North Indian Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE YAJVAPALAS OF NARWAR

(Nos. 1-7) and noticed the remaining eight (Nos. 8-15) in an appendix in the Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXXI, pp. 326 ff. Thirteen of these inscriptions are edited here from the same impressions, kindly placed at my disposal by Dr. G. S. Gai, the Chief Epigraphist of the Archaeological Survey of India.

Garde gave the following description of the village and the site where the pillar were found by him :

   “….. There are traces of fortification wall round the village which is mainly populated by the Rajpūts. The piece of waste land, rocky and covered with thorny shrubs, which extends between the village and the river Barua, a small tributary of the Sindh, flowing at a distance of about a mile to the east, is studded with a number of memorial pillars. In a day’s hurried survey I counted over sixteen such pillars either standing or lying on the ground, entire or broken. But further examination may bring to light some more pillars. They bear panels of sculptures usually depicted on pillars commemorating warriors killed on battle-fields ─ scenes of warriors, foot-men, horse-men and elephant-riders engaged in combat, and of fallen heroes reaching heavens and enjoying the company of heavenly nymphs or worshipping Śiva liṅga.”

   Almost the same description is given by Dr. Sircar also, in his article referred to above ; but Garde’s writing is reproduced here in a complete form, since his reports are now rarely obtainable.

   Many of the pillars, as also observed by Garde, have their tops moulded into fluted āmalakas crowned with pinacles.

   Four of the inscriptions dealt with here (Nos. 162 and 164-166) are purely in prose and the remaining four (Nos. 163 and 167-169) are partly in prose and partly in verse. The language is Sanskrit, often incorrect. The alphabet of all these inscriptions is Nāgarī and all are written in different hands, in a slovenly way. The epigraphs, in a majority of cases, have suffered from exposure to weather, so much so that on some of the pillars they have become partially or wholly undecipherable. On some of the pillars even the portions containing the inscriptions were not well dressed before making the incisions.

   All the inscriptions, as stated earlier, refer to the death of certain warriors who lost their lives in a battle between the Yajvapāla king Gōpāladēva (c. 1279-89 A.C.) and the Chandēlla monarch Viravarman, whose known dates range from 1261 to 1286 A.C. The date of the battle thus falls well between the range of dates known for both the kings. In seven of the records dealt with here (Nos. 164-167, 170 and 173-174), the date is given as the 7th of the bright half of Chaitra of the (Vikrama) year 1338, the day being Friday. It regularly corresponds to 28th of March, 1281 A.C. Four of the records (Nos. 162, 163, 169 and 171) on the other hand, mention the year as 1337 instead of 1338 ; and the reference to both these years, i.e., 1337 and 1338, as Dr. Sircar has observed, indicates the year by regarding the latter as expired and the former as kārttikādi current.

   The mention of the week-day as Friday in all these inscriptions goes to indicate that the battle lasted only for a day. However, Grade has noticed a solitary instance (his No. 8) which mentions the week-day as Saturday. From this he concluded that it is either mistake or it may be that the same tithi covered both the days, i.e., Friday and a part of Saturday, and thus the battle may be taken as fought on two consecutive days.^[1]

   The dimensions of writings on these pillars with some other details are as tabulated below ;

^[1] Garde, op. cit., p. 12, No. 3. For the unit figure of the number of the year, see n, in the text given below. This record is our No. 164.