In love with Bengaluru’s past, BMTC driver finds 10th century inscription 

BENGALURU: Driven by his passion for archaeology and his zeal to explore the history of Bengaluru, a Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) bus driver has thrown light on a self-sacrifice stone inscription in Joguplaya, Halasuru, that is believed to belong to the 10th century. 

K Dhanapal, a driver and tour guide on BMTC’s Bengaluru Darshini, who has the credit of unearthing stone inscriptions across Bengaluru, said that the recent inscription contains writing in Tamil. 

There are records that state that Halasuru was a prominent place in the 16th century. The local history says that Halasuru was one of the Shaiva centres built by the Cholas. The Someshwara Temple was built by the Cholas and later Kempegowda expanded and renovated it during his reign. Except for the ancient temple, there are no records of any hero stone (veeragallu) and ancient inscriptions in the area,” said Dhanapal. 

Dhanapal, who is also a member of the Karnataka History Academy, claims to have found the stone inscription after he saw a picture of it on social media. He headed to the area for a field visit along with his friends Swaminathan, Natarajan, and a resident of Halasuru, Sathish Kumar, and estimated the inscription to belong to the 10th century.

“The stone sculpture depicts a man committing self-sacrifice either for God or for the prosperity of the king. The man in the sculpture looks like a warrior or a saint who is sitting in a meditative posture. A sword that is expected to chop off his head is carved next to the warrior. After the self-sacrifice, it is depicted to be heading to heaven and there are angels taking him there,” explained Dhanapal. There is an 8-line Tamil script engraved on the sculpture and Tamil epigraphists are carrying out detailed research on it, he added.