A village of forgotten warriors in Tumakuru

Inscribed hero stones in Hiregundagal in Tumakuru district trace battles from the time of the Western Gangas, writes Kirti Malhotra

After my visit to an engineering college in Tumakuru, I noticed a hill behind the campus, locally known as Gundagal Betta, and decided to walk towards it. Taking a road with a lake on my right, I turned left after passing a brick factory. A short walk later, I landed before a rectangular fenced enclosure housing several huge herostones. As the gate was locked, I could not have a closer look at them.   

I soon realised I had reached the entrance to Hiregundagal village. Walking further in, I noticed a tall stone slab mounted on a platform in front of an ancient Lakshmi temple. On closer inspection, I found it bore an inscription. Interestingly, the inscription ended with five ‘Shree’ letters (symbols). Cemented behind it was a smaller stone panel depicting a royal couple riding an elephant.  

Back home, I searched for references to Hiregundagal in Epigraphia Carnatica Vol 12, 1904 (EC12) which covers Tumakuru region but did not find any mention of the village. However, the Archaeological Survey of Mysore (ASM) annual reports recorded that by 1911, around 20 inscription stones were discovered at Hiregundagal and 18 among them were on herostones. The 1910 ASM report talks about the inscriptions on herostones ‘relating mostly to the wars between the Gangas and the Rashtrakutas’ and refers to ‘the reigns of the Ganga kings Sripurusha and Shivamara II’. Sripurusha, the mighty king of Western Ganga Dynasty, ruled from 726 to 788 AD. His son Shivamara II was his successor.

These inscriptions were later compiled in Epigraphia Carnatica Vol 16 (EC16), published in 1956. Consulting this volume, I learned that 18 inscribed herostones from the 8th century stood in the field of a woman named Thimmakka. A grainy photograph showed them scattered across the field. There were three additional images of individual hero stones as well. 

In EC16, I also found a 19-line inscription dated 1323 AD with the text ending with five ‘Shree’ symbols in the last line. That perfectly matched the slab at the Lakshmi temple. It recorded the grant of the village ‘Hiriyagundagal’ as a gift to ‘Masani-Gavinda’s son Chikkanna, by order of Pratapachakravarti Hoyisana-Sri-Vira-Ballala-Devarasa’. The village’s name appears on the 13th line, confirming its documented history of over 700 years. 

On a subsequent visit to Hiregundagal, I found the gate of the fenced enclosure open. Inside the private land maintained by the villagers were 13 stone slabs fixed to the ground, with the slabs 12 and 13 forming part of a single herostone. Remarkably, all the herostones bore inscriptions, though many had weathered with time.

The most striking among them stood at the centre. It was an imposing slab, about eight feet tall and six feet wide, divided into three panels. The bottom panel depicted a battle scene: a hero on an elephant followed by another hero on a horseback with a sword in hand. The opponent is holding a sword and shield. The presence of a parasol-bearing man behind him indicated that he was a king or a chieftain. It also depicted fallen men. The inscription was on either side of the top panels showing apsaras lifting a hero to a heavenly abode. This was the only herostone among the 12 which depicted a hero on an elephant.

I recalled seeing an image of this herostone in EC16. The inscription referred to Shivamara and Siyagella, the latter ‘appears to have died’ in the battle with Vallaha, a Rashtrakuta king. This correlated with ASM 1910 which inferred that ‘Siyagella was one of the sons of Sripurusha’ who died in the battle. It became clear that this grand hero stone commemorated Siyagella.

I could also identify two other herostones illustrated in EC16 within the enclosure: single-panel odd-shaped stone slabs depicting battle between two persons armed with swords and shields. One commemorated a ‘favourite servant’ of Siyagella who died fighting Vallaha, while another mentioned Srijuddha, who fell in the same battle.

Before leaving, I thanked the villagers for preserving these 12 herostones. One can only hope that the remaining six, belonging to the same 8th-century group, may one day be rediscovered.

The 1323 AD inscription stone standing in front of Lakshmi Temple bears the name ‘Hiriyagundagal’.

A herostone for the favourite servant of Siyagell who died fighting Rashtrakuta king Vallaha. 

The last line of 1323 AD inscription at Hiregundagal showing the five