Kappe Arabhatta

Kappe Arabhatta (Kannada: ಕಪ್ಪೆ ಆರಭಟ್ಟ) was a Chalukya warrior of the 8th century who is known from a Kannada verse inscription, dated to c. 700 CE, and carved on a cliff overlooking the northeast end of the artificial lake in Badami, Karnataka, India. The inscription consists of five stanzas written out in ten lines in the Kannada script. Stanza 2 (Lines 3 and 4) consists of a Sanskrit śloka. Of the remaining stanzas, all except the first are in the tripadi, a Kannada verse metre.

Stanza 3 (lines 5 and 6), which consists of twelve words of which nine are Sanskrit loan-words in Kannada, is well known in a condensed version, and is sometimes cited as the earliest example of the tripadi metre in Kannada. However, neither stanza 3 nor stanza 4 strictly conform to the precise rules of the tripadi metre; they each have more than 18 moras in line two, in excess of the allowed 17.

According to Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency 1884, p. 558, the Kappe Arabhatta inscription overlooks the artificial lake (on the south-east corner) of Badami town, and:

Cut on the cliff, ten or twelve feet from the ground, on the north-west of the hamlet of Tattukoti, on the north-east corner of the lake, is an undated inscription of the sixth or seventh century. The way to the cliff is on the left going up from the reservoir by the rear or east ascent to the Bavanbande-kote or north fort and about half-way up to the shrine of Tattukoti Maruti. The writing covers a space of 3 feet 4½ inches high by 2 feet 10⅓ inches broad. The meaning is not clear, but it seems a record of Kappe Arabhatta, a saint of local fame. Below the inscription and covering a space of about 3 feet 7 inches is cut a round band with a floral device apparently a ten-leaved lotus inside it, and with what seems to be a fillet, with a ribbon crossed in a double loop, handing from it.

The following is the text of the five lines written out in ten lines in the inscription. The meanings of the words are provided in the footnotes below the text. Lines 3 and 4 consist of a Sanskrit sloka, and is not translated. Here | denotes the end of each line of the tripadi metre and || , the end of the stanza:

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