Sangameshwara temple

Kannada inscription

history enthusiasts

Karnataka

sanctum sanctorum

The temple is under the backwaters of a dam for half the year. Very few people visit it. One of my friends Nilesh Pandit happened to take photos of the temple and discovered the inscription –Vikranth Sukumar Mandate

Kannada

Hobby historians discover inscription inof MaharashtraA 11th Century hitherto unpublishedhas been discovered in Sangli, Maharashtra. The inscription was discovered by a group ofin the Sangameshwara Temple in Bhendwade, Khanapur taluk of Sangli district. Prof DV Paramashivamurthy of Tumkur University, who deciphered the inscription, said, “It is a bea utifully composed inscription which starts with an invocation to Lord Shiva. There is no date on the inscription but from the script and style of writing, it is evidently from the 11th Century when the Chalukyas of Kalyani ruled overand Maharashtra.”The inscription was discovered by Vikranth Sukumar Mandate and his friends, who run Jigyasa Manch, an organisation for protection of historical monuments. “The temple is under the backwaters of a dam for half the year. Few people visit it. My friend Nilesh Pandit happened to take photos of the temple and discovered the inscription. We were searching for someone who could decipher Halegannada (Old Kannada) and met Dr Ravikumar Navalgund on Facebook,” he said. Mandate is a programme executive with All India Radio.The inscription is on the lintel above theof the temple. Navalagund and Paramashivamurthy deciphered it. The inscription describes the place as ‘kudala sangama’, as the rivers Pushpavati and Kumbi meet nearby. Kudalasangama is also a pilgrim spot in Karnataka, which is the final resting place of Basaveshwara. Another Kudala-sangama is now in the Krishna backwaters. The ‘kudala sangama’ mentioned in this inscription is now the third such place. “It is a popular name for Lord Shiva. The place is also mentioned as Savali Sangama. It is called Bhendwade now,” he said.The inscription mentions that a merchant, Raja Setti, had the temple constructed and donated ‘10 hana’ for its upkeep. Hana or pana is the short form of Gadyana, a gold coin. “The temple has become historical because of the discovery of the inscription,” Paramashivamurthy said.Kannada inscriptions have been found as far north as Madhya Pradesh and a big chunk of inscriptions found in Maharashtra is in Kannada. “Around 50 per cent of the inscriptions in Maharashtra are in Kannada. The others are in Sanskrit, Marathi,etc.inscriptions in Maharashtra predate Marathi inscriptions by centuries,” Pramashivamurthy said.