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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CHANDELLAS OF JEJAKABHUKTI four-armed goddess Lakshmī, seated on a lotus and holding lotus-flowers in both of her upper hands which are raised, and a water-pot on the palm of each of the remaining two. The characters are Nāgarī, but, to judge from the impression, there are cases where the exact forms of the letters cannot be clearly made out. For example, besides the fact that ch is almost similar to v, the form of this letter is often confounded with that of r, as in vīra-, l. 2, that of d with h, as in vadi, l. 13, and that of the dental s with palatal ś, as in Viśvēsvara, l. 1, and occasionally also with that of t, e.g., in ll. 3 and 6 where the two letters appear as tyādi, as they may have been intended to be, but the same also appear as sāhi in l. 5. This sort of confusion here and there is also responsible for the fact that some of the letters cannot satisfactorily be deciphered in l. 14 and l. 15, as to be seen in the transcript. Nor is the mechanical execution satisfactory. The interiors of most of the letters show marks of the working of the tool of the engraver, who has also deformed some of the aksharas, e.g., bhrājishṇu in l. 2 is engraved as –pnu, by omitting the slanting stroke which distinguishes sh from p, and rāja in l. 4 has become saja by a redundant stroke between the letter r and the vertical following it, matpara- in l. 4 is engraved as masana, and sahasrā- in l. 17, as mahapā. Occasionally the upper curve of the medial i is omitted, as also the sign of the visarga, as in ll. 11-12. The writer too is equally responsible for commissions and omissions; for example, he wrote paryantān as prajantān in l. 10, Bhārdvāja for Bhāradvāja in l. 13, and has made confusion between r as a superscript and a subscript, e.g., by writing tartta for tatra in l. 2 and svagra for svarga in ll. 17 and 19, by omitting some words from the draft, as in l. 12, by putting unnecessary punctuation marks as in ll. 3-7, and occasionally marking the same as to appear signs of pṛishṭha-mātrās or of the secondary ā. Mistakes of the writer who possessed only a smattering of Sanskrit, and also of the engraver who appears to have been a novice, are to be noted throughout the record, as pointed out in the notes to the text.
The language is Sanskrit, full of errors as stated above; and with the exception of the first verse which generally occurs at the beginning of the Chandēlla grants and four customary and benedictory verses at the end, the record is in prose. The first verse is not numbered and the last four are numbered from one to four. With respect to orthography, we note (1) the use of the dental s for the palatal ś in many places, and vice versa, occasionally, e.g., in subha-, l. 13 and śakala (for sakala), l. 8; (2) the doubling of a class-consonant, e.g., in karmma-, l. 19; (3) denoting b throughout by the sign for v, e.g., in brāhmaṇa-, l. 9; (4) showing the medial dipthongs by the pṛishṭha-mātrā here and there; (5) the use of the dental nasal for the lingual in punya-, l. 19, and vice versa in saṁkalpēṇa, l. 15, and writing ujjvala- with a single j in l. 1, kṛimi as krami in l. 18; (6) not marking the consonant t in saṁvat, l. 13, but on the other hand, wrongly marking it in anudhyāta in ll. 4-6. And lastly, it is interesting to note that the visarga after bhi in rājabhiḥ, l. 16 and pitṛibhiḥ, l. 18 is changed to s before the same letter. It is royal charter issued by the illustrious Mahārāja Hammiravarmmadēva of the Chandēlla house; and its object is to record the donation of the village Kōkaḍa or Kīkaḍa (?) in the Vēdēsaitha (nya?) vishaya. The donees were two Brāhmaṇas, who appeared to have been brothers, viz., the Paṇḍita Śrīdhara and the Paṇḍita Ābhē of the Bhāradvāja gōtra, and the sons of Sahila, grandson of the Ṭhakkura S(Ś)ubharāja and great-grandsons of the Ṭhakkura Vidyādhara.1 The grant was made on Sunday, the twelfth tithi of the dark fort-night of Bhādrapada of the (Vikrama) year 1346, when the nakshatra was Pushya. The tithi and the year are expressed in numerical symbols only, and the day has been calculated by Hiralal to regularly correspond to Sunday, the 11th September, 1289 A.C.2 The charter was written by the Paṇḍita Raum (Rāma) pāla. It does not contain the sculptor’s name. After an auspicious symbol followed by the verse eulogising the Chandrātrēya (Chandēlla)
dynasty of kings, the document mentions the names of Jayaśakti and Vijayaśakti who were the
earliest rulers belonging to it. This portion has been copied verbatim from the earlier records
of the house. The document then proceeds to trace the pedigree of the ruling king, Hammī- | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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