CHIKKAMAGALURU: The state is buzzing with the celebration of 69th Kannada Rajyotsava on Thursday, as it is the golden jubilee of the state being named Karnataka.
To make it a memorable event, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had ordered the Karnataka Shilpakala Academy and the Kannada and Culture Department to replicate the first Kannada stone edict ‘Halmidi Shasana’ and install it in all the 31 district headquarters on November 1.
The responsibility of creating the replicas fell on the city’s Shantiniketan Chitrakala Mahavidyalaya.
Institute Principal Viswakarama Acharya said the Krishna shile (black rock, out of which the Balarama statue of Ayodhya was sculpted) needed for the work was brought from HD Kote in Mysuru district. Fifteen artistes of the Mahavidyalaya and 15 others from Mysuru, Gadag, Tumakuru, Shivamogga, Hassan and Chikkamagaluru took up the arduous task of carving the replica of the Shashana under the guidance of Amarashilpi Jakanachari award winner SP Jayannachar. They finished the work in 15 days, he added.
Each replica weighs 400-500 kg, is 4.5-foot tall, 6 inches thick and one foot wide. Officials in districts have been asked to install it on the premise of deputy commissioner’s office or Kannada Bhavan or Rangamandira, as per the availability of space.
In Chikkamagaluru, it will be put up in the park in front of DC’s office and the pedestal is ready. The remaining 30 edicts have already been dispatched to respective district centres, he added. The first Kannada Shilashasana, dating back to 4th century, was discovered at Halmidi village on the border between Chikkamagaluru and Hassan districts. The village has now turned into a tourist attraction. The edict mentions Mulavalli (Mugulavalli) in Amble hobli of Chikkamagaluru taluk.
It reads that Kadamba King Kakutsa Varma defeated Pallavas, who gifted Palmadi and Mulavalli villages to Vijaya Arasa in the presence of Senvekar and Bana army warriors.
OLDEST KANNADA INSCRIPTION
The Halmidi inscription is the oldest known Kannada inscription in the Kadamba script. It was discovered in the village of Halmidi, Hassan district, in 1936 by Dr MH Krishna, the then Director of Archaeology of the State of Mysore. The inscription is 16-lines long and carved on a sandstone slab, and written in primitive Kannada, using a script similar to Brahmi characters. The Halmidi inscription is usually dated to 425-450 CE, during the reign of Kakusthavarma, and demonstrates that Kannada was used as an administrative language during that time.