Anjaneya carving found on Vijayanagara tablet

An Anjaneya sculpture was found on an inscription unearthed at Bhogaramakki near Shankaranarayana in Kundapur taluk.

Prof T Murugeshi, associated professor of History and Archaeology at MSRS College, Shirva, said that the unpublished inscription is a new discovery by himself along with Pradeep Basruru and Kiran Kumar Edmer at Bhogaramakki.

The Shankaranarayana temple is a famous religious centre of both Shiva and Vishnu. The inscription under study is a ‘donative inscription’ of Bukkaraya I of the Vijayanagara Empire.

It is dated Saka 1293, Virodhikrit Samvat, which corresponds to 1371 AD. As a symbol of Shankara, the inscription shows a bull on the right side, and as a symbol of Narayana, there is Anjaneya on the left side.

Prof Murugeshi said that Goparasa Odeya was governing Barakuru under Bukka I. “Hanuman was a popular deity of Karnataka and every has a shrine in his name. It is said that, after Vadiraja of Sode Mutt, who was a pontiff of Krishnadevaraya, the Hanuman cult became popular. The discovery of the new record, however, clearly indicates that the cult was a Bhagavata cult and much earlier to Vadiraja,” he explained.

“The figure of Hanuman faces left and is standing in a hero’s pose. The right hand is risen high while the left is placed on the waist. The tail is shown like a Prabhavali, with a small belt,” said the professor, adding, “It is a landmark in the study of Hanuman cult, as it provides a benchmark to understand the evolution of the Hanuman sculptures of South India.”