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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CHANDELLAS OF JEJAKABHUKTI AJAYGAḌH ROCK INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF VĪRAVARMAN No. 146 ; PLATE CXXXIII AJAYGAḌH ROCK INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF VĪRAVARMAN [Vikrama] Year 1325 This inscription is incised on a wall of a temple in the fort of Ajaygaḍh in the Pannā District of the Vindhya region of Madhya Pradesh. It was first noticed by Alexander Cunningham in 1884-85, and he also transcribed and translated the record in his Archaeological Survey of India Reports, Vol. XXI, p. 51 and plate xiv-F. It is edited here from the same plate. The record contains three lines, the last of which is slightly longer than the other two. The characters are Nāgarī of the thirteenth century A.C., to which the record belongs. But they are very badly formed, for example, the letter ṇa in praṇamati (l.2), tsa in vatsa and r in –rājē (both in l.3), can be recognised only by the context. Palaeographically, the two forms of the initial vowel a, one in asva and other in abhaya, both in l∙ l, go to indicate that this letter was in a transitional stage. The initial short i, which is the fore-runner of its modern form, shows its loop and the tail as a hook; see Iśvara in l. 2. S the first member of a conjunct consonant sva in l. 1 and 2, begins with a loop as of ś. As regards orthography, what is worth noting is that the consonant following r is doubled in –varmma-, in l. 3.1
The language of the inscription is Sanskrit, which is full of grammatical and other errors. The sign of a visarga of the nominative singular form in putra, l.1, and Abhayadēva, and i(ī)śvara, both in l.2, have not been engraved, and in saṁvat, l. 3, the final consonant is not marked. In this word the palatal sibilant is also used for the dental. Errors in technical execution are in Vīravvarmarājē for the correct Vīravarmmarājyē, in l. 3. The object of the inscription is to record the adoration of one Abhayadēva of the Vatsa gōtra, who was a son of Ṭha (Ṭhakkura) Bhōjaka, who was expert in curing horse diseases, in the reign of Vīravarman, whose genealogy is not mentioned but who was evidently the Chandēlla king ruling in the country around Ajayagaḍh from c. 1247 to 1286 A.C. The record is dated only in figures i.e., (V.) S. 1325 or 1268 A.C. For want of details the exact date cannot be worked out. The name of the Bhōjūka figures in the Ajaygaḍh stone inscription of Vīravarman’s successor, Bhōjavarman.2 It is possible to identify the Bhōjaka of our record with this Bhōjūka, and the calculation of the time of both these persons would favour this view. But in the absence of any definite evidence on this point, nothing can be said with certainty. TEXT3
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