Halmidi inscription

The Halmidi inscription is the oldest known Kannada-language inscription in the Kadamba script. While estimates vary slightly, the inscription is often dated to between 450 CE - 500 CE. The inscription was discovered in 1936 by Dr. M. H. Krishna, the Director of Archaeology of the (princely) State of Mysore (present-day Karnataka region of India), in Halmidi, a village in the Hassan district.

The original inscription is kept in the Office of the Director of Archaeology and Museums, Govt. of Karnataka, Mysore, 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 AD, on paleographical grounds. Later scholars have variously dated the inscription to 450 AD, 470 AD, 500 AD, "about 500", and "end of the fifth century A. D. or the beginning of the 6th century A.D." Epigraphist, D. C. Sircar has dated the inscription to "about the end of the 6th century."

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

He also hypothesized that, compared to possibly contemporaneous Sanskrit 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."

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 , 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, ";" in addition, the inscription does not "include any of the epithets like , , and most important " that are a part of all Kadamba inscriptions.

Text

The inscription is in pre-old Kannada (''puruvada-hala Kannada'', the ancestor of modern Kannada) verse.M. Chidananda Murthy, ''Inscriptions (Kannada)'' in

See also

* Indian inscriptions
*Indian copper plate inscriptions

Notes

References

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External links

* Editio princeps:
Annual Report of the Mysore Archaeological Department for the Year 1936
'. Bangalore: The Government Press, 1938. Pages 72–74. hotographic facsimile, transliteration">facsimile.html" ;"title="hotographic facsimile">hotographic facsimile, transliteration and translation (into English)]
Banavasi Old Kannada InscriptionLanguage of the Inscriptions
— Archaeological Survey of India he last sentence of second last paragraph mentions the Halmidi inscription.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Halmidi Inscription
Kannada literature
Literature of Karnataka
Earliest known manuscripts by language
Kadamba inscriptions
5th-century inscriptions
Kannada inscriptions
5th-century texts
5th-century poems