North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CHANDELLAS OF JEJAKABHUKTI

No. 149 ; PLATE CXXXVI

AJAYGAḌH STONE INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF BHŌJAVARMAN

[ Vikrama ] Year 1345

THE stone which bears this inscription was discovered by General Steward and, according to James Prinsep, he presented it to the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In the Catalogue of the Society Vol. XV, it is inserted as ‘a stone slab from Ajaygaḍh in Bundelkhand with a Sanskrit inscription’ or ‘a stone bull from Kālañjar with a Sanskrit inscription’. For the first time the text of the inscription, with a specimen of the letters (7 ll. facing p. 881) and a translation, was published by Prinsep in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, Vol. VI (1837), pp. 881 ff., and Plate XLVIII, with specimen facsimile. Subsequently, a brief account of the record was given by General Cunningham in his Archaeological Survey of India Reports, Vol. XXI (1883-84), p. 52, where it is mentioned that the inscribed stone existed (in his time) in the Indian Museum. The corresponding English date of it was calculated by Kielhorn in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. I (1888), p. 332, n. ; and D. R. Bhandarkar included it in his List of Inscriptions of Northern India, No. 620. The records was finally edited by H. L. Srivastava in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 98 ff., and a Plate.⁶ It is edited here from an impression which was kindly supplied to me, at my request, by the authorities of the Indian Museum where the slab is now deposited. Later on, I also compared my reading from an impression kindly supplied by the Chief Epigraphist (No. B 245 of 62-63).

The inscription consists of 21 lines of writhing, covering a space about l∙20 metres broad by 0∙82 metres high. The letters are beautifully formed and carefully cut, the signs of mātrās being ornamentally treated. The average height of the letters ranges between 2∙5 and 3 cms, except in the last line where they are smaller in size and are also partially preserved and more or less lost or damaged. Besides this, except for two and four aksharas respectively at the beginning of lines 18 and 19, which totally lost due to the breaking off of the lower part of the right corner of the stone, and one or two others here and there, which are partially abraded or broken away, the inscription is in a state of perfect preservation.

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¹ Metre : Upajāti.
² Metre : Upajāti. Here also Maisey’s transcript is not accurate and there are metrical errors in it.
³ Metre : as above. Insert a daṇḍa after shu.
⁴ Metre of this and the next verse : Sragdharā.
⁵ Though worn out, this is a letter and not the figure, as can be seen from the impression. Is it (Sanskrit)?
⁶ The transcript of the inscription published by Prinsep is full of errors to be found almost in every line, and the opening sentence showing salutation to Vāsudēva is altogether omitted by him. H. L. Srivastava also invited attention to the statement of Prinsep’s Assistant pt. Kamalakanta who remarked that “he was not responsible for the various defects of grammar, prosody and rhetorics occurring in the text since he read as he saw it and copied it so.” All these mistakes were corrected by Shri Srivastava in his transcript in the Vol. of the Ep. Ind. referred to above.