Inscription on a stone mill

Some time ago, while travelling from Hunsur to Mysuru, I saw a huge crowd of devotees celebrating deepotsava near the Hinkal bus stop. Further enquiries revealed that there was a restored kalyani (temple pond) attached to Hinkal’s ancient Nanneshvara temple. Realising the temple’s antiquity, I started exploring the archives about its unusual name.

The Epigraphia Carnatica Vol 3, 1894 (EC3), mentioned three inscriptions found at this Nanneshvara temple. They were ‘grants for the god Nanneshvara of Hinkal’. Upon further exploration, I found more details of each one of these inscriptions, after they had been re-examined by the Mysore Archaeological Department, as per its Annual Report for the year 1920. 

The first, dated 1501 AD, says that ‘Apparaya-hebaruva granted the village Gudihali for the god Nanneshvara’. The second one ‘registers a grant on the first lunar day of the month of Magha in the cyclic year Parthiva (1405 AD), during the rule of Vira-Hariyappav-Odeyar by the customs officer Timmanna to provide for lamps and offerings of rice for the god Nanneshvara’. The third reads, ‘which seems to bear the date 1347 AD, registers the gift of an oil mill for the god Nanneshvara by Yalakara-gavuda, son of Rama-gavuda of Maliganahalli’.

I tried to find the origin of ‘Nanneshvara’ — the temple’s name. In the Archaeological Survey of India, Volume 42 (1926), there were details about an 11th-century temple of Nanneshvara at Lakkundi village of Gadag district. The Epigraphia Indica Vol 29 (1951–52) mentions a temple complex called Nannesvarayatana in Orissa, built by one Nanna of the Virata vamsa, based on the discovery of copper plates dated 894 AD. I could not find any archival reference linking these three temples with seemingly similar names.

Knowing my interest in these inscriptions, G Sreenath, a history enthusiast in Mysore, sent me a photograph of an inscription he had found on what appeared to be a grinding stone. It was in the premises of the Nanneshvara temple! I realised it was the oil mill mentioned in the EC3. I wondered if I could trace the other two inscriptions also, as mentioned in EC3.

Once I reached Mysore, it was quite easy to reach Hinkal on the Hunsur road. A small road inside Hinkal took me straight to the back of the temple. The huge devarakere (temple lake), restored in recent years, is further down the same road, at a short distance from the main road is the kalyani. I could guess at the vast temple complex that must have existed at one time.

Circumventing the present compound wall of the temple, we reached the entrance of the temple facing east. As we entered, we could see the 1347 AD inscription on the oil mill stone embedded in the ground in front of a recently installed Navagraha. The large inscription in Kannada was decipherable, and ‘Nanneshvara’ appears in the seventh line, while the remaining four lines were buried beneath.

On one side of the Navagraha wall, I saw old stone slabs among debris of construction materials. I moved the tiles piled up against them, and there emerged three stone panels.

The first large rectangular inscription stone had a linga with the sun and moon carved at the top. Much of the lines on it were effaced. I realised it was the 1405 AD inscription. The second one was an oddly-shaped stone, broad at the top and narrow at the bottom.

This inscription, dated 1501 AD, had been chipped off, and many of the bottom lines were erased. Fortunately, the sixth line, which mentions ‘Nanneshvara’, was still visible and readable. The third one had the carving of a cow. I was not able to turn the other heavy slabs lying upside down to know if they too had something etched on them.

It is amazing that these inscriptions with the name of the temple have survived in its premises, giving proof of its antiquity. The inscription on the oil mill is safe, but the other two inscription slabs, particularly the one mentioning ‘Nanneshvara’, are in danger of breaking down if not immediately protected.

I wish the villagers who have reclaimed and restored the devarakere and kalyani would protect these three inscriptions for posterity.