North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CHANDELLAS OF JEJAKABHUKTI

Kielhorn in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. I (1888-1892), pp. 122 ff., with text is the Nāgarī, from, impressions supplied to him by Burgess, with is translation (pp. 130 ff.) and a photolithograph facing p. 216 ; and some of its historical importance was later on discussed by scholars from time to time.^[1] It is edited here from an excellent inked impression which I owe to the kindness of the Chief Epigraphist, Archaeological Survey of India.^[2]

  As stated above, the record is engraved on a large slab. The inscribed surface measures 1∙72 metres broad by 0∙74 metres high and consists o twenty-eight lines of writing. The stone has suffered considerably about the middle of lines 17-21, and in the latter half of the last lines and some others aksharas here and there have been damaged or rendered illegible by the effects of weather; moreover, a few of the aksharas which were wholly or partially visible in Kielhorn’s time have now been completely broken away. However, in most of the cases the missing aksharas can be supplied by conjecture, in view of the context and occasionally from the lithograph published in the Epigraphia Indica, referred to above, from which too I have compared my reading of the text. The letters are well formed and carefully engraved. Their size varies from 1∙9 to 2∙2 cms.

   The characters are of the Nāgarī alphabet. To make some general observations, we find that the top-strokes are occasionally angular, e.g., of dānava, l. 1, the vertical strokes of the letters generally end in a curve and the daṇḍas are often marked as the modern Nāgarī ra. The initial a and the consonants t, n, v and s show transitional forms; see, e.g., a in ākalpa-, l. 3, and āsthāna-, l. 23; t in –avatu and vikrānta-, both in l. 1 : n in dānava, l. 1, and –ajani, l. 3, and s in yasya- and sānu-, both in l. 8. The initial i, which appears in ll. 4 and 26, is formed of two dots horizontally placed and subscribed by a loop ending in a tail ; and the initial ē, e.g., in ēk = aiv-, l. 20, has its left curve joined to the right vertical, which has a tail below. The loop of k as the first member of a conjunct consonant or in letters like ku and kṛi gives place to a stroke or is joined to the vertical not directly but by a stroke; cf., e.g., kshaya-, kṛita and krīḍa-, all in l. 6, kula- in l. 12, and chakrē and kṛitī, both in l. 26. The letter ṅ has not developed the dot, e.g., in saṅga, l. 2; the lingual ṇ is laid flat when a subscript ; see vitīrṇṇa-, l. 2 ; the rare jh appears twice, in nirjjhara and jhātkāra, both in l. 8 ; and ph in phala- in l. 6. Dh is in a transitional stage, showing its left limb resembling v in most cases, but occasionally this limb appears developed and is very rarely horned, though this horn is not joined to the lower part or the vertical ; cf, respectively, dhāttri, dhīr- and –mvudha-, all in l. 3. R which has assumed the modern form as in tārā-, l. 2, is sometimes engraved in a slightly varying way, e.g., in kirāta, ramya and vāri, all in l. 8. The subscript form of this letter is denoted by a serif attached to the lowest extremity of the vertical, as in prasava-, l. 3. This form is occasionally indistinguishable from the curved end of the verticals with appear throughout the inscription, as stated above, or from the stroke for the medial short u, which sometimes shows this form ; see, e.g., -asura-, vara- and ttrīn, all in l. 1.

   In spite of the carefulness devoted to the record by the mason in its technical execution, we observe that in some cases it is difficult to distinguish between t and v, as in tanu-, l. 1, between p and y as in pātu and paya-, both in l. 2, between bh and h, as in –bhṛiti and bhīma in ll. 2 and 10, respectively. As for the mātrās, a peculiar example of the medical ā is to be seen crescent-shaped in kaṭāksha-chchhaṭā- in l. 2, and a rare instance of the medial ō is in trilōka-, l. 1, where the pṛishṭha-mātrā assumes the form of a dot attached to the left of the top-stroke of l. The secondary short u appears both in its ordinary form as in avatu, l. 1, and as a serif as of the subscript r, as in bhuvana- in the same line. And finally, the formation of the last akshara trē is noteworthy.

   The language is Sanskrit, generally correct ; and with the exception of a short sentence paying obeisance to Vāsudēva in the beginning and the date and some other particulars in the last line, the record is all metrically composed. The style is ornate and the composition abounds in figures of speech like anuprāsa, upamā, rūpaka, vyatirēka and the rare parisaṅkhyā (v. 25). The language is fluent ; but one of the verses (No. 4) does not admit of proper construction, as shown in a note appended to the text. The total number of verses is forty-nine ; they are not numbered.

   As regards orthography we notice that (1) the sign for v is everywhere employed to denote b ; see vrahma, l. 2 ; (2) the dental sibilant is occasionally written for the palatal as in Kasmīra, l. 13, while the reverse is also found e.g., in Kailāśa in l. 24 ; but such cases are very few ; (3) the
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^[1] For example, in Ind. Hist. Quart., Vol XXV, p. 213 and in ibid., Vol. XXX, pp. 189 ff.
^[2] His No. B-246 (1959-60).