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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CHANDELLAS OF JEJAKABHUKTI same name in the Pannā District of Madhya Pradesh.1 At this place a number of inscriptions of the time of the Chandēlla kings have been discovered. The writing, which is damaged in the initial portion and a letter or two here and there, as can be seen from the transcript, covers a space measuring 1∙22 metres broad by 9 cms. high. It consists of four lines, as already stated above. The size of letters is about 1∙2 cm. The characters are Nāgarī of the eleventh century A.C. The initial ē shows its right limb as a vertical resembling that of p; see ēk-ātapatraṁ, l. 3, in which both these letters appear. The guttural nasal ṅ figures twice in l. 4, in siddh-āṅganā and –kāraṅ = grāmaṁ, where it is formed of straight strokes showing angles where they meet, and is also without the dot. Ch and v are almost alike; cf. vimuchya, l. 1. Dh shows a horn on the left limb; this horn is more often a slanting stroke, as in sūtradhāraḥ, l. 1, but occasionally it is curved and separated from the lower limb, as in nāmadhēyō, l. 2. Th which occurs only once, in l. 4, is formed of two loops placed vertically before a vertical stroke; and almost so is the letter sh, which too occurs only once in maharshiḥ, l. 2, with the distinction that its upper loop touches the top-stroke and the lower one is comparatively bigger in size. R which ends in a tail, e.g., in charanti, l. 2, is sometimes engraved as v, cf. grāmō, l. 3. The sibilants ś and s present transitional forms. The former of these syllables sometimes appears in its old form beginning with a curve as in śaila, l. 1, but in some other instances it is without the knot in the middle of the left limb and shows a sudden bend to the right; cf. śīlaiś-, l. 2; its developed form almost resembles the modern one, as in śīmā, l. 2. Similarly the antique and the developed forms of s are to be seen side by side in vāsaḥ svarg-aukasām, l. 1. The dots of the sign of the visarga are rectangular.
The language of the inscription is Sanskrit; and, excepting the initial sentence denoting obeisance to Chaṇḍikā, the record is metrically composed. In all there are eight verses; all of them are numbered.2 Orthographically, the following peculiarities may be noted : (1) the letter b is throughout denoted by the sign for v; e.g., in vivudha for vibudha, l. 1; (2) in two instances out of about a dozen, the dental sibilant is put for the palatal; they are visuddha, l. 2 and sāstra, l. 3; and the palatal sibilant appears for the dental about half a dozen times out of 21; cf., e.g. in śīmā for sīmā, l. 3. The wrong use of both these sibilants occurs in śāsana, l. 4, spelt as sāśana; (3) consonants following r as doubled, e.g., in āvirvvabhūva, l. 1, with a few exceptions like saṁpūrṇa, l. 4; (4) the final consonants t and n appear in their full forms in āvir-āsīt, l. 4 and dhīmān, l. 3; (5) the dipthongs are denoted by the pṛishṭha-mātrā, an additional upward stroke being marked for ai and au; but there are a few exceptions to this, like –śaila, l. 1, ¬-tatō- and kṛitinō, l. 2; (6) dri, is spelt as dru in pītādri, l. 4; and (7) sandhi has wrongly been observed in sthitim-itāḥ api put as sthitim-itāpi in l. 2. The object of the inscription is to record the grant of the village of Pipalāhika and the sanction of the authority over the gates3 of the fort of Kālañjara in favour of one Mahēśvara, by the illustrious Kīrttivarman. Nothing besides the name of the king is mentioned in the record, but from the statement that he donated a village to Mahēśvara on whom he also conferred the authority over the gates of the fort which was then included in the dominions of the Chandēlla kings, he is none else than the king Kīrttivarman of the Chandēlla house, whose earliest and the latest dates are provided respectively by the Darbat inscription of 1075 A.C. and the Dēogaḍh inscription of 1098 A.C. (our Nos. 109 and 111). And the present inscription, which unfortunately bears no date, has to be placed during this period, as also indicated by its palaeography After the auspicious symbol, the record contains a stanza in glorification of (the fort) of
Kālañjara, stating that it is longed for their abode even by the inhabitants of the heaven, i.e., gods. The next verse describes Brahmā who created the three worlds, and in verse 3 is mentioned
Brahmā’s son (ātmaja) Kaśyapa, a sage who gave his name to the earth (kāśyapī). The following
two stanzas introduce a family sprung from Kaśyapa and known as Vāstavya, in which was born Jājūka, who crossed the ocean of (was dexterous in) knowledge consisting of kalā, purāṇa, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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