Hebbal stone inscription found on road could be Bengaluru’s oldest

BENGALURU: A

hero stone

with engraved inscription at the bottom, which was discovered at Hebbal recently, could be the oldest such inscription found in the city till date.

Experts who have analysed the writing on the stone say the inscription belongs to the 8th century and could be older than the

KR Puram inscription

which dates to 750AD and is the oldest known inscription so far. As highlighted by TOI, a few stone installations were saved by a group of youngsters from getting bulldozed for road work at Hebbal a few weeks ago.

Epigraphist and historian PV Krishnamurthy, who analysed the inscription on the hero stone said it is in poorva Halegannada (pre-old Kannada) language. Krishnamurthy said it belongs to the times of Ganga dynasty ruler of Sripurusha, who ruled between 730AD and 770AD. “This is one of the oldest inscriptions of Bengaluru. However, officials from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will be able to throw more light on the exact period ,” he added. Gangas are one of the oldest dynasties to have ruled Karnataka region. Rajeeva Nrupathunga, founder of Heritage Revival Hub, whose team played a major role in saving the inscription, said they discovered four stone structures on the roadside near Maramma Temple, Hebbal, which were about to get buried under a heap of gravel. One of them was a stone with inscriptions belonging to the 17th century (1689) and the same has been recorded in Epigraphia Carnatica by Benjamin Lewis Rice. Apart from this, another hero stone and two other stone installations called yantrada kallu were also found. On Wednesday, while relocating the hero stone to a safer place, we discovered an inscription underneath. It came as a surprise even for epigraphists as inscriptions aren’t found below hero stones,” he added.

Rajeeva said the inscription is rare as it has not been recorded anywhere till now. “We checked Epigraphia Carnatica by Benjamin Lewis Rice, which has records of around 9,000 inscriptions in Old Mysore Region, including Bengaluru. But we did not find a mention of the Hebbal hero

stone inscription

. Rice has recorded 150 major inscription in Bengaluru region, but not this one,” he added.

By Thursday evening, Rajeev and team, in coordination with the local administration, shifted the hero stone and the other structures to a nearby BBMP land to keep them safe.

When Hebbal was PerboLala Nadu he discovery of the inscription shows that Hebbal as a place existed in the 7th to 8th centuries. The inscription has a name, PerboLala Nadu, meaning a big town or a province with a big lake. According to Rajeeva and team, this could be the earlier name of Hebbal.

Rajeeva said the inscription and the hero stone are in honour of a man who died while saving the province from attack. "It also has the name of a local ruler called Pelnagattara. A relative of the man who died installed the hero stone and engraved the related details below it. The inscription further says that PerboLala Nadu was the administrative province of around 30 villages," he added.

Heritage enthusiast Swaminathan Natarajan described the development as a great discovery. "A simple looking hero stone has such history in it. I hope this discovery will reenergise the ASI’s interest in saving and conserving the heritage of our city," he added.

KR Puram inscription

he inscription at KR Puram dates back to 750AD, as recorded in the Epigraphia Carnatica by BL Rice, and is one of the oldest-known Kannada inscriptions in Bengaluru. This one too mentions the name of Ganga dynasty ruler Sripurusha. The script in the inscription is similar to the Halmidi one found in Hassan in 1936.


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