Rare Anjaneya carving found on Vijayanagara tablet

Rare Anjaneya carving found on Vijayanagara tablet

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Apr 23, 2019: Prof T Murugeshi, associated professor of History and Archaeology at MSRS College, Shirva, said that the unpublished inscription is a new discovery by himself along with Pradeep Basruru and Kiran Kumar Edmer at Bhogaramakki.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 Anjaneya sculpture was found on an inscription unearthed at Bhogaramakki near Shankaranarayana in Kundapur taluk.

 

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.”