Ancient stone Inscription in Goa, India.

These Are the pictures of English Commemorative Stone and Earliest Evidence of Kannada Inscription of Early Chalukyan Period Located at South Goa, India. This stone inscription is probably dating back to 7th-8th century A.D.

It is written on The English Commemorative Stone placed near this ancient stone Inscription in Goa, India.

'Chandor Stone Inscription'
(Reg. No Goa/PNJ/109 of 2.8.1977)
This stone inscription was found at Malcornem of Quepem Taluka, South Goa and collected by The late John Fernandes of this family in The early 1930s. The story goes that in The late 1920s or thereabout, the 'Comissdo de Arquedogic de Goa' while looking around for an antiquities found a stone pillar in this village with some inscription on it. The pillar Stone was accidentally broken into two segments. The top portion consisting of human and animal figures was taken to The Museu Lapidar de Goa at The  Convent of St. Francis Assisi and The lower portion containing the inscription was abandoned in The locale (I,e Paddyfield) where it was found.
The late John Francis Fernandes by The late Fr Henry Ileras, S. J of The Indian Research Institute of St. Xavier's college Bombay asked him to decipher the inscription. As there was doubt about the script used in The inscription, no translation or transliteration was attempted by Fr. Ileras and other oncologist of the time held the view that no inscription of The Kadambas of Banavari was ever found in Goa. Could this be one they were hopefully looking for? Several experts took impression of this inscription in order to decipher it but no transliteration was ever done because of uncertainty of The script used. Then in early 1990s Mr. Nambirajan of The Goa Museum, Archives and Archaeology successfully decipher the inscription. Here are his findings:

The record is badly damaged, only last three lines are extant. Probably it registers some grant. The extant portion has no impression stating that whoever destroys the grant shall incur the sin of having killed....(Words lost). The Third line mentions the sculptor Deseloja who wrote the record.

The transliteration reads as follows:
1)...Sahitam ldan alive
2)... (de) Kkivaman- Kondanakkum....
3)... Sri Dseloja haredon

Other Information:

This stone inscription is in Kannada Characters and language. This could be the earliest Kannada inscription of the early Chalukiyan period from this region, probably dating back to 7th-8th century AD based on Palaeographical grounds. Early Chalukiyan inscriptions found prier to this date in Karnataka are in Sanskrit. The date of The inscription may be pushed back in The 6th century AD. This inscription indicates that Kannada Language and script were prevalent in this region.'


Pictures By Mandipa Bose Ji