North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CHANDELLAS OF JEJAKABHUKTI

The inscription is written in the Nāgarī alphabet of the 12th century. The initial a which occurs twice in kōṭiā- and anēna, both in l, 5, shows its form slightly different. Attention may also be invited to the initial u which has begun to assume the modern form ; see rāüta-, l. 3 ; to the loop of k, which, when it is the first member of a conjunct consonant or when the medial ṛi is attached to it, gives place to a horizontal stroke ; see –bhikshē, l. 6 and kṛita-, l. 8 ; the conjunct consonant gg appears as gn, as generally in the inscriptions of the time ; cf. mārgga-, l. 6 ; and lastly, the letter r is represented by a vertical with a slanting stroke attached to its middle on the left, as in rāüta, l. 3. Orthographically nothing is worth noting, except that a consonant following r is reduplicated in mārgga- and durga-, respectively in ll. 6 and 2. The mātrās of the dipthongs are all marked above.

The language of the record is Sanskrit and it is all in prose. It is full of errors, as will be shown in the foot-notes appended to the text that follows. The inscription has in it a number of local words also. The purport of the record is probably to commemorate the construction of a step-well (bāüli, l. 11)¹ by the rāüta (rājaputra) Śrī-Vīra,² the son of Tējala who was a Kshatriya of the village of Kōrṭiā, on the road, during the time of famine.

The date of the record, as expressed only in figures, is Monday, the second day of the bright half of Āshāḍha of the (Vikrama) year, which was read by Cunningham as 1237. But the impression before me shows the decimal figure more similar to two than three, and a careful scrutiny goes to indicate that the curve at the top of the figure has suffered from a slanting stroke which may have been either the original fault of the stone, or a redundant stroke of the chisel, or a later development due to weather or human agency, of course some time before Cunningham discovered the inscription. And here I agree with Kielhorn who took the figure to be 2. Thus according to him the year is 1227 ; and the date, as calculated by him, corresponds to 7th June, 1171 A.C., which was a Monday.³

The record purports to mention some more purposes also, as we can gather from the use of –pādanaṁ, appearing twice in ll. 6 and 8, and also from the expression tadanantaraṁ cha, after kṛitaṁ in l. 8. I am unable to make out this portion.

The inscription does not mention the name of the king, but he was evidently the illustrious Paramardin of the royal house of Chandēllas whom we know as occupying the throne from c. 1166 to 1202 A.C., and as is also shown by the provenance of the record. As already stated above, the rest of the record is unintelligible to me.

Of the geographical places mentioned in the inscription, Jayapura (l. 2) is the same as Ajayagaḍh ; and the village Kōrṭiā (l. 5) I am unable to identify.

TEXT⁴

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¹ And not nauli, as read by Cunningham. He did not explain the word.
² Here Cunningham read the name as –Vēra, but the impression shows the sign of the medial i very clearly. It is not known if the Śrī was a part of the name. ³ See Ind. Ant., Vol. XIX, p. 357, No. 162. It may also be noted here that reading the year as 1237 and making his calculations according to it, Cunningham found that the day could not be worked out to be a Monday, as stated in the inscription, but a Wednesday ; and to solve this difficulty, he also observed that the word sōmē, in l. 2, may be a mistake of the writer or the engraver for saumyē, i.e., Wednesday, as Budha is regarded to be the son of the Moon-deity (Cunningham, op. cit., p. 50). This ingenious suggestion, however, goes against the poor knowledge of the writer and the engraver.
⁴ From an impression.
⁵ Expressed by a symbol.
⁶ The sign marking this consonant is not cut in its proper place and appears as touching the top of the mātrā of sō, just below it in the next line. For the reading of the year that follows, see n. above.
⁷ A redundant stroke makes this syllable appear as dvi or ddhi.
⁸ It is probably the original fault of the stone that makes this letter appear as bhō. ⁹ The last of the verticals of the mātrā of ā is ornamental, resembling ra.