The Karnataka-based scholar who brought the past to light

One afternoon, I was informed that someone named Gopala Rao had called me. He had some feedback on my article on Gangatirtha which had a mention of Pada-dare, a ‘foot-print rock sculptured with two pairs of feet’. The article dealt with some carvings and inscriptions on the western side of Shivagange hill in Bengaluru Rural district. I was elated when I realised that the person who called me was Dr H S Gopala Rao, the historian and eminent epigraphist who could ‘read stones’. I was delighted when he invited me to his home.

I was eager to meet Gopala Rao in person and learn about his life, his achievements beyond electrical engineering, in which he held a diploma, and his work with state electricity boards in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Alongside those jobs, he completed a Master’s degree and wrote a PhD thesis on the Kalyana Chalukyas based on inscriptions. 

On April 4, 2024, I took a Nelamangala-bound bus and got down at the Arasinakunte bus stop. Crossing the National Highway 4 through an underpass, I could easily reach his home.

The moment I crossed the threshold, a sense of calmness descended upon me. Hundreds of books lined the hall from floor to ceiling and Gopala Rao sat among them like a hermit in seclusion.

While discussing my article, he showed me the photographs of the Pada-dare taken by him in 2011. However, when some of his students went in search of the same place a few years later, they were unable to spot it and thus, he had presumed that the inscription along with the two pairs of feet, believed to be of Honnadevi and Lord Shiva, was lost forever. I was happy that I could retrace them.  

Our conversation about Shivagange and the many inscriptions on the hill led him to share an interesting anecdote. Somewhere in the early 1980s, renowned Kannada writer S L Bhyrappa visited Gopala Rao’s home to relax. At that time, Bhyrappa expressed a desire to climb the mighty Shivagange hill. 

After the difficult climb to the peak, as they rested for a while, taking in the panoramic view and looking at the legendary steep cliff known as the Shantala Drop, Bhyrappa suddenly asked Gopala Rao, “Was K V Iyer right?” He was referring to whether queen Shantala had truly leapt to her death from that cliff, as written in K V Iyer’s novel Shantala. Gopala Rao had replied in the negative.

Gopala Rao’s reply was based on an inscription on the Chikkabetta (Chandragiri) in Shravanabelagola which I was aware of, as I had trekked that hill and had taken photos of that inscription mentioned in Epigraphia Carnatica Vol 2 (1923). That long inscription records the death of the Hoysala queen Shantala. However, I could not decipher from the inscription how exactly she died as there was only one line about it which read ‘Sivagangeya tirthadalu mudipi Svarggatey adalu’; the year of death being 1131 AD. Gopala Rao explained that in this context, tirtha meant tirthasthala (pilgrimage site) and mudipi indicates that she
had taken the oath of Sallekhana and died at Sivagange tirthasthala.

The same inscription gives great details about how Shantala’s mother Machikabbe died — ‘going to Belugola, adopting severe sanyasana, renouncing the world, fasting cheerfully for one month’. 

I still wonder why there were only three words, Sivagangeya tirthadalu mudipi, about the queen’s death.

Living encyclopaedia

Gopala Rao was a living encyclopaedia. He guided many master’s and doctoral research works in the fields of epigraphy and history of Karnataka. He had discovered close to 300 inscriptions and studied over 1,000 in Karnataka. 

I spent the whole day at his place, listening to his stories of unearthing hundreds of inscriptions. 

I was deeply saddened when the news of his death in October 2024 reached me. I consider myself quite fortunate to have met him at least once. 

Incidentally, he had pointed out that the place he lived in is actually ‘Arasanakunte’, though today it has come to be known as ‘Arasinakunte’.