KARWAR: An ancient monument of great archaeological value, a stone pillar containing an inscription relating to the genealogy of Banavasi Kadamba rulers, remains neglected in Gudnapur village, which was a part of the capital of Banavasi, according to people in the village.
Twenty-seven lines of the inscription are in Brahmi script and Sanskrit language. The genealogy of Kadamba rulers was said to have been engraved on the pillar by Ravi Verma, a powerful king of Kadamba dynasty during the fifth century, according to historians.
A peep into past
The contents of the inscription have been recorded by the Department of History and Archaeology in Karnatak University, according to Gopalkrishna Anavatti, a former editor of Loka Dhwani, a Kannada daily from Sirsi and also former senator of Karnatak University.
The Department of Archaeology, which conducted extensive excavation at Gudnapur some years ago, discovered a palace, called Rani Nivas and many idols of Gods and Goddesses including Veera Bhadra, Mahavira, Bahubali, Ganapati, Rati and Manmatha.
While the compound wall had been built around Rani Nivas, the pillar had been kept outside the compound wall, according to the villagers. There is another stone pillar at Talgund village which also narrates the genealogy of the Kadamba rulers. There is an immediate need to protect both these pillars.