survey of India [The last sentence of second last paragraph mentions the Halmidi inscription.]

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